Fan control direction?

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bboulier

Minister of Fire
Feb 9, 2010
510
NE Virginia
My fan on the Jotul 550C (as well as my fan on a previous insert) had the following property: Turn clockwise to engage the fan. Turn further clockwise (to the right) to reduce the fan input. Turn counterclockwise (to the left) to increase blower speed. This procedure seems counterintuitive.

Other electric controls (such as dimmer switches) start on turning to right (clockwise). However, further turns in a clockwise direction (i.e., to the right) raise the light. and then to the left (counterclockwise) reduce the light. Similar rules apply to power drills. Why are fans different from other appliances?
 
All I can say in experience w/ fans is the 2 exhaust fans over range top's that I operate frequently do the same thing. As soon as they click on it's on "high" and the further clockwise you go the lower the fan speed is.

Someone said is must be so, and so it was recorded.

Or, perhaps it's easier to build a resistance increasing switch that works in this direction? I'm not an engineer so I'm not sure.

pen
 
Must be from Australia! :lol:
 
pen said:
All I can say in experience w/ fans is the 2 exhaust fans over range top's that I operate frequently do the same thing. As soon as they click on it's on "high" and the further clockwise you go the lower the fan speed is.

Someone said is must be so, and so it was recorded.

Or, perhaps it's easier to build a resistance increasing switch that works in this direction? I'm not an engineer so I'm not sure.

pen
Click to expand...
Yup. Fan switches have a rheostat that reduces power, the farther you turn them. Just conventional, I guess. But you really are better off with a kick of high power to get the blades turning from a standstill when you first turn the fan on. Radio/TV volume controls handle only minuscule amounts of power and they make them work in the other direction.
 
But you really are better off with a kick of high power to get the blades turning from a standstill when you first turn the fan on.
Click to expand...

Well that makes sense right there. Good old static vs kinetic friction I suppose.

pen
 
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