Bedroom ceiling fans

[TeaAndBiscuits]

Hi all,

With the night time temperatures we’ve been having recently I’ve decided I’d quite like a ceiling fan in 2 of my bedrooms.

Anybody fitted one and have any comments to make about what to look for/avoid etc? Main things I have questions about are:

1. Ceiling height – Like most, my bedroom ceilings are 2.4m high. I see suggestions everywhere that the fan blades should not be lower than 2.3m high which of course would mean 100mm max vertical space for the fan to fit in and models which would fit in this space seem non-existent. The fan would be placed over the bed so I wonder how much attention to pay to this suggestion?
2. Combined fan and light units. This would be what I’d want, however they all seem to operate both the fan and light from a remote control. Ideally I’d like to operate the light from the wall switch as normal, but the fan could be on the remote or a cord hanging from the fan. Specs and details on websites never seem to make the details of switching etc clear. Seems really odd as I would have thought that this would be one of the first questions people ask.

Cheers

 

[ericmark]

The ceiling fan distributes the heat in the room, and it blows air past damp items (like your body) and so the latent heat is extracted, neither seems to be likely to work in a bedroom. You would need to sleep naked for the air to extract the moisture from your body to cool it. And it would de-stratify the air layers.

If I put a thermometer in different places in the room the readings will not be the same, heat raises so near the ceiling it is hotter then near the floor, any fan will get rid of these layers. Go into a building with a high ceiling and that building is cooler.

But my AC blows the cool air in one direction, where I sit, so a fan to also blow it to where my wife sits is good. But the portable AC may blow the hot air in my case up the chimney, but it also draws in replacement air, so cooling is limited to maybe 5ºC and it extracts water from the air which needs emptying every so often, it would need at least a gallon tank to work over night without touching it.

The ceiling fans of yesteryear were fitted in buildings with very high ceilings, on long poles so no where near the ceiling and rotated very slowly so at not to disturb the air high up. The time of opening and closing doors and windows is the important bit, I have been going down at 4 am and opening the patio doors, then by 8 am closing them and the curtains.

I have a fan on the windowsill the lace curtains mean when fan not running little air transfer, so using a timer I can set when it runs, the other fan has a built in timer and is of a design which better fits windowsill, however I need to manually pull back curtains as they are heavier.

In the really hot weather they work well, as at night it is cold outside, but with the cloud cover last night it did not cool so well, I use a thermometer to tell me when worth running the fan what would be nice is a differential thermostat so fan only runs when outside colder than inside, on my wish list.


However unless your ceiling is 12 foot or more from floor, a ceiling mounted fan is likely to make it worse not better.

 

[ETAF]

i have put up a couple in bedrooms, all combined lights and 3 speed motor, they had a direction toggle as well, summer and winter setting , but this was back in the 80's (purchased from the ideal home exhibition, fantasier make i think, very limited range) and I also have one in a conservatory.

The ones in the bedroom, i only had 1 controlled by switches as i had a chance to rewire with switches. the others are 2 cords , 1 for lights and 1 for fan speed on/off

I never worried about the height , infact i dont remember height figures , i just fitted where i wanted them, but i made sure that they were high enough so would not hit our heads 5'10"

A friend recently had 1 fitted and all via a remote control - she also wanted wired to a switch and the electrician said not possible on the model she purchased , she purchased from a shop , and was able

we found the one in the bedroom very useful in hot weather , but to be honest , we didnt use it that much

 

[RandomGrinch]

I saw the long range forecast for the heatwave and recently bought a ceiling fan from Argos when it was on sale.

It is fitted on a 2.4m ceiling, and the blades droop when off to about 2.07m.
It just about passed my risk assessment!
Although it wouldn't be wise to do anything too energetic at the bottom end of the bed!

...out of curiosity, I put a cardboard tube into the path of the fan (and then my hand!) - it gave it a good whack, but wouldn't take your head off!

