Fantastic Fans: With so Many Styles, There is Much to Consider When Choosing the Perfect Ceiling Wings for Your Needs

May 19--Dave Enz has a ceiling fan in just about every room of his house, 10 fans in all.

Each bedroom has a ceiling fan. So do the family room and the outdoor patio and swimming-pool areas. Even the garage is outfitted with two ceiling fans.

Though friends at first think the garage is a strange place for a ceiling fan, Enz tells them the fans make trips into the garage during hot weather tolerable. The breeze they generate make it possible to even sit a spell.

Enz, operations manager at Phillips Lighting & Home in Modesto, is the business's resident expert on ceiling fans. He says the devices that help cool and warm (we'll explain that later) houses, apartments and offices have come a long way in the past three decades.

Today's ceiling fans are available in a variety of styles, materials, finishes, blade styles and sizes (diameters from 29 to72 inches).

Moreover, the current-generation ceiling fans come equipped with more powerful, longer-lasting motors and easy-to-use electronic controls, including wall-mounted switches and hand-held remotes.

Brian Sponsler, vice president and general manager of Emerson Ceiling Fans, calls ceiling fans the "hottest accessory in home fashion" and a "reflection of the homeowner's personality."

Emerson has been making ceiling fans since 1895 and has more than 150 models.

"They are a statement of style, no longer just a functional element," he said. "At first, they were just round with paddles, and people put them on the ceiling and perhaps wanted them to fade away into the ceiling. But that's not the case anymore."

Fans are so elegant and distinctive today, they could take the place of a chandelier, he said.

As temperatures rise, now is the time to consider adding a ceiling fan to your living space or upgrading older fans.

One of the biggest reasons to get a new ceiling fan? It can help save money.

Fans can make cooling and heating a room less costly. During the summer, fans can help save on air-conditioning bills. Set the thermostat to 78 degrees or higher and turn the ceiling fan on -- the moving air will make the room feel cooler.

The same kind of savings can be had in the winter with the flip of a switch, the switch that spins the fan blades clockwise. That clockwise movement "pushes" warmer air down and recirculates it, which heats a room more evenly.

"Most people don't realize how much money a fan will save on utility bills," Enz said.

Technological advances have made operating a fan easier as well. Pull-chains (metal or fabric pieces that turn the fan on or off and adjust the speed) have given way to remote controls and wall-mounted "smart" switches that remember the fan's previous speed and light settings.

Wall-mounted controls are preferred by Phillips customers, Enz said, because consumers don't want to have to keep track of yet another remote control.

When shopping for a fan, several factors should be considered, including fan size, motor and blade pitch.

Fan size -- Select a fan that fits the size of the room. Sizes range from 29 inches to 72 inches. Small fans fit well in spaces measuring 50 square feet or less, such as a hallway or small bathroom. A 36-inch fan is a good fit for a 75-square-foot room. Plan on buying a fan that's at least54 inches for a room larger than 400 square feet.

Motor -- The motor is the ceiling fan's major component. Motors in higher-end fans have gotten more powerful and quieter. Some manufacturers are so confident regarding a fan motor's durability that they offer lifetime warranties.

A good motor in a quality ceiling fan can last 20 years or more, said Enz, so it's possible that a buyer could grow tired of a fan's style long before the fan ever breaks down.

The American Lighting Association, a trade organization, suggests looking for a motor with permanently lubricated and sealed bearings.

Blade pitch -- Fan blades determine how much air is circulated throughout the room through their pitch, or angle.

A good rule of thumb, Enz suggests, is to look for fans with a lot of pitch, at least 15 degrees. Fans with little to no pitch mean less air circulation.

Whether you add a light to your ceiling fan depends on the other lighting in the room.

"Usually, you only put lighting in the fan when it is the main source of light when you enter the room," said Marsi Black, an interior designer who decorates homes for builders.

"Most of the time, we feel that a fan should not have a light in it. It should function on its own as a useful ceiling sculpture."

If a light is needed, Black said popular styles are dome lights and up-lighting that shines on the ceiling.

Once you pick your fan and get it home, Enz said most people can install it themselves if the ceiling already has the proper wiring and metal electric box (ones made of plastic are generally not strong enough to support the fan's weight).

"If you can stand on a ladder and operate a screwdriver," Enz said, "you can install a ceiling fan. Once you've done one, you can probably hang it faster than you can take it out of the box."

Enz said that while he can install a fan in 15 to20 minutes, it takes the average person about an hour to 90 minutes if they've never done it before.

He has a few pieces of advice for do-it-yourselfers:

If you're buying two or more of the same model fan and they include wall controls, remember to change each fan's frequency; otherwise, the switch in one room will control all others.

Even if you buy the same brand and model fan for different rooms, keep the parts and pieces of each fan separate. Mixing parts can cause balance problems and make the fans wobble.

Do not use parts from an old fan to install the new fan, even if they look similar.

Do not use interior ceiling fans outdoors. Fans made for outdoor use have more durable, weather-resistant components and finishes.

Bee news services contributed to this report. To comment, click on the link with this story at www.modbee.com. Bee staff writer Donna Birch can be reached at dbirch@modbee.com or 578-2309.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Modesto Bee, Calif.

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