Looking for suggestions on ceiling fans for new house

aja8888

aja8888

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Soon I will be closing on my new 1,459 square foot single family house and will be looking for suggestions and/or recommendations on a few things which I will have to buy as a new (old) homeowner.

Today's topic is ceiling fans that are needed for one open area, the family room, and two bedrooms (master and guest(s)).

The ceilings are 9' and the areas are not very big, say 20' x 14' for the family room and the master is 14' x 13'. The second bedroom is quite small, maybe 10' x 12'.

I don't want anything that can connect to Siri or Alexa, but would like remote control, a dimming light and multi speed fan motor.

I would like to keep the cost to $250 each fan, maximum. Simple is good and ease of installation is recommended.

The walls in the house are painted a very light gray color with white moldings and doors throughout. My furniture is a mixed collection of old stuff and mostly traditional. I'm not a candidate for the House Beautiful magazine centerfold.;)

Thanks in advance for any suggestions/advice.:)
 
We just moved into a lake home with four or five fans. Really, this is pretty easy because they are relatively cheap and easy to install or change out if we have one we don't like.

I think most of the fans are around 52". I didn't see any reason to look for smaller fans for smaller rooms. The selection is somewhat limited and since all fans seem to have variable speeds I had little concern about too much air.

Where a fan we liked had a remote control that was fine. Where we added a remore I like this one: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton...mote-Control-with-LCD-Display-98001/313485910 You can set it for a time interval or to blow until the room is down to a certain temperature.

For most of the fans I had the electrician run two wires from dual wall switches. This is a bit of future-proofing to allow fan and light to be controlled from the wall switches if we want to do that sometime in the future.

We may want to add a fan in the kitchen, so I had it prewired with a mounting point all ready for it.

IIRC I bought mostly at Home Depot, but the fan in the living room with a 12' ceiling is Hunter brand. This is a bit of an upscale brand, hopefully more reliable because it will be a PITA to change out. woot.com seems to offer deals on Hunter from time to time, so if you can be patient you can probably save some money. I did not know this when I bought.

Where I had lights in the fans I stuck to standard-base LED bulbs. This makes it easy to adjust brightness and/or color temperature simply by changing bulbs. I avoided the small candelabra bases so I don't have to have special bulbs around. I avoided hard-wired LED fixtures because I would have no flexibility to change max brightness or color temperature.

Everything in the house is 3000K color temperature.

With 9' ceilings you probably don’t have much concern about fan lights hanging too far down, but keep an eye out anyway.

If you have a fan near a wall or slanted ceiling, try not to have a situation where one blade tip gets close to the wall while the opposite tip does not have the same distance on the opposite side. Air flow at the tips will be unbalanced and the fan may wobble. This means you want an even number of blades too.

I think we came in under $250/fan.

Don't obsess on this. This is not a big deal. You are not getting married here and fans are cheap and easy to change out.
 
OldShooter said:
We just moved into a lake home with four or five fans. Really, this is pretty easy because they are relatively cheap and easy to install or change out if we have one we don't like.

I think most of the fans are around 52". I didn't see any reason to look for smaller fans for smaller rooms. The selection is somewhat limited and since all fans seem to have variable speeds I had little concern about too much air.

Where a fan we liked had a remote control that was fine. Where we added a remore I like this one: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton...mote-Control-with-LCD-Display-98001/313485910 You can set it for a time interval or to blow until the room is down to a certain temperature.

For most of the fans I had the electrician run two wires from dual wall switches. This is a bit of future-proofing to allow fan and light to be controlled from the wall switches if we want to do that sometime in the future.

We may want to add a fan in the kitchen, so I had it prewired with a mounting point all ready for it.

IIRC I bought mostly at Home Depot, but the fan in the living room with a 12' ceiling is Hunter brand. This is a bit of an upscale brand, hopefully more reliable because it will be a PITA to change out. woot.com seems to offer deals on Hunter from time to time, so if you can be patient you can probably save some money. I did not know this when I bought.

Where I had lights in the fans I stuck to standard-base LED bulbs. This makes it easy to adjust brightness and/or color temperature simply by changing bulbs. I avoided the small candelabra bases so I don't have to have special bulbs around. I avoided hard-wired LED fixtures because I would have no flexibility to change max brightness or color temperature.

Everything in the house is 3000K color temperature.

With 9' ceilings you probably don’t have much concern about fan lights hanging too far down, but keep an eye out anyway.

If you have a fan near a wall or slanted ceiling, try not to have a situation where one blade tip gets close to the wall while the opposite tip does not have the same distance on the opposite side. Air flow at the tips will be unbalanced and the fan may wobble. This means you want an even number of blades too.

I think we came in under $250/fan.

Don't obsess on this. This is not a big deal. You are not getting married here and fans are cheap and easy to change out.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info on the Hunter remote. Looks like Hunter makes quite a variety of fans. The old house had the multi light setup hanging below the blades and I don't care to have that in these fans.

