Ceiling Fans - It's hot, let's add a fan

Ceiling Fans - It's hot, let's add a fan

I know I know, I've been slacking on posting and now I'm writing a picture-less blog post! I'll try to get better with it, but like I said I'm bad at remembering to take pictures when I'm working on a project.

Ok, now that my apology is out of the way, let's get on to the post.

A great way to move air through your house is to have a ceiling fan. It definitely helps give a little breeze. You can also reverse the direction of most fans too, which helps to circulate the air.

If you have a house with high enough ceilings it's really not too difficult to add a fan. You should plan to have about 7 feet of clearance once the fan is installed. Maybe more if you have a super tall basketball family or something.

Before you go and take anything apart, make sure you shut off the power.

If you have an existing light fixture on your ceiling, don't just assume you can take the light down and put a fan up. You need to make sure you have the proper support for the fan first.

A ceiling fan junction box needs to be secured to a ceiling joist, make sure the box isn't just held up by the sheetrock ceiling. If you don't have access in the ceiling from above you'll need to get a fan support brace, which is basically just a metal support bar that clamps between two ceiling joists.

The support braces come with their own fan rated junction box and brackets/hardware to hang onto the bar. Once the bar and junction box are in place and your wires are run through the box, you can now safely hang and wire your new ceiling fan. Most fans can be either flush mount or hang down depending on the height of your ceiling.

I hope this tip helps you keep cool this summer!

Have you installed a ceiling fan in your house this summer?