Ceiling fans were invented in 1887. They’re very convenient as they create a breeze that lowers body temperature, while using a minimal amount of energy to operate. With them, you can stay comfortable in even 80-some degree weather. In addition, running one while the AC is going allows you to turn up the thermostat 4 degrees. By doing this, you save 8% of your electric bill. These fans have also become more efficient over the years with new blade shapes and improved motors. In addition, there are many styles now so you should be able to easily find one that matches your decor. Before choosing the perfect ceiling fan for your room, please consider the following points.
The Anatomy of a Ceiling Fan
There are four parts of every ceiling fan. The canopy covers the wires and electric box against the ceiling. It also holds the upper end of the downrod. As you may guess, another part of a fan is the downrod, which is the bar that positions the fan the correct distance from the ceiling. The housing keeps the motor safe inside of it and protects it from dust while the blade actually moves the air and is positioned at a 12-14 degree angle.
Important Information About Ceiling Fans
Should I install it myself or hire someone? If you’re simply replacing a ceiling fan, you should be able to do it yourself. However, if the ceiling is higher than 10 feet and wires need to be fished or circuits need to be added, you should hire an electrician.
How much do ceiling fans cost? These fixtures can cost anywhere from $100 to $3,000. You can get a good one for $300 to $400.
How long do they last? Most manufacturers offer a lifetime warranty on the motor of a fan and a year on the other parts. Typically, you’ll only need to repair a wobble or replace blades that got a little too wet.
Where should I buy a fan? You may be able to get a good fan at a home center, but if you want to go for a higher end one, try going to a lighting showroom. You can always research online to find what options you have.
Where to Locate Ceiling Fan
The guidelines for where to install a ceiling fan are fairly simple. Just keep it 1-6 feet from a wall or sloped ceiling, 7-10 feet from the floor, at least 8 inches from the ceiling, and clear of any other fixtures or lights on the ceiling. To get the best breeze possible, don’t place the fan too close to the ceiling or too distant from the floor.
What Size Fan Should I Buy?
To calculate how wide the fan should be, find the square feet of the part of the room being occupied by people (go down a little for rooms with low ceilings and wider for higher ceilings). Next, take the square feet you figured and divide it by 4. That amount is how wide the blade span should be (in inches).
A Few More Things to Consider When Buying…
The Motor: Normally, fans would have AC motors. However, the new DC motors (though they are more expensive), are a better option as they have up to 7 speeds and save 70% on electricity.
The Bulb: Watch out for both pin-base halogens (because they’re hard to find and handle) as well as integral bulbs (as they can’t be replaced). A good option is an LED bulb. They use only a little electricity and last for a long time. Just remember that you can’t dim all LEDs.
The Blades: You should choose solid wood, metal, or plastic blades. This is because wood-composite blades droop like a wilted flower in humid situations.
The Energy Star Label: If there’s a blue logo on the fan, that means that it’s passed quality and efficiency tests, making it able to move at a minimum of 5,000 cfm at 75 cfm per watt. To put it simply, the amount it takes to operate it is less than a penny per hour (with an LED light) at a cost of 11 cents per kilowatt-hour (based off the average cost of electricity in the United States).
How Much Air Do These Fans Move?
Once you’ve figured out how wide the blade span should be for your room, start looking for one that’s got a style you like and a price that’s good for you. In addition, make sure that it moves enough air (that it’s at the top of its class at a high speed). For example, some 52-inch fans reach rates of 7,800 cfm, while others are as low as 2,050. The higher ones usually last longer, are more quiet, and provide a better breeze (that you can turn up or down). If you want to compare different fans’ cfm, go to places online such as Hansen Wholesale.
When to Double Up: You’ll want to use two smaller fans (evenly spaced) when you have a room that’s about twice as long as it is wide. This provides for a more balanced look as well as best performance.
Choosing a Style for Your Ceiling Fan
There are lots of ceiling fan styles. Here’s a little more about some of them.
Traditional: Unadorned motor housing with four or five flat blades—the typical look of a ceiling fan in the 20th century. Example cost: $654.
Dual-Head: Two small-diameter fans that spin around central axis, creating an intermittent whoosh in each corner of the room. Example cost: $630.
Art Deco: An aerodynamic looking fan with matte nickel accents. Example cost: $476.