It looks like 52" is the common blade span too. For small rooms, I see 44".

Good idea about keeping the same K value on all the lighting. I never though about that.
 
Recommend DC motor ceiling fans

- quieter
- can more easily change direction, etc via remote
 
aja8888 said:
... I'm not a candidate for the House Beautiful magazine centerfold.;)
Click to expand...

Then, I would just go to HD or Lowe's, and go "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe". In/out in 5 minutes.

The above said, I like Hunter fans. I have one of the original model, being cast iron and with an oil pan. Hunter may have more modern designs, enhanced with electronics.
 
Last edited:
I noticed at Lowes yesterday that they remind me of helicopters now - more modern and spartan.

Lights are mostly integrated close to the blades - I wonder if they are all built in LED? I'd not like that as I prefer to buy light bulbs.
 
badatmath said:
I noticed at Lowes yesterday that they remind me of helicopters now - more modern and spartan.

Lights are mostly integrated close to the blades - I wonder if they are all built in LED? I'd not like that as I prefer to buy light bulbs.
Click to expand...

I'm looking too, and want something nicer than I'm seeing at Lowes, etc. I have a theory though:

Back even just 20 years ago, the selection at HD or Lowes was a wider range, from basics to some really nice designs and more price options. But now it seems the on-site stock is more basic/simple/cheaper, targeted to move quicker I guess? They know we can just shop online for the higher end ones, but honestly for something that big I'd rather see it in person first vs. the hassle of maybe returning.
 
https://www.lampsplus.com/fans/

Happy shopping. Tons of filters including pricing. Pretty knowledgeable sales reps in the stores. Keep an eye out for sales.

DC motor is a good suggestion but in our experience more likely in 350.00 plus range. Worth it if you want to eliminate that annoying fan hum.

Minka (Also available on Lamps-plus site so you can use the price filter) makes some nice fans with a good search tool too ... https://www.minkagroup.net/choose_fans.php
 
Last edited:
OldShooter said:
We just moved into a lake home with four or five fans. Really, this is pretty easy because they are relatively cheap and easy to install or change out if we have one we don't like.

I think most of the fans are around 52". I didn't see any reason to look for smaller fans for smaller rooms. The selection is somewhat limited and since all fans seem to have variable speeds I had little concern about too much air.

Where a fan we liked had a remote control that was fine. Where we added a remore I like this one: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton...mote-Control-with-LCD-Display-98001/313485910 You can set it for a time interval or to blow until the room is down to a certain temperature.

For most of the fans I had the electrician run two wires from dual wall switches. This is a bit of future-proofing to allow fan and light to be controlled from the wall switches if we want to do that sometime in the future.

We may want to add a fan in the kitchen, so I had it prewired with a mounting point all ready for it.

IIRC I bought mostly at Home Depot, but the fan in the living room with a 12' ceiling is Hunter brand. This is a bit of an upscale brand, hopefully more reliable because it will be a PITA to change out. woot.com seems to offer deals on Hunter from time to time, so if you can be patient you can probably save some money. I did not know this when I bought.

Where I had lights in the fans I stuck to standard-base LED bulbs. This makes it easy to adjust brightness and/or color temperature simply by changing bulbs. I avoided the small candelabra bases so I don't have to have special bulbs around. I avoided hard-wired LED fixtures because I would have no flexibility to change max brightness or color temperature.

Everything in the house is 3000K color temperature.

With 9' ceilings you probably don’t have much concern about fan lights hanging too far down, but keep an eye out anyway.

If you have a fan near a wall or slanted ceiling, try not to have a situation where one blade tip gets close to the wall while the opposite tip does not have the same distance on the opposite side. Air flow at the tips will be unbalanced and the fan may wobble. This means you want an even number of blades too.

I think we came in under $250/fan.

Don't obsess on this. This is not a big deal. You are not getting married here and fans are cheap and easy to change out.
Click to expand...


We have this remote on our MBR ceiling fan and agree that it is quite functional.

I just put one of these in my son's new (old) house and it was a breeze to wire. Does not come with a remote as it is a 44" model. The 52" model has a basic remote.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-De...t-Kit-and-3-Reversible-Blades-59244/308038103
 
Big Ass Fans

Pricey, but superbly well made. I've had three of them in two different houses. Easy to install yourself and totally reliable.
 
2HOTinPHX said:
https://www.lampsplus.com/fans/

Happy shopping. Tons of filters including pricing. Pretty knowledgeable sales reps in the stores. Keep an eye out for sales.

DC motor is a good suggestion but in our experience more likely in 350.00 plus range. Worth it if you want to eliminate that annoying fan hum.

Minka (Also available on Lamps-plus site so you can use the price filter) makes some nice fans with a good search tool too ... https://www.minkagroup.net/choose_fans.php
Click to expand...

Thanks for these links, both very helpful.
 
Two Hunter fans of different sizes in our new to us house. Both have remotes that I am supposed to mount to the wall one of these times. Looks like glass is available to replace that cracked one. Two thumbs up.
 
