I’ve seen plenty of smart retrofits and conversions for door locks and light switches. But ceiling fan conversions are harder to find and often clunky. At CES, my colleagues and I saw Hunter Fan unveil a new option: The smart line called HunterSmart, filled with options to make your existing home fans smarter.
While HunterSmart includes a smart plug and light dimmer switch, what really caught my eye were the impressive voice controls for converting even the largest home ceiling fans into smart devices. If you love your existing setup, you can use the HunterSmart Smart Fan Upgrade Kit, which connects your fan to platforms such as Alexa, Google Home and Apple Home for app and voice assistant control, without requiring any changes to fan components or extensive rewiring.
More impressive is the HunterSmart Smart Wall Panel, a compact touchscreen installation that replaces old fan switches with an informative display that can control both your fan and nearby lights with a touch, serving as a mini display hub for your living room.
Why is this cool (pun very much intended)? Hunter Fan’s technology includes impressively complete options for fan control so as long as your fan is AC. (No DC support is included.) You can control the fan speed, fan lighting scheduling, and seasonal fan reversal on demand. With the Wi-Fi connection, you can make these changes from anywhere, including when you’re on vacation. (If your ceiling fan isn’t already spinning clockwise for winter, you should make the change.)
Hunter’s new ZenTech fans sport upgraded designs.
That’s smarter and more convenient than any fan kit I’ve seen before. It’s also safer and simpler than climbing up a ladder to mess with switches and pull controls you can barely remember.
If you’re more interested in a full replacement of an old fan, I also thought Hunter Fan’s new ZenTech smart fan line showed an interesting evolution. Not only are they more than 40% slimmer at the motor, but they now come in more attractive, bladeless and chandelier-like designs. Hunter Fan says ZenTech fans delivered 33% more air velocity than competitors in 2023 testing, and they’ve earned Energy Star certification for their electricity savings.
Alas, I don’t have any data on release dates or pricing at this time, but the hands-on demonstration at CES looked quite far along in the development path, so hopefully, it won’t be long.