I have found it to be supurbly effective during this heat. With a room temperature of around 28C, it is still comfortable to sleep in with the fan running; it is also quiet enough on the lowest speed.

Due to the low room height, there seem to be some standing wave effects, that mean the 2nd speed isn't quite as effective as the lower speed!

If you read reviews of these fans, some suggest the installation has been difficult, even for professionals.
This is because the driver electronics are crammed into a small space, where you also have to make a lot of electrical connections, and also support the fan while attaching it to the ceiling.
I found pre-installing the electronic module, using cable ties and green brook lighting connectors made the job slightly easier.

...and lastly, these are heavy, make sure your ceiling joists can support the weight. I put a brace across three adjacent joists to distribute the weight (but my joists are slim).

Good luck!

 

[JohnW2]

.... I have found it to be supurbly effective during this heat. With a room temperature of around 28C, it is still comfortable to sleep in with the fan running; it is also quiet enough on the lowest speed. .... Due to the low room height, there seem to be some standing wave effects, that mean the 2nd speed isn't quite as effective as the lower speed!

If you recall, there was a fairly recent discussion during which I learned something which I didn't know, and which hadn't previously occurred to me - namely that many/most (maybe even all?>) of these ceiling fans are 'reversible'. If I understood correctly, the idea is apparently that if one wants to use them for 'cooling' (in Summer'), one should have them blowing downwards, whereas if one wants them the optimise (warm) room temp ('in Winter') one should have them blowing upwards. Is that correct?

Kind Regards, John

 

[ETAF]

they had a direction toggle as well, summer and winter setting

as mentioned - very useful, and did work

 

[RandomGrinch]

If you recall, there was a fairly recent discussion during which I learned something which I didn't know, and which hadn't previously occurred to me - namely that many/most (maybe even all?>) of these ceiling fans are 'reversible'. If I understood correctly, the idea is apparently that if one wants to use them for 'cooling' (in Summer'), one should have them blowing downwards, whereas if one wants them the optimise (warm) room temp ('in Winter') one should have them blowing upwards. Is that correct?

Kind Regards, John

Yes, but the switch isn't in the most convenient position!

Reversibility is mentioned in the MI, but not specifically on the product page of the website.

 

[ETAF]

Yes, but the switch isn't in the most convenient position!

nor is mine - but in theory only going to switch it twice a year anyway - so was not to much of an issue for me

 

[SUNRAY]

We have had a ceiling fan in the bedroom for a lot of years, as a result of holidaying in Croatia where we found the fan did cool the room... please don't ask how as it makes b****r all sense to me. On our return home we purchased and fitted a B&Q fan (not one of their cheapies - Mrs Sunray didn't like the look of them) with R/C but retained the wall switch.

That said the unit I have is wired thus and as that light didn't have a perm L it's always been wired to SL: We have found that the unit remembers the last setting of the R/C so in winter the switch simply operates light (it does take longenough to come on that one may think nothing is happening ~2-3 seconds) and summer tends to be low speed fan.

A friend moved house a number of years back and the conservatory light/fan didn't work. She swore blind it was running when they viewed but the estate agents pictures showed a different lampshade. The fan didn't have a single spec of dust and there was a substantial box of manuals for fitted products and sitting right on top was the new manaul.
MI stated the brown and blue wires of the fitting had to be connected to the brown and blue supply. And it had been wired thus:

It didn't take more than a second to see the brown/blue cable went to the switch and the red/black went to the FCU beside a DSSO.

Final wiring :

Switch operates light and R/C operates fan. I've done several like it and sadly at least one was after an electricians actual reply was: "Comtuper says no." mimicking Little Britain.
One caused some head scratching as the lamp was 12V LED and I had to provide a transformer for that.

So getting back to the original question the answer is 'maybe', It's been possible with all of the units I've tried however I've also heard comments that it can't be done, knowing how some kit is constructed I have to accept 'no' may be the right answer.

 

[SUNRAY]

Hi all,

With the night time temperatures we’ve been having recently I’ve decided I’d quite like a ceiling fan in 2 of my bedrooms.

