For most people, owning a vacation home does not always mean it comes equipped with all the amenities and creature comforts of a primary home. Second homes for many are rustic modest summer cabins where the carefree days of summer are enjoyed. In general, this is all that is required but there are exceptions such as temperatures rising into triple digit heights. Taking cover from the noon sun offers no respite if the cabin is not equipped with something as basic as a ceiling fan. I can vouch for this first hand as our mountain home was enjoyable throughout the year, until July. When the thermometer hit 106 degrees, an emergency trip was made to the local lighting store to purchase two ceiling fans.
Choosing the Right Ceiling Fan for your Needs
Looking online or in your local lighting store you've probably found the choices in fans to be extensive. What's the difference, you ask? It's a summer home, let's get the cheapest fan possible. Right? Maybe not. You should make sure that the fan you're choosing has enough power, pitch and blade diameter to substantially move the air around the room because that's really all a ceiling fan can do. A fan doesn't actually cool the air, it just creates wind chill that aids in cooling as you perspire.
Top of the line fans will have a 14 - 15 degree pitch as opposed to a low end fan that has about 10. 12 degrees is adequate. As for blade diameter, for a large room you'll want something with at least 52 inches. A really large room may need more and visa versa if the room is smaller.
Last, the power and speed options. Obviously, if you're only using the fan during the summer, then the highest speed the ceiling fan is capable of will be your main focus. But if this is for all season use, a very slow speed is important, too. This allows you to circulate air in the room during the winter months without creating a breeze, to assist in warming the room throughout.
Ceiling Fan Installation
Installing your new fan can be straight forward provided there is easy access to connect into the power source and ample strength for support in the actual spot you plan to hang the fan. Given that best case scenario it's probably safe to say you'll run into at least one small problem during your installation.
We have open beam ceilings in our summer home, no attic and no power source in the ceiling. This meant extending power out to the beam using wire mold which we later painted to match the beam's color. Strength for support was thankfully not an issue but the process of getting into the walls, connecting into the existing power source and tacking up all the wire mold took some time. And all of this needed to be done by an electrician.
Energy Saving
The great thing about ceiling fans is that besides using far less energy than running an air conditioner or swamp cooler, they can also be used in conjunction with AC to help lower energy use. Basically, if you run a ceiling fan you can set your AC thermostat much higher (78 - 84) and the breeze created by the fan will keep you just as cool. Remember to turn off the fan when you're not in the room as it only cools people, not the room. And if you can avoid using AC entirely, you'll be happy to know that ceiling fans use about 90% less energy than standard air conditioning, which again, is all you really all need in a summer home.
Nicole Martins, a senior editor at Chandeliers-and-Home-Lighting.com, writes regularly about home decor and garden design. You can read more about discount ceiling fans at: http://www.chandeliers-and-home-lighting.com/ceiling-fans.htm
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.
No comments:
Post a Comment