My ceiling fan light only comes on by itself rarely now days (as far as I lnow... Who knows what it does when I'm not at home). It was doing it frequently a couple of years ago. The fan had only turned on by itself in my presence twice, I think. I did an experiment and took my remote control outside and, with my husband inside to witness what happened, I pressed the light and fan buttons while walking around the house. Nothing happened inside. I don't undrestand how a neighbor's remote could turn mine on, but my own cannot when outside. When one of my sons had fallen asleep on the couch, the light often turned on about 3am. I've never witnessed it turning off, however. Not saying it doesn't, but I've never witnessed it.

The light AND fan turned on by themselves about 40 minutes ago. I usually just say, "Hello!" Lol!

I don't undrestand how a neighbor's remote could turn mine on, but my own cannot when outside.

Simple. They might have a more powerful remote.

And there are also other possibilities listed above besides a neighbour's remote. Power surges, etc.

Any thoughts on the light turning on by itself due to a "weak" battery in the remote. Like when a smoke detector starts beeping when needs new battery

My fan is a Casablanca also. It can turn on 10 times in a hour and only late at night after 10pm and never during the day. Even when batteries are removed. It has nothing to do with neighbors for sure. It also heals itself for 6 months to a yr and then starts acting up again.

I did notice it helps to turn off the light when the light is on high, rather then dim.

Just an big inconvenience.

When the builder ran wires for ceiling fan/lights, he always ran two circuits with the corresponding wires in the wall box (fans and switches not installed at the time). That's the way I wired the fan/light combos in my old home with the chains on the fan used only to control the speed. The wall switches turn them on or off. In my new house, I purchased a very nice fan with a DC motor and remote control. I could not wire the light separately, so I disabled that conductor and use the remote for everything. However, I still use the wall switch to power everything. I set the lamp brightness and fan speed and direction with the remote and then put it away. I turn things on and off with the wall switch. So, long story short regarding this post, when the fan and light are off, they are really off!

Im having the same issue at my new house. The fan light turns on by itself randomly at different times. It just happened at 4am.

Alll I have to say is, people can explain away. But mine use to happen a lot. It rarely happens anymore. But still does on occasion. All the explanations I've seen should make it occur nearly every day.

I think this is a good reason to have an on/off switch other than the remote control. My remotely controlled fans (all Fanimation) have a wall switch. When I turn it on, the light and fan go to their preset conditions, which are set with the remote. Turning off the wall switch does what it is supposed to do (it's a regular light switch). Normally, that's all I use.

If this happened to me, I'd just rip out the remote receiver and hard-wire the fan. I'd assume that the receiver was just stupid and indiscriminate, and would trigger on nearly any RF on or near its frequency.

Ever read the user or installation manual for wireless gadgets? You'll always find something like this: "This device may not cause interference, and must accept interference, including interference that may cause undesired operation of the device."

It used to be that if you were generating radio transmissions, you had to have an FCC license unless the power was tiny and the frequency was within certain specific bands. Then the Commission started granting license-free waivers to all kinds of products in the name of consumer convenience. The conditions for such a waiver include printing the disclaimer above in the manual and/or on the gadget.

In other words, you have the right to use your remote control, but no right to any kind of protection if someone else's gadget (remote control or otherwise) affects it.

And these days there seems to be a lot of stuff that could do that -- WiFi, microwave ovens, mobile phones, cordless phones, all manner of "smart" home stuff, and remote control everything, most of it with little or no security. There is an absolute haze of junk RF buzzing around our houses now.

I am having the same problem where the light will come on at random times throughout the day and night. I, also, thought that it may be someone with the same signal as my remote and reprogrammed it. It didn't work and since the receiver wasn't working correctly I decided to order a new receiver. Installed the new receiver and synced it to the new remote controller (the sync was automatic) and hoped that it would fix the problem. Literally the same night as I replaced the controller the light came on at 2:30ish am. The only way I can stop the light from coming on during the day is to use the wall switch to cut off electricity to the fan assembly itself. Craftmade is the receiver and remote controller I ordered. Please advise.

Remove the remote receiver and wire the fan and light to wall switches.

Ghosts. :)

Call your electrician again. Have him remove the remote receiver and wire the fan and light to wall switches.

