This past month the temperature in NJ has been over 90 most days and over 100 for at least 30% of those days. So we may have been overusing our ceiling fan or it may have just been at the end of it’s life, but the swaying and clicking got louder and louder! My wife thought I was trying to kill her by rigging the ceiling fan to fall on her in her sleep.
Our Master Bedroom was the last room in the house with the lighting left over from the previous owner. In addition to the noises it was making, it was never any good with lighting. The room always felt dark, even with the nightstand lights on.
This weekend we decided we needed to upgrade and last night we finally got around to it. We have old wiring and low ceilings, which I had to overcome…
Ceiling height ( 7′-10″ ) + My height ( 6′-2″ ) = ceiling fan danger! I’ve hit my knuckles into the old fan several times while changing clothes too close to the rotating blades of death severe pain.
The fan we chose after almost three years in the house was the exact same fan we installed in our previous house. If you notice, the fan blades are set at the top of the motor, putting them another few inches higher than most fans. However, this was not enough in the old house (8′-0″ ceilings) and wouldn’t be enough here. So the “short” downrod provided with the fan (6″) had to be shorter. After careful measuring, I determined that the absolute shortest it could be and still get all the pieces put together was 3″ – so my drill press and metal saw came in handy! The final height to the blades is very accommodating considering the limits of the space.
In addition to the low ceilings, our house was wired by a retarded monkey and poses major problems when changing lighting. The power for each room was first run to the light, then out to each outlet. This means that when you turn off the power to the light to replace it you have no power for lamps, power tools, etc. A major bummer when working at night. This means there was no hope of putting in a three conductor wire to the light switch to have separate fan and light controls on the wall. I would have to use pull chains to control the light and fan separately. Or so I thought.
In comes the fancy new-fangled wireless remotes. I’ve had hand held remotes on ceiling fans for years now, so that’s nothing new, but if you haven’t looked recently, there is a new remote kit. The kit shown on the right are a set that you can get at your local home improvement store or online (it also comes with the receiver that mounts in the fan). They aren’t cheap, but here’s why they are so cool…
The wall switch shown is actually a remote control. It connects just like the regular old switch that used to be there and the house power provides the remote with power. The sliding switch at the bottom is the main on/off control for the power to the fan (required by code) but the rest of the buttons are all wireless controls for the fan-mounted receiver! Even without the hand held (in case your two-year old throws it under the bed) you can adjust the fan speed and lighting (built in dimmer too!).
The three 60W halogen bulbs are such an improvement over the old lighting that the project was worth it, but when we kicked that fan on high and it ran smooth and level without the scary wake-you-out-of-a-deep-sleep noises, we were thrilled.
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