Anybody fitted one and have any comments to make about what to look for/avoid etc? Main things I have questions about are:

1. Ceiling height – Like most, my bedroom ceilings are 2.4m high. I see suggestions everywhere that the fan blades should not be lower than 2.3m high which of course would mean 100mm max vertical space for the fan to fit in and models which would fit in this space seem non-existent. The fan would be placed over the bed so I wonder how much attention to pay to this suggestion?
2. Combined fan and light units. This would be what I’d want, however they all seem to operate both the fan and light from a remote control. Ideally I’d like to operate the light from the wall switch as normal, but the fan could be on the remote or a cord hanging from the fan. Specs and details on websites never seem to make the details of switching etc clear. Seems really odd as I would have thought that this would be one of the first questions people ask.

Cheers

Our ceiling height is 2.3m. Our blade height is 2.03m and virtually all over the bed, I'm 6' 1" (1.86m) and never given the lack of height a thought since fitting.

However I recall it was too low and shortened the pole when I fitted it but I don't recall by how much, it really was simple to cut it with a hack saw and drill a hole through it.

 

[AdrianUK]

I have a 56" xpelair whispair ceiling fan in our bedroom. We are fortunate enough to have 10 foot (3m) ceilings so it was possible to fit the fan so its both out of reach & yet still a good 18" below the ceiling.

We run it on its slowest setting (it has a separate wall mounted controller) all through the night - its situated centrally above the bed & does provide a constant gentle downdraft. It definitely provides some relief in these hot stuffy nights.

It is more of a commercial than domestic fan, but was ....'acquired' at the right price 20 years ago.

 

[winston1]

The ceiling fan distributes the heat in the room, and it blows air past damp items (like your body) and so the latent heat is extracted, neither seems to be likely to work in a bedroom. You would need to sleep naked for the air to extract the moisture

 

[ericmark]

Why quote my message with no comment? I do sleep with window open and fan blowing, and yes the air movement helps as well as exchanging air, disadvantage is need lights off, or moths come in together with their predators the bats. But the fan seems to deter the insects, so not too many, but when considering a fan, or AC the question is more about compared with what.

My bedroom has loads of insulation above the ceiling, so only place the heat in the ceiling can go is in the room, there is very little insulation if any between the living room and my bedroom, so the heat can go through the ceiling into my bedroom floor.

Every home is different, there is no magic formula to cool or heat a room, it depends on so many things, and some times it seems using logic there is no reason for some thing to work, but it does.

In the last house we found turning on the fan of the fan assisted radiator seemed to cool the room down, other than causing the air to move, no reason why it should, we only had a boiler, not a heat pump, but it did.

I suppose in the future we will have more and more fan assisted radiators so the heat pumps can heat or cool, although when in 1980 I was working in Algeria some AC units would reverse the flow of the refrigerant and others simple has an element for heating. Why I don't know, but at the price of electric unless the heat pump works both ways, then a little pointless fitting one, and it can't cool with a low down radiator unless it has a fan.

The problem is price, I looked at a Myson Ivector radiator, seemed so much more advanced than the old one I had, with a 5 speed motor and motor speed controlled by room temperature, no manual dial any more, but the building management controls to go with it were so expensive.

So yes if I needed to renew one radiator I would consider a fan assisted one so ready for heat pump, but would not go out and simply change them all.

In the main it seems the way to keep the house cooler is modern windows, seems they have a pink tinge on them, but windows have come on a long way since k glass it seems to stop solar heating. Yesterday we had quotes for changing window frames, and yes maybe 6 times the price of fitting a fan, but they don't use electric once fitted.

 

[JohnW2]

Why quote my message with no comment?

Goodness know how his mind works, but maybe it was a very unclear attempt to indicate that he agreed with your words that he quoted?

Kind Regards, John

 

[winston1]

I wrote that I agreed with what he said but in practice a down draft cools the body even under a sheet. Don’t know why it didn’t appear.