Yep, my fan comes on. I have traced it to the tv remote from Charter now the TV changer will not work but the fan comes on Someones tell me to get off my bum !!!

Hi I have a hard wired fan/light with a remote. The wall switch is OFF. Last night and a few times before in the middle of the night, the light came on THEN off after only 2-3 secs. I was up going to the bathroom to witness this. No power surges...nothing else happens in the house. Its a MinkaAire brand. Any thoughts? S Hallett

LED light?

Is it a real, dumb wall switch? If it cuts power to the fan, there's no way a remote could turn it on.

If it's an LED light, there's a tiny chance that the filter capacitors in its internal power supply might hold enough energy to light the lamp briefly. LEDs can illuminate with incredibly small currents.

Normally filter caps have a bleeder resistor across them to discharge them as soon as power is removed, but once in a while, that resistor will fail.

But I think it's a pretty small chance.

Another possibility is that the wall switch is illuminated, and has a small (probably neon) light in parallel with the switch contacts, and thus in series with the load. This could pass a very small amount of current to the fan/light.

Well after reading 30 plus comments I definitely feel slightly better I guess?! Literally I can copy paste 10 of those issues and describe mine! I even removed batary from my remote control and still.... exactly at 11pm heard an actual switch click then boom ceiling fan on full speed . Like I get it- electriCal issues, LED, neighbors have stronger signal blah blah.... but still there is something so unreal about it.... even worse! Lol I recently watched documentary about “TESLA “...

I have the same issue but it is because I live in town houses and after the remotes get old they conect to different fans around u, it’s usually me and my neighbore both slamming the remote

My ceiling fan works random- light on and off, fan starts by itself / and this NOT Remote controlled - strictly pull chains.

Same thing started to happen to us as well.. but the fans and remote are all new like 6months in use and bought new from Home Depot.. everything working fine for 5 months and now in the middle of night light is on and when we come back from office fan and light are on.. but it’s happening to one fan.. another fan is ok.. anyone figured out solution?

What I said above. Remove the remote receiver completely and install wall switches to control the fan and light.

DavidR, that only works if you want to tear up walls and ceilings to rewire things. Otherwise I guess we're sol with your suggestions of solutions.

Yeah, I guess adding switches can be a lot of work. How about replacing it with a fan that has good old fashioned pull chains? Those are mechanical switches. They ought to be ghost-proof. :)

i have a lighted ceiling fan and at night I have the fan on with the light off of course to go to bed , last night I woke up Around 330am and the light was on my husband was in a deep sleep so I know he didn’t turn it on he fell asleep before me and I make sure the lights are out . So now I’m trying to figure out how could this happen ? All 3 bedrooms including the living room has lighted ceiling fans and they are controlled by the switches no remotes . Besides spirits is there any possible explanation?

"Besides spirits is there any possible explanation?"

Yes. Read the thread you just posted to.

The reason your fans and lights turn on by themselves is that someone may be your next-door neighbor who has the same code on their remote So when they turn on their fan or ceiling light with a remote or with temp. control it sends a signal to your fan/ceiling too.

So change the code number in the ceiling where the remote is housed in the crown housing (finish scone) then change and match the numbers on your switch or remote. Hope that helps

From my earlier post, I happen to own the house next door that's how I found out!

I have a Lucci fan and built in light with a remote to control them in my room and I hit the fan with a ball a few days ago and it makes a weird sound hmm didn't think much of it just left it and didn't use the fan then a couple days later I woke up and the light was on I just assumed I turned it on in my sleep the next night I closed my eyes ready to sleep and just as I was about to sleep the light turned on and I got very scared. im assuming its something to do with a broken wire that just goes off when it feels like it or a wire that's been pushed out of place. can someone answer my question ASAP its making me very nervous.

READ THE THREAD. It explains why this happens.

The shock from the ball may have shocked the remote block in the ceiling scones changing the code numbers. Someone driving by using their garage door opener sends a signal to his garage which includes your new code on your remote this has happened a lot in housing developments where the builder used the same garage door remotes( the cheap ones with numbers) from the same manufactures on all homes but did not realizes it can effect ceiling fan remotes and as their limited number of codes and things get crazy

As a side note, I have two Nest Thermostats one up and one down and they fight each other !

