Ben Parmeter's "Smarter" Whole House Fan Control System Builds on an ESP8266 in 3D-Printed Mounts
Offering local and remote control through web, MQTT, and REST API interfaces, this low-cost fan controller project packs in the features.
Maker Ben Parmeter has designed what he describes as a "smarter" whole house fan controller, powered by a Wemos D1 Mini ESP8266 development board and offering both web and physical interfaces.
"This is a smarter whole house fan controller that can be controlled via a Web UI," Parmeter explains of the project, "and sports a nice OLED screen for status while operating."
Mounted in the wall with 3D-printed faceplates and custom buttons, the Wemos D1 Mini-powered project offers the ability to adjust both the fan speed and operation timer using physical buttons mounted below a high-contrast OLED display. A lock function prevents "kids, accidental, or curious button pushers" from messing anything up.
For remote use, a web user interface can be loaded from any device on the network and offers speed and timer monitoring as well as control of both settings — and a handy diagnostic button too. There's a REST application programming interface (API) for scripting, and MQTT support that ties into Home Assistant and compatible smart home platforms.
"This means," Parmeter notes, "that the whole house fan can even be controlled via your Google Home or Amazon Alexa enabled devices. The interface in Home Assistant is pretty basic (on/off), set fan speed low/high/off, and set the preset mode to timer/hold/off. Admittedly, this is my first project using MQTT and Home Assistant, so feedback on how to improve this is very welcome."
Source code, wiring diagrams, and 3D print files for the project have been published to GitHub under the permissive MIT License.