Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Hunter Fan Company Announces First HomeKit-Enabled Ceiling Fans

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
67,728
38,263



The 2016 Consumer Electronics Show is seeing the debut of quite a few new HomeKit-enabled devices, including the first HomeKit-connected ceiling fans, coming from Hunter Fan Company. The Symphony and the Signal are the only ceiling fans that support Apple's HomeKit home automation platform, and they're also Hunter Fan Company's first connected home products.

The Symphony and Signal ceiling fans connect to a home's Wi-Fi network. With HomeKit support, the fans are able to be controlled using Siri voice commands and they are able to interface with other HomeKit products like lights and thermostats for a full connected home experience using Scenes and Triggers.

hunterfancompany-800x205.jpg

With a Scene, for example, a home owner with multiple HomeKit products could simultaneously lock the door, turn on the lights, and turn off the fan. With a Trigger, the fan can be set to come on in specific scenarios, such as when a HomeKit-connected fire alarm detects smoke.
"Our ceaseless innovation is why Hunter Fan is the industry leader, and these new Wi-Fi enabled fans, with added support for Apple HomeKit, are a testament to our heritage of progress and originality," said Hunter Fan CEO John Alexander. "They're beautiful, affordable, high quality pieces of decor that bring state-of-the-art Wi-Fi technology where it might not be expected: the ceiling fan. As we celebrate 130 years, we have several exciting developments to share with our customers, and are proud to kick off 2016 at CES with Symphony and Signal."
Click to expand...
Both fans measure in at 54 inches and come with dimmable integrated lighting and a WhisperWind function for powerful air movement with quiet performance. The Symphony fan features a modern design with white blades while the Signal features wood-finished blades with a satin nickel housing. Symphony will retail for $329 and Signal will retail for $379.

Hunter Fan Company's HomeKit-connected fans will be available for purchase beginning in the spring of 2016 from the company's website and from Amazon, Lowe's, HomeDepot, and more.

Article Link: Hunter Fan Company Announces First HomeKit-Enabled Ceiling Fans
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/01/04/hunter-fan-company-homekit-enabled-fans/
  • Like
Reactions: appledefenceforce
Wait. The fire alarm goes off, so turn on the fan?

Couldn't that, you know, make things burn much much faster by moving the smoke away from the flames and circulating oxygen-rich air?

I hope Hunter doesn't make that one of their canned actions, or they'll start seeing lawsuits from homeowners whose homes burned down more quickly because of this trigger ...

On topic, though, I'd rather just have a home kit-enabled wall switch that I can use with whatever fan/light/etc combination I want, rather than spending extra and being limited to this one choice in fan.
 
  • Like
Reactions: docziandras, WorkerDrone, tuslaw12 and 5 others
lol... oh for *** sake... fans ?

Wish we could say the say for every other Homekit enable product too. And when a single entry point being your wi-fi network.... an attack can be not having access to any of them.

I can see the point of this just because its a homekit enabled...

I guess the idea is "making any house a smart house" but when u rely on the internet to make it happen,, well its not 100% effective it is.. but turning on a switch is more effective, unless u have a power cut, but then u wouldn't be able to operate homekit stuff either.
 
Benjamin Frost said:
Is it really so hard to turn on a light switch these days?

What a bunch of lazy bones we are.
Click to expand...

Of all the uses, being able to turn a fan on from bed is probably a more practical one than most other HomeKit light control functions. I've lived in many houses with ceiling fans, and only in one of them was the light switch near enough to the bed that when my wife rolled over and asked me to turn on the fan I was able to do so without getting up and walking across the room to the switch.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Keane16, sugarbear, docziandras and 4 others
jettredmont said:
Of all the uses, being able to turn a fan on from bed is probably a more practical one than most other HomeKit light control functions. I've lived in many houses with ceiling fans, and only in one of them was the light switch near enough to the bed that when my wife rolled over and asked me to turn on the fan I was able to do so without getting up and walking across the room to the switch.
Click to expand...

I'm not that keen on all of this "connected home" stuff where you can unlock your door from your phone. However, a connected fan seems a) convenient and b) safe enough (meaning if someone hacks the fan, they can only rack up my electric bill and not ransack my house).
 
Good to see another Homekit product, but someone really has to step up their game to make this stuff usable on a phone. I've dabbled a bit with Hue, and getting three white lights to turn on at once needs a scene... Let's call it living room. 'Hey siri, turn on living room lights'. Boom. provided Siri heard me right, it worked. 'Hey Siri, turn off living room lights'. It'll never work. Each bulb needs to be turned off individually, or, you need to define a different scene with each light to turn off, called 'living room off'. Next you know, you have a huge list of buttons on your app for scenes on and off, with awkward phrasing to try and keep everything in order. Lord forbid you want to use Siri and share control of Homekit with different devices in the house, or need to reset your Homekit devices. I like the concept, but this stuff is half baked at the moment.
 
The more HomeKit enabled devices the better.

But for home automation to take off, I think Apple needs to make it easier to set everything up through a single interface. There should be a Home app (just like the health app) that device manufacturers can plug into. This seems like a no brainer. Hopefully that's coming with iOS 10.

