Family of 3

Beacon Lighting has a sale on ceiling fans. They claim that they cut your cooling bills and, when used in reverse, cut your heating bills.

Anyone any experience of this? Any views as to payback times for cost of fans?

TIA.

steen1976

Lymm Mover

Not sure about your bills but they can cut your hands if you get them caught in them

mvagusta

Well hot air rises so I would say that that they would have an effect. Whether they would pay you back remains to be seen.

Check this out from the web http://www.residential-landscape-lig...iling_fans.htm

HelenTD

We have experienced this. We don't have ceiling fans where we live now, as we were quoted ridiculous prices to have them fitted about 4 years ago. Mind you, that was during the building boom, so things might have changed now. Check that the prices you were quoted includes installation by an electrician, or get a quote yourselves. In the meantime, we bought pedestal fans and only use them on hot nights. We used them once during the day recently, when it was very humid (for Perth).

Kooky.

We're looking to install them throughout, Fo3 - I hate aircon, it's expensive to run and gives me sinus problems. We relied heavily on fans in Singapore.

I think Beacon are way overpriced though, even with their offers, so am looking around.

spalen

Beacon are double expensive and double rubbish

I bought some from lightingillusion on ebay - they are actually a brick+mortar chain but with an ebay outlet - the stuff was fantastic. Great follow up and great service. Got remote control ones for about 200$ with lights each. There are cheap fans in bunnings, but they are er..cheap. Weve had them in for 6mths and they are very good. Edit : Their ebay store is lighting illuisions online

Got them fitted by an electricist for 50$ each replacing existing light socket

Highly recomend them - one teeny part was missing and they couriered it to me within 24hrs. no quibbles.

DeadVim

We don't have air-con so they add to our bills ... and they are worth every cent ...

Family of 3

I shall leave it to your comprehensive research then - send me a copy of the spreadsheet!

I don't really want to put hand-helds everywhere as I don't like the aesthetics of most of them.

fish.01

Engage an electrician and then often they will send you down to their favourite store to buy the fan of your choice at trade prices - just talk to barbara.

And yes, ceiling fans are great. Avoid drying you out when sleeping from aircon, lower elec bills.

Kelli28

Don't know about cutting your bills but I couldn't live without mine, I hate aircon and hardly ever use it even in the car. I like to put the fan on the helicopter speed at night in the summer.

HelenTD

I found that sleeping under a ceiling fan takes a bit of getting used to at first, I used to lay there waiting for the thing to suddenly take off and fly around the room or drop onto the bed.

Kim67

We have one of those gadget things that tells you how many units of power you're using and how much it costs per hour etc. The airconditioner costs about 90c per hour and a ceiling fan about 2c per hour.

eddie007

My Grandmother used to plug an electrical appliance into every socket in the house to stop the electricity leaking out... saved herself a FORTUNE over the years...

Wol

They only use a few dozen watts rather than the thousands of watts that A/C uses. But of course they don't change the relative humidity, so if it's sticky heat they won't dry out the air.

In winter, when the expensively heated air rises to keep the ceiling warm you put them in reverse so that they suck the air up, it flows along the ceiling and down the walls to mix the warm and cooler air up.

Dead easy to fit if the ceiling already has light sockets.

Beware that the cheaper fans make quite a lot of 50 cycle hum which some find irritating - make sure you get quiet ones.