Thats what I was thinking nice to have someone thinking the same. lucky its not a ghost, haha

change your frequency code: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmQQjXEWuQw

DavidR - I agree with your suggestion, but it isn't always possible. When I had my new house built, I had the electricians put connections for each fan/light in the ceiling, with separate wall switches for fan and light. For cheap, AC motor fans with pull chains, that works, but with the more advanced DC motor fans (which I prefer because they are more efficient and quieter), that may not work. The first one I tried to pull the wire for the light down through the fan assembly and it just wouldn't go. So all my new fans use the remote to control the fan and light, but I still turn them on and off with the wall switch. Most of the time I never touch the remote.

There is no remote to my fan. Why would it turn on by itself after i turned off by the chain?

Did anyone have any luck after this? Did it get fixed? And how?

Yes. I fixed mine. I changed your frequency code.

You house may be hunted. Research the ground u built your house on.

I have a ceiling light /fan that started 2 yrs ago turning on and off , after purchasing the house 5 yrs prior. The ceiling lights/ fan was not remote control only wall control. Changed ceiling lights/fan recently and remote control and still have the same problem. I watch the lights turn on and off and ceiling fan turn on and off once. It’s happening more often. When I wake up at 6:30 am , I find the lights on only. I’m not liking this at all. Any advice?

Finally tried to really figure out this problem of the ghosting lights which we've had since we installed the fans w/lights and the remote controls over ten years ago. I've read about it on multiple websites over the years. I even brought in an electrician to figure it out. He couldn't either. The fan w/light is on a line with a can light so I actually have to receivers in each room: one for the fan/light and one for the can. Prior to this I had bought another remote as a back up which we needed to use as the can receiver was bad. Turns out, however, that is the solution. The original Hunter universal remote receivers work on 350 MHz. We live in a neighborhood of 2.5 to 5 acre homes so we should not be getting stray signals at all and certainly not in the wee hours of the morning when these lights magically go on. There must be a signal coming from somewhere although we don't know where or from what. The newer remote receiver is set at 400 MHz. I'm testing it in two rooms so that is four receivers. After three weeks there has been no magic lights coming on at any time during the day. I'm going to replace the receivers in the other rooms now. Hope this helps others with a similar situation.

I have the same problem and will try this fix! Thx

My light turned on tonight. I read the whole thread. But it is a cheap one from Home Depot. It has a chain and wired to my light switch. The light switch is set to on and I operate the fan light by pulling the chain to on or off and a separate chain to pull the fan on or off. Well tonight the fans light turned on. I didn’t pull the chain I was asleep. A bit freaky. I heard the click and immediately woke up because the lights came on.

I worked At HD and sold fans plus other stuff but if you change the chain switch out (you can buy there too) its a different brand and better made so it doesn't slip into the ON position by its self

maybe that will fix the problem

I had to take the bulbs out of ours for this reason and it will slow down, speed up and reverse direction at will. I'm sure it is interference from some other source outside our home. But no ghosts, we bought the house new ;)

It's possible the polarity is wrong on the wiring of the fan install or either when the house was built or if someone used the ground wire ( Copper or green )as hot wire on a three way switch as they forgot to put three way Romex wire in the wall for a hall switch I have seen that several times in homes .Check your wiring install or get a electrician to check .

We installed SPIN ceiling fan with light for our house and recently we experienced fan auto off and light turn on by itself after every 2 hrs....

I was just awoken at 3am to find our bedroom ceiling fan slowly spinning as if it was shut off and spinning to a stop. The wife is always cold and we do not use the fan at all so this was a bit odd. I woke her to witness the situation just in time for her to see it spinning and come to an abrupt stop. We live alone other than our dog who has yet to learn to use the household appliances, have motion detection wireless security cameras at all entrances to the home, and the fan is wired to a switch only. It does not have nor is it able to be operated by a remote control. There are no drafts in the home and as of yet we have had no other electrical issues. I'd be lying if I said we weren't both a tad sketched out.

I think it's aliens, not ghosts. It's the "teenage" ones, out late at night... Got bored and decided to go mess with the humans.

Ours are ’smart’ fans, and Alexa was turning on Guard mode, which will randomly turn lights on in the evening (or the wee hours of the morning, sigh) to make it look like someone is home…yes, even though we were home :D Our fix was to remove lighting from the list of things Guard is doing.