For now, I'll continue to bark commands into my Apple Watch to control my Hue lights... It's pretty smart, too. I recently told Siri to set the living room lamp brightness to 50% which it understood. I then told Siri to change the color to Fuscia (some random color that entered my mind) and it understood that too! There was no setup involved other than assigning the name "living room" to one of the bulbs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AirunJae and appledefenceforce
jettredmont said:
...On topic, though, I'd rather just have a home kit-enabled wall switch that I can use with whatever fan/light/etc combination I want, rather than spending extra and being limited to this one choice in fan.
Click to expand...

Precisely my thought. I recently installed a Lutron Caseta system in my girlfriend's home and I put a Caseta enabled switch on her ceiling fan. Setting it up that way doesn't really cost any more than a high quality fan would, and you can buy whatever style ceiling fan you want.

Karma*Police said:
The more HomeKit enabled devices the better.

But for home automation to take off, I think Apple needs to make it easier to set everything up through a single interface. There should be a Home app (just like the health app) that device manufacturers can plug into. This seems like a no brainer. Hopefully that's coming with iOS 10.

For now, I'll continue to bark commands into my Apple Watch to control my Hue lights... It's pretty smart, too. I recently told Siri to set the living room lamp brightness to 50% which it understood. I then told Siri to change the color to Fuscia (some random color that entered my mind) and it understood that too! There was no setup involved other than assigning the name "living room" to one of the bulbs.
Click to expand...

Apple doesn't need to do it. There are plenty of apps that will allow you to control and configure everything. Including Elgato's Eve app (free) and an app called Home ($15, but it allows for triggers, such as geofencing).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Like
Reactions: appledefenceforce
Benjamin Frost said:
Is it really so hard to turn on a light switch these days?

What a bunch of lazy bones we are.
Click to expand...

Speaking of being lazy, you might want to think about the actual real world use of products like these before you start throwing around accusations.

nofear1az said:
and so affordable.... $379 for a WiFi fan? Really?!!!
Click to expand...

Under $500 sounds affordable for ANY fan.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Like
Reactions: Keane16, AirunJae, appledefenceforce and 2 others
Iconoclysm said:
Under $500 sounds affordable for ANY fan.
Click to expand...
Ceiling fans are affordable under $100. Really nice ones are up to $200. >$300 is really expensive for a ceiling fan but for a "connected" fan that's the first (or close enough) to market it's not a bad price.
 
Experts, correct me if I am wrong, but can't the same result be easily achieved by using any fan and pairing it with an Insteon wall switch that is linked to Insteon Home Kit Hub?

If so, this would allow a user to speak to Siri who would then send that request to the hub that is controlling the switch/fan.
 
I'm still angry at Hunter for shutting down their US plant and outsourcing their manufacturing to China.

They used to be such an iconic brand for ceiling fans, made in the USA with the utmost quality. I still have three Hunter originals that my family bought in the 80s and they're running like the day they were purchased.

But no, they ruined that. Of course, Apple did too, so I'm not even sure why I'm complaining. :(
 
  • Like
Reactions: AirunJae and steve333
Smart ceiling fans can do more than just turn on/off. Although not a homekit-enabled fan (as I've had it for a couple of years now), my Haiku SenseMe ceiling fan can tell if someone is in the room and automatically turn on/off the light or fan. It allows you to choose a temperature and the fan will adjust its speed to help maintain temperatures automatically. It has programmable scheduling options. It also "works with Nest" to adjust the fan speed while adjusting the thermostat temperature to save money. ..etc.
 
jettredmont said:
Of all the uses, being able to turn a fan on from bed is probably a more practical one than most other HomeKit light control functions. I've lived in many houses with ceiling fans, and only in one of them was the light switch near enough to the bed that when my wife rolled over and asked me to turn on the fan I was able to do so without getting up and walking across the room to the switch.
Click to expand...
Don't most fans come with remotes?
 
Just in time for the remodel.

Laugh all you want now because in the future when all of this is standard we will or should be laughing at ourselves.
 
rdlink said:
Apple doesn't need to do it. There are plenty of apps that will allow you to control and configure everything. Including Elgato's Eve app (free) and an app called Home ($15, but it allows for triggers, such as geofencing).
Click to expand...

If Apple wants to be a leader in this space, I think they do. Imagine opening Apple's slick home automation app, choosing make/model of your new HomeKit enabled device and automatically downloading the various settings/controls for it so that you can take full advantage of its capabilities and easily integrate it into your existing scenes/triggers.

This "just works" approach would be a boon for home automation adoption IMO... Not to mention, it would help Apple differentiate its platform from its competitors.
 
This is actually something I'm pretty interested in, as far as smart-home products go. Every night I turn off the lights, get in bed, and get comfortable... then angrily get up, walk over to turn the lights back on, pull the strings to turn off the bulbs and turn on the fan, then back into bed. Every. Single. Night. I'll never learn.

Still, that convenience isn't worth $329 to me. Maybe I'd consider it if my current ceiling fan somehow quit on me. Otherwise, I'll wait for the price drop.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back