ceiling fan controllers

[eyecatcher]

Pretty much all of the decorative ceiling fans you see in the big stores have the on/off/speed chains dangling from the centre.

I have one of the cheapest fans at home the pressed metal 3 blade which has no pull cords but we have a nice 3 speed rotary controller on the wall.

I have also seen a fan controller in my Schneider catalogue which is basically a small dimmer switch,(or appears to be)

What I want to know is, do I just need to have a typical rocker switch in a faceplate to send power to the fan and then have to manually keep pulling the strings OR can I use a dimmer switch controller and cut off the chains which are unsightly and possibly hazardous?

[Crossy]

No problem putting a switch on the wall to turn the fan on and off. All ours have the supplied speed controllers kept out of sight with additional on-off switches with the light switches.

I tried the dimmer-like speed controllers but they make the fans buzz annoyingly (or the combinations of fan / controller I tried did).

We also have two fans which came with remote control, these work well, no buzzing and on/off /speed control from your armchair

[kilt]

You can add remote control to any fan. Remote is the transmitter, receiver is wired in and hidden in the top "cone" of the fan.

[eyecatcher]

Good info thanks guys.

Like the remote option but dont want to spend more than 2k per fan....cost per fan.

The buzzing/flickering using a dimmer i would guess is the fan/light using much much less power than than the dimmer wants to work with.

From your reply Crossy i take it most fans are supplied with their own 1/2/3 speed controller?