I would like a wall switch and the pull chain on my ceiling fan’s light to work like my hall lights that are controlled by 3 way switches at the top and bottom of a stairway. Is it possible to simulate this 3 way switch setup with travelers between the switches using a wall switch and a ceiling fan light pull chain?
A:
TL;DR No
The problem is that to do this you would need to modify the wiring of the fan/light itself. That would at a minimum invalidate the warranty. But it gets worse than that. The existing wires from the ceiling likely connect to the top of the fan/light. You would need to:
Find an appropriately sized pull chain switch that can fit in place of the existing switch. The new switch would need to be a “3 way” design.
Run new wires/cable from the wall switch to the top of the fan/light including travelers.
Route wires connected to the travelers down to the new switch.
Connect the original two pull chain switch wires (hot and switched hot) together in a safe way inside the fan/light.
It is just not practical.
This is actually one of the few good reasons I can see for a fan/light remote control. You can move the remote around, including, for example, keeping it next to a bed or sofa so that you can easily turn the light on/off without going to the other side of the room.
A practical solution I can think of is:
Replace the wall switch with a smart switch, such as the Lutron Caseta, that has wireless remotes available.
Instead of installing a Pico remote (using the Lutron Caseta example) in the wall (making it like a traditional 3-way switch in function, though not in wiring), use it as a handheld remote.
This will give you the “remote” advantage of a typical fan/light remote control while still retaining proper wall switch functionality which is normally lost when using a fan/light remote (how many houses have a piece of tape over the light switch because turning it off would disable the remote…)