Transparent: Blades that virtually disappear whether they are moving or still. One such fan had three blades made of durable (nearly unbreakable) polycarbonate. Example cost: $550.
Ceiling Hugger: A style that helps maximize headroom but sacrifices performance with the blades just 6 inches below the ceiling. Example cost: $230.
Belt-Driven: A more vintage look with the blades separate from the motor. The blades are turned by a belt-and-pulley system. Sometimes, one motor can be used to power multiple fans. Example cost: $1,854 (for single-fan version).
Curvy Bladed Fans: The shape is aerodynamic and maximizes the air movement and improves efficiency by cutting down turbulence that uses up a lot of power. This means they can do more work easier and are able to get by with a smaller motor. The flat bladed fans can be efficient but won’t have the same high cfm-per-watt performance. Example cost: $995.
Outdoor Fans: These can be nice on the days that the air outside is still. They not only provide a breeze, but also may blow away any mosquitos nearby. Be sure you get a fan that’s certified by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and okay to use outside. These fans, known as overhead patio fans, come in two different types: a kind that’s certified for damp, sheltered locations (porches, garages, basements, etc.) and the ones certified for wet, exposed places (decks, pergolas, patios, etc.). It’s important to remember that outdoor fans move much more air than indoor ones (at least 6,000 cfm). If you want to keep bugs away, you’ll want to go for at least 8,000 cfm. If you live in a coastal area with salt air, try to get ABS plastic blades along with nonrusting plastic or marine-grade stainless-steel housings. Example cost: $340.
Industrial, Agricultural, and Commercial Ceiling Fans: Industrial fans are a necessity in large spaces for higher air delivery. The curved bladed ones can be mounted up to 25 feet (while the ones with straight blades are great for very high ceilings). These types of fans can be used continuously in places like gyms, warehouses, etc. Some are also able to be reversed to raise air up to exhaust fans to prevent condensation on the ceiling. Agricultural ceiling fans have sealed motors that keep out moisture and dust, allowing them to be used in barns, greenhouses, poultry buildings, and covered porches. They are able to run continuously if you get epoxy-coated blades and housings. Commercial fans are in between standard fans and industrial ones and are usually used in classrooms, restaurants, retail stores, and other businesses. They both make a room feel cooler in the summer and move the warm air around in the winter months. They’re ideal for wider rooms or ones 10-25 feet tall. They are specialized fans though, which does make them harder to locate. If getting a commercial fan isn’t an option for you, try to instead use two standard ceiling fans.
Tips to Help You DIY
- Get a fan fixture box: Essentially a junction box that safely holds the wiring for the fan. It is made of a heavier gauge metal than usual so that it can handle the extra weight of the ceiling fan.
- Secure it to a joist: You must attach the fan box to the framing of the house. Use deck screws (not brittle drywall screws) to fasten the fan to a joist, rafter, or from a Saf-T-Brace that goes between joists with its ends anchored in their faces.
- Wiring the ceiling fan: This should be an easy step if there’s power running to the correct location. Connecting the wires should be straightforward. Be sure to cap each wire tightly with the correct-size wire nut and then neatly tuck them into the fan box. However, if there isn’t any wiring in the ceiling, hire a pro to do it.
- Get a fan-and-light combo: When you replace your light with a ceiling fan, purchase one that has a remote that can control the light and fan without fishing another cable to the fan box.
Spin Control
If you wanted to turn a fan on or off before, you’d pull on a chain. Now that’s a thing of the past.
- Use a remote: Many manufacturers offer line-of-sight remotes that let you adjust both the light and the breeze without even getting up out of bed.
- Upgrade the switch: There are dimmers (like Lutron’s Maestro) that have up to seven speed settings, which is more than most fans’ motors will provide, making you more comfortable.
- Get an app: There are apps (such as SimpleConnect from Hunter Fan and Fanimation’s FanSync) that will let you control any number of fans (of any make) remotely. In addition, they let you set schedules and program sleep timers—all from your phone!
- Spring for a motion sensor: You’ll spend less time turning a fan on and off/nagging other people to do it if you get a motion sensor that’ll do it automatically when someone enters or leaves a room. The Haiku fan is an example of this.
Cleaning and Taking Care of the Fan
- Dust: Having dust particles build up on fan blades can cut down on the efficiency of the fan and may cause it to wobble. To avoid this, wipe it down with a microfiber cloth or a duster (Unger makes one that locks at an angle for $7 at Home Depot) around every three months.
