Ok, so I'm deciding to start down the automation route for my condo and I'm going to start in the bedroom. Here's my setup. I've got three wall switches. One is for a fan, the second is for the fan's light, and the third is for an outlet. I was thinking of switching each of these over to a z-wave switch and then getting a remote that I could keep bedside. I was going to use a dimmer on each so I could control fan speed, overhead light brightness, and also the brightness of the lamp plugged into the outlet. I'm probably going to go with the Leviton line (though nothing would prevent me going with anyone else), but I'm trying to make sense of everything out there. So, here's my questions:

1. Do my goals and what the way I have envisioned doing it coincide with one another (i.e. Will it work?)
2. Do I have to buy a specialized "fan" dimmer to control fan speed, or is that just a ploy to get an extra $5 for a "specialized" module?
3. What is the difference between the "lighting controls" and "remotes"? They both look like wall switches to my eyes, but there seems to be a huge price delta. Are the controls truly controllable, and the "remotes" only operate as a standard wall switch w/o z-wave functionality?
4. What is the difference between a magnetic dimmer and any of the other dimmers out there?

I'm looking around a lot trying to find all of this out, but it's pretty confusing, especially when some sites are charging half as much for what appear to be the same products as another (i.e. $25 vs. $50 for a dimmer)

Thanks for all your help guys.

I have and know zWave, so I'll talk about that. It can handle the stuff you're discussing, but...
Does anyone make switches that can control fan speed? I didn't realize they did. I thougt the dimmers as designed would burn out fan motors, as the fan motor needs a constant wattage and it's remote handles the ramping.

Well...Leviton seems to offer a fan speed control here:

https://www.tselectronic.com/leviton_ac/vizia_fan.html?tse_Session=b7ad996ce62c54b7a86fede4b4b826b1

Would this burn up my motor?

Then, would you be able answer questions 3 & 4? Thanks for your help

Can you give me links to what you're seeing for 3&4? That way I can check it out, make sure I respond using that product as a reference.

Without more details on #3, I think I know what you are looking at. Each switch needs a master lighting control. This is the more expensive switch that you are looking at. If you have another location that you would like to control the same light that is already controlled by a master switch, then you can use the cheaper remote switch. It does not actually control the light, but rather communicates with the master switch that actually controls the light. In a normal house, these switches are called 3 way switches.

For example, if you have a long hall with a switch as each end, you'll need one master control switch and one remote control switch. For lights that are only going to have one switch, you must use the master control switch.

Thanks for the info sic.

For #4, I discovered I was looking at the standard vizia line instead of the vizia-rf line of products, so my question in null :-)

Lastly, this is just a question about house wiring, etc. If an outlet is controlled by a switch and I replace the switch with a dimmer, will that actually dim a light that is plugged into that outlet?