Ceiling Fans

[mrsxtro]

Hi all.
We are building a new house (well actually the builder is but we are paying!) and are putting ceiling fans in most of the rooms. We need to buy them ourselves and pay cash to the electrician to put them in. I have had a bit of a look around and am completely confused as to what sort to get. 3 blade or 4 blade? Timber or metal? The $39 ones or the $300 ones? Remotes? Reversible? Integrated lights or seperate? The options seem endless.
So I am after advice on what features I should be looking for and what would be a reasonable price to pay. Are the more expensive ones worth it? It is a fairly large house (305 m2) on acreage about an hour west of Brisbane. The fans are for the 4 bedrooms, 1 for the games room, 1 for the study and 2 for the main open-plan living area.
Any advice, information, brands etc. will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
-mrsxtro.

[rscho]

mrsxtro,

We've found many cheaper ones are noisy, so noisy that you can't leave them on at night, even on a slow speed. They don't seem to very well balanced and you can often see them wobble. So through experience we'd stay with the more well known brand names, especially for the bedrooms. The cost in lost sleep and that niggling thought "if only we'd spent that little bit extra" easily makes up the difference for us.
Although its probably not an issue for you, we have high ceilings with ceiling ducts and on cold nights reversible fans blow the hot air down to where we want it.
As for other options be sure you're still paying for a quiet, well balanced fan instead of a cheaper fan with expensive options!

[Bob Willson]

In general:
Larger fans move more air, more quietly than the smaller ones.
Four blades are better than three.
Fan lights are crap.
Remote control is good.
There is no functional difference between metal and timber fans, it is all decoration.
The more speeds the better.
reversing fans is not a good idea as you will finish up with a ceiling full of dust.
More expensive doesn't mean better.
So, go for a fan that costs about $100, with remote, four blades, large as practical. Try K Mart and Woolies first

[Ashore]

There was a good thread on this recently

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=7519&highlight=fans

If you are paying for them to go in , go remote less wiring, don't need that wall switch

Hunter Pacific ... Model Concept 52 con (L)
are fons I have had installed pricy but worth every cent , no noise, halegon dimmer lights and remote



Rgds