Ceiling Fan Size

[gorooster]

My stove room/living room is 20'x16' w/ 8' ceilings, w/ a Mount Vernon stand-alone stove. I'm looking to get a low profile ceiling fan and was wondering if any of you fine fellows (are there ever ANY women on this site?) have buyers remorse about getting fans that were too big or too small. I am working on getting the heat out to the rest of my 3 bedroom, 1440 sq. ft. house, but I'm not into having a really big fan in the middle of my living room unless I really need it. Three blades/four blades/ five blades? Is bigger better? Do you have favorite models or ones to stay away from?
Muchos thankos.

 

[Bocefus78]

Hunter brand is lifetime warranty. With that sized room, you want a 52 inch minimum.

 

[fossil]

Yes, we have many female forum members. A ceiling fan won't do much of anything for moving air horizontally from one room into another. What it will do is set up a toroidal circulation pattern in the room where it's installed, thus destratifying the air in that room..preventing the buildup of a stagnant layer of hot air up high where it does people no good. I find I get the best results by running a fan in reverse (upward flow) on slow speed. Do a google search for something like "Ceiling fan selection guide" and you'll find all kinds of information about picking an appropriate fan for your application. I'm moving your thread over into the DIY forum. Rick

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I always like big fans. For a room your size I'd at least go for 52". Smaller fans might still give you the movement you want, but you would have to turn them faster and possibly make more noise. I like the big guys turning slowly and quietly. If you really want to feel the air moving you can always speed them up.

Matt

 

[semipro]

Big Ass fans here Limestone: http://www.bigassfans.com/residential/index.html

As fossil said, a ceiling fan won't help much getting the air out to bedrooms. Many don't feel that they even improve comfort in the main room as the evaporative cooling effect that humans feel may be stronger than the heating benefit of de-stratification.

There are many many posts in the The Hearth Room about moving the heat around. I can save you some time by telling you that the vast majority of folks will tell you move cool air from the bedrooms toward the stove room along the floor rather than trying to push warm air around.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

From the BAF sight:

"Isis circulates an ocean of air-the equivalent of NINE standard ceiling fans- that can be felt from floor to ceiling and wall to wall but at a monthly operating cost of less than pennies per day."

Exactly how much is "less than pennies per day"?

:D

Matt

 

[infinitymike]

That is one Big Ass Fan for sure. I wonder if I mount it on my kayak, how many pennies would it cost to make it across the L I Sound to Connecticut :cheese:

 

[mayhem]

Many don't feel that they even improve comfort in the main room as the evaporative cooling effect that humans feel may be stronger than the heating benefit of de-stratification.

If you set the thing on the lowest setting it'll do a great job of destratifying the air and you'll never feel the breeze, so no net perceived cooling effect.

A 20x16 room is fair sized. 52" 5 blade fan minimum.

 

[gorooster]

Thanks. I've read tons about using fans and moving air and destratifying and backwards and forwards and such, but I hadn't read much about specific models. All in all, we're very pleased w/ the Mount Vernon, and I'm happy to have found this super nerdy macho site that's helped me pick a stove, build a good hearth pad, run pipe, and trouble-shoot and fix a thermo-couple gizmo, all on my own. Not bad!! My wife mocks me constantly for all the research and thrills I get over new nerdy info I get about efficiency and what-not, and I love it! (and she's walking around in a warm house, sans swaddling clothes, big smile on her face). Come to think of it, I'm smiling too!

 

[semipro]

Many don't feel that they even improve comfort in the main room as the evaporative cooling effect that humans feel may be stronger than the heating benefit of de-stratification.

If you set the thing on the lowest setting it'll do a great job of destratifying the air and you'll never feel the breeze, so no net perceived cooling effect.

A 20x16 room is fair sized. 52" 5 blade fan minimum.

Not in our case. Our Hunter originals running on the lowest setting in reverse produce a very noticable draft coming down the walls from our 10 ft. ceilings. (We have a couch against the wall.) Others here have mentioned the same issue. We could go with a much smaller fan but summer operation is more important.

 

[semipro]

Thanks. I've read tons about using fans and moving air and destratifying and backwards and forwards and such, but I hadn't read much about specific models. All in all, we're very pleased w/ the Mount Vernon, and I'm happy to have found this super nerdy macho site that's helped me pick a stove, build a good hearth pad, run pipe, and trouble-shoot and fix a thermo-couple gizmo, all on my own. Not bad!! My wife mocks me constantly for all the research and thrills I get over new nerdy info I get about efficiency and what-not, and I love it! (and she's walking around in a warm house, sans swaddling clothes, big smile on her face). Come to think of it, I'm smiling too!

Fan size will not tell you how much air a fan will move. It is a factor but blade pitch, no. of blades, distance from the ceiling, and motor power are also important. You'll usually find that cheaper fans have low pitch blades that rotate fast, make a lot of noise, but don't really move much air.

Good fans are getting harder to find as most production has gone to China, and its not particularly good construction. We use Hunter originals almost exclusively because they move air well and last forever.

I've found better quality fans at some of the local electrical suppliers and online rather than big box stores.

Oh yeah. Welcome to the site. It sounds like you'll fit in just fine!

 

[pyper]

In my experience there are two types of ceiling fans. Hunter, and junk.

I don't think it's possible to buy too big. In our last house we had a 54 in fan in a 12 foot bedroom, and it was great. We hardly ever had it above low setting. We move the fan to our new family room -- 13x20 or so. It's still great. It's a Hunter fan that we bought in about 1998, and it's been moved twice now.

Despite conventional wisdom, in our last house you could easily feel the heat blowing down into the adjacent space when the fan was on. The fan was pretty close to the doorway. In this house it doesn't work, and the fan is further away, so here I run it blowing up. I put a small circular fan in the hallway, to blow cool air towards the room with the stove. I think it helps some.