- Stabilize: If dusting doesn’t fix the wobbling, you can add fan weights to the fan blades to rebalance it.
- Degrease: If the fan is by a cooking area, it’ll easily get coated in oily residues (which trap dust). To get rid of it, spray the blades with something like Seventh Generation Multi-Surface Cleaner once a month.
- Put away the 3-in-1 oil: Let go of oiling your fans (unless they’re vintage ones that still need a couple drops to make them quiet) because they now have sealed bearings, which means that lubrication isn’t necessary.
Power-Saving Tips
- Turning up the AC: As mentioned before, you can turn up the thermostat 4 degrees and turning on a ceiling fan and you’ll still be comfortable as well as enjoy lower electricity bills.
- Reverse the fan in the winter: Having a breeze inside in the summer is a pleasant experience. Having this in the winter isn’t though. However, fans can still be useful because they mix the warm air that’s risen with the colder air closer to the floor. Simply reverse the fan’s motor so the blades spin clockwise and then turn the speed on low.
- Turn it off: Once again, using a fan only moves the air around and doesn’t actually cool a room down. The reason it feels colder is because you’re feeling the breeze it creates. Therefore, when you won’t be in a room to feel it, just turn it off to save the energy.
How to Install a Ceiling Fan
- Remove the Existing Light Fixture: Turn of the electricity, remove the glass shade or globe, unscrew whatever is holding the fixture to the ceiling (retaining nut or screws), lower the fixture, and twist off the plastic connectors to disconnect the wires.
- Remove the Box and Cut a New Hole: Take the old electrical box off the ceiling. It may be nailed to a joist, and in that case, simply pry it free with a flat bar. In the case that it’s suspended from a bar, take off a metal plate to unscrew the box and then pry the bar from the joists. Next, hold a 1/2-inch-thick pancake box up against the ceiling, center it on a joist, and trace around it with a pencil. After that, grab a drywall saw and cut along the line. If you don’t want the dust to get everywhere, hold a vacuum wand near the saw to catch it.
- Attach a New Electrical Box: Take the electrical cable in the ceiling and feed it through the knockout hole in the pancake box. Make sure the knockout hole has a cable connector attached to it. Place the box in the hole in the ceiling and push it up agains the underside of the joist. Use two 1 1/2-inch No. 10 hex-head screws (that should be provided) to attach the box to the joist. You can use a drill/driver with a 5/16-inch nut-driver tip to drive in the screws. Take the cable’s bare copper wire and wrap it around the grounding screw inside the box and let the end of the wire hang down.
- Glue on the Ceiling Medallion: Use a little bead of urethane-based adhesive to the back of the ceiling medallion. Next, pass the wires through the medallion and then take it and center it on the pancake box. Press it in and fasten it with four 6d finishing nails into the joist. Finally, set the nailheads and fill with caulk or spackle.
- Mount the Ceiling Plate: Take the metal ceiling plate and put it up to the pancake box. Pull the wires through the center hole and then attach the ceiling plate to the box using two 1 1/2-inch-long 10-32 machine screws. If you want to paint the medallion a different color, do it before installing the ceiling plate.
- Assemble the Fan Components: Place the fan on the floor and feed the wires from the motor through the center of the canopy. Set the canopy on top of the motor, pass the wires through the hollow down-rod pipe and thread the pipe into the top of the motor. Finally, tighten the square-head locking screw on the side of the pipe. (Just a tip: There’s a factory-applied coating on the pipe’s threads. Don’t remove it because that’s what keeps the pipe from unscrewing.)
- Make the Wire Connections: Take one side of the canopy and connect it to the ceiling plate and use twist-on wire connectors to attach the two green wires to the bare copper wire coming from the cable. (If your room is wired differently than that, get in contact with a licensed electrician.) Connect the two white wires and the two black wires. Swing the fan into position against the medallion and use the two canopy screws to secure it.
- Attach the Blades and Lights: Take each fan blade and attach it to the bracket that holds said blade to the fan (called a blade iron) with the screws provided. Take the wire hanging from the underside of the fan’s motor and plug in the fan’s light-fixture housin. Install the shades and lightbulbs and screw the remote control’s plastic holder by the switch on the wall.