A ceiling fan is the most basic and essential part of the home. It keeps you home cool in the summer and comes in all ranges from cost-effective to power saver to dual motor for all your needs. Be it a small room or a big one ceiling fan can get you through the whole year keeping the home cool in summer and warm in winter.
The only thing that comes your way is choosing a ceiling fan from its various available options. Starting from style, color and finish to other varied needs like you want the fan for outdoor, indoor, industrial or residential use it becomes difficult to choose a fan. You will need to determine ceiling fan airflow performance and durability before you buy the needed ceiling fan. Select a fan that fits your needs but is durable, does not wobble and does not create noise. Below mentioned are some factors that help you buy the right fan for your needs.
So what is the best RPM for a ceiling fan? Before we jump to the answer, we need to understand what RPM stands for. Basically, RPM stands for Rotations Per Minute. So here, we consider the blade span’s rotation per minute. Ceiling fans are designed with RPM inversely proportional to the blade sweep (span). Higher RPMs are suitable for small fans. If you are buying a new fan, you should consider air delivery rate and throughput of different ceiling fan models. Later in this article, you will see a table through which you can easily determine the best RPM for a ceiling fan.
Factors that determine the Airflow of a Ceiling Fan:
If your electricity bills are due to high air conditioning load, ceiling fans can be electricity savers through the summer months. There is a significant amount of electricity that this appliance can help you avoid using an air conditioner and can save. But it is not a magic wand to conserve electricity. It is essential to have a kind of ceiling fan installed with operations and its maintenance. A poorly installed, the quality of the ceiling fan can waste a good deal of electricity.
With very less electricity consumption a ceiling fan can give decent comfort in warm and particularly in humid climates. It is vital to make sure that before you purchase a ceiling fan, you read the instructions by the manufacturer clearly and do a proper installation of the ceiling fan.
Shape and Size
Take care that if you want to maximize the ceiling fan airflow, then the blades of the ceiling fan cannot be too long or too wide. Even with a large motor, bigger does not necessarily mean better. Large and wide fan blades will not be able to move as much air as the small and the narrow ones. The blades and the motor should perfectly complement each other to make the perfect fan.
The size of the ceiling fan varies from 900 mm to 1400 mm and 1200 mm is the most popular size of a ceiling fan. We recommend that if you have a larger room, you can choose to install two or more fans in the room rather than heading for the biggest fan possible.
RPM (Speed of the Fan)
The spinning speed of the ceiling fan is the RPM of a Ceiling fan. The faster the blades move the faster will the air move only if the fan blades have the right pitch. We will refer to the blade pitch in the next point. But to achieve the best ceiling fan airflow, you need to buy the fan that has six different speed settings ranging from low to high.
Blade Pitch
Blade Pitch is the angle of the blades of the ceiling fan that move through the air. They should be similar to the oars of the boat. Flat blades cannot cut through the air and assist air movement as effectively as the tilted blades. The blades of the ceiling fan should be tilted at least to an angle of 12 to 15 degrees.
The angle will assist the air movement as the pitch increases, but, if the pitch increases from 15 degrees the efficiency of the motor that is running the fan will decrease and that will lead to an increase in the electricity bill and the airflow direction will also be hampered.
Height from Ceiling
The height of the ceiling fan from the roof should be about 10 to 12 inches to produce the best airflow. The ceiling height should be maintained in all cases except for the ones that are designed to be closer to the roof. If a regular fan is too close or too far from the ceiling, it will have an effect on the air movement. In that case, the blades will not move as much air around as it is designed to do. The distance from the floor should be 8 to 9 feet, and accordingly, you can use a long and short rod to attach the fan to the roof.
Motor
The motor of the ceiling fan has no trick of being perfectly balanced. The most powerful motor will provide you with excellent ceiling fan airflow, durability and comfort. A high-resilient motor can be expensive, but a high-powered ceiling fan will be the best return on investment.
Fans are dangerous if not installed at a certain height or does not follow a particular speed limit. Therefore, there is a limitation to the RPM of the ceiling fan.
Maximum RPMs Allowed for Ceiling Fan
The main motive of a ceiling fan is to circulate the air better. While it is done the room temperature is brought down. So the real work and the initial mystery of a ceiling fan is solved. Therefore, it is a major factor and a consideration while buying a ceiling fan that what kind of airflow it will deliver. Airflow delivered by a ceiling fan is the RPM of the fan measured in CMM (Cubic Meters per Minute). Good air delivery is identified at 205-230 CMM. The standard 1200 mm fan will run at a certain speed that provides 300 – 350 RPM. Rather a hi-speed fan will run at 380 – 390 RPM.
Thinking of buying a 600 RPM ceiling fan for your house! The basic fans run at the aforementioned speed. If you are looking for an industrial or agricultural ceiling fan you might lay your hands on the 600 RPM Ceiling Fan.
How to determine the best RPM for ceiling fan?
| Blade Span | Maximum RPM |
|---|---|
24 – 26” 27 – 29” 30 – 32” 33 – 35” 36 – 38” 39 – 45” 45 – 50” 51 – 60” 61 – 70” | 509 - 470 453 – 421 407 – 382 370 – 349 340 – 322 313 – 272 272 - 244 240 – 204 200 - 175 |