An Amazon search on "ceiling fans with lights and remote" brings up a vast multitude of fans. Some of them look like alien spacecraft to me, but hey, maybe I just don't have a sense of style.

We put in ours 20 years ago and they do have remotes, although not as fancy as the one pointed out by Oldshooter. Ours don't have screens on them, just buttons, but they still work.
 
Walt34 said:
An Amazon search on "ceiling fans with lights and remote" brings up a vast multitude of fans. Some of them look like alien spacecraft to me, but hey, maybe I just don't have a sense of style.

We put in ours 20 years ago and they do have remotes, although not as fancy as the one pointed out by Oldshooter. Ours don't have screens on them, just buttons, but they still work.
Click to expand...

I'm kind of short on the style stuff too. I'll have to rely on my daughter to pick pout the style but I will determine the specs and options I want. There are just so many to look at....:facepalm:
 
aja8888 said:
I'm kind of short on the style stuff too. I'll have to rely on my daughter to pick pout the style but I will determine the specs and options I want. There are just so many to look at....:facepalm:
Click to expand...
Using the filters on the Lamps Plus website will really help you narrow now the choices. If you have a store near you they have nice big monitors to view the fans on and will help you sort and gather options. They will even provide print outs of the options you like if your undecided and need some time to decide. They also have a pretty good selection hanging from the ceiling to check out in person.
 
Review/compare the specifications for the lighting maximum base-size and wattage. It seems that manufactures can really skimp on the lights resulting in poor illumination.
 
AJA8888, I've been updating the house since husband passed last year. Not sure if I'm staying or moving to something smaller. That said two of the bedrooms are small and company I ordered them from recommended a small fan. I got Quorum fans out of Ft Worth. I got ceiling flush mount, remote and light. There is no wobble since they are flush to ceiling. These are super quiet compared to others. You can change the direction of the rotation with the remote. You can also use the remote for a temperature range setting so the fan will come on automatically. I bought 2 at $250 and by the time I ordered the 3rd the price had jumped $100. This was in the past 6 months.


edit: Remote has low, medium & high setting for fan. Lighting on remote is on and off only, no dimmer.
 
Last edited:
We have light gray ceilings and walls, but our can light inserts are black so the ceiling fans match those. We also have black accents so it all works. Remote controlled, quiet with reversible directions. No lights. We never used lights on fans. There are formulas online for blade size based on room dimensions. Nothing worse than undersized fans after going through all the work to get them mounted.
 
splitwdw said:
... I got ceiling flush mount, remote and light. There is no wobble since they are flush to ceiling...
Click to expand...

I have a small flush-mounted fan in a small bedroom. I don't know the size off-hand. It spins fast, but moves much less air than other fans I have.

If I recall correctly, Sengsational had a thread about his flush-mounted fan with the same problem. The narrow clearance between the fan and the ceiling starves the fan the intake air for it to blow down. Hence, the weak airflow.

So too close to the ceiling may not be good. I forgot if Sengsational figured out how much clearance would be good.
 
splitwdw said:
AJA8888, I've been updating the house since husband passed last year. Not sure if I'm staying or moving to something smaller. That said two of the bedrooms are small and company I ordered them from recommended a small fan. I got Quorum fans out of Ft Worth. I got ceiling flush mount, remote and light. There is no wobble since they are flush to ceiling. These are super quiet compared to others. You can change the direction of the rotation with the remote. You can also use the remote for a temperature range setting so the fan will come on automatically. I bought 2 at $250 and by the time I ordered the 3rd the price had jumped $100. This was in the past 6 months.


edit: Remote has low, medium & high setting for fan. Lighting on remote is on and off only, no dimmer.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll look at those Quorum fans. Since the ceilings in the new place are 9' tall, I will probably use a 12" drop rod and not go flush.
 
I will also recommend Hunter fans. I found a much better selection on the Hunter website than at Home Depot or Menards and bought direct. I also suggest 52" fans, though the smaller bedroom could get by with a smaller fan of you wanted to save money. You shouldn't have a problem keeping the price below $250 per fan.

Make sure you have a proper ceiling fan mount in the ceiling joists. Don't simply mount the fan to a junction box in the ceiling, i.e. one that isn't braced between joists.
 
Qs Laptop said:
I will also recommend Hunter fans. I found a much better selection on the Hunter website than at Home Depot or Menards and bought direct. I also suggest 52" fans, though the smaller bedroom could get by with a smaller fan of you wanted to save money. You shouldn't have a problem keeping the price below $250 per fan.

Make sure you have a proper ceiling fan mount in the ceiling joists. Don't simply mount the fan to a junction box in the ceiling, i.e. one that isn't braced between joists.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I had the builder put in the correct braced boxes for ceiling fans in all the rooms before sheetrock.
 
Aja,
I like the latest Hunter fans that mount right up to the ceiling. They don't have remotes or lights, but are very clean looking, and easy to install.
I now have three of them in my Florida townhouse.
Good luck.
 
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