FAQs

Choosing the right size of fan does not depend only on the size of the room. It is also important to consider the layout of the room, where in the room people to tend to congregate, where the airflow is most required and how high the ceiling is.

Our smaller diameter fans (1.2m, 1.3m and 1.4m) produce mainly downdraft within a radius extending up to a metre beyond the blade tips. Our larger fans (1.5m, 1.6m and 1.8m), produce greater side-draft and less direct down-draft. Therefore, when selecting a fan, it is important to decide whether a direct cooling draft is required or whether gentle air circulation is the more important factor.

Given below is a sizing chart that can be used as a rough guide to selecting the size fan. Please feel free however to contact us if you would like to discuss your specific situation or room layout.

Generally speaking, a ceiling fan should be positioned between 2500mm – 2900mm from the floor. Occasionally there may be good reasons why this cannot be done (eg; when the ceiling itself is unusually low, or where roof beam trusses prevent the fan being mounted at this height.

A quick rule of thumb is to measure the height from floor ceiling and then deduct 2700mm. The resulting figure should be the length of the down rod you will need.

The Sirocco, Monaco, Solano and Fern ranges come standard with a 150mm down rod making the overall length of the unit from mounting point to base of fan approximately 300mm – 320mm. The Classic and the Piccolo fans are provided standard with a 230mm down rod and an overall height of 410mm.

For online purchase we are offering four length options: 1) Standard length 2) 600mm and 3) 1200mm and 4) 1500mm. The longer lengths are supplied pre-wired. We advise strongly against cutting of lengths provided as this may affect the performance of the fan and will invalidate the suppliers warranty.

Should you require a different length of down rod, please contact Timber Fans directly to discuss before proceeding with your online purchase.

For safety reasons fan blades should never be positioned lower than 2300mm from floor level..

We are able to supply longer down rods up to a maximum of 2.5 meters in length (Classic and Piccolo – up to 4m). Please advise us your “floor to ceiling” heights and we will calculate the appropriate length down rods that you need.

Longer down rods should not affect fan performance at all. However, abnormal length down rods for the Sirocco and Solano Ranges may necessitate some on-site balancing using the balance kit provided with these fans.

Installing a fan is not difficult but it is a precision job requiring strict compliance with our written installation instructions that come with each order.

A badly installed fan can result in fan noise or wobble and can be an electrical hazard. For this reason we strongly recommend that the installation be carried out by a qualified electrician. Failure to observe our installation instructions may result in the fan Warranty being voided.

All of our ranges come standard with remote control units. Wall-mounts (where available) are an optional extra. The remote control and wall-mount cannot be used simultaneously; one must be selected.

Sirocco, Monaco, Fern, Solano, Avanti, Tropica ranges (BLDC motors)

• The standard controller supplied is a 6 speed RF remote control and receiver unit. This aligns with the international trend towards remote controls rather than fixed wall-mounted controls.
• For the Sirocco, Monaco and Solano ranges, a wall-mount option is available at an additional cost.
• The Fern, Avanti and Tropica ranges do not have a wall-mount option available.
• Our wall-mounts and remotes are supplied in White. Black remotes (not wall-mounts) are available and must be requested when ordering.

Classic and Piccolo ranges (AC motors)

• These ranges include a 5 speed remote control and receiver unit as standard.
• As an optional extra, we can supply a 5 speed wall-mounted controller with each fan ordered.
• The controller faceplate fits a standard “2 x 4 electrical box” commonly installed in most homes. If in any doubt, consult your electrician.
• Our standard faceplates are Clipsal/Schneider in White. Black wall-mounts are available on request and must be specified when ordering.

Note

When ordering spares, please advise the fan model and blade diameter so we can provide the correct controller.

A ceiling fan does not change the actual ambient temperature of a room. What it does do, is move or distribute air. This has several interesting implications;

From a cooling perspective in Summer, by directing a downdraft onto a person, a fan creates a breeze which has a cooling effect by evaporating body moisture to make one feel cooler and more comfortable.

From a warming perspective in Winter, a fan circulates the air in a room to distribute the warm air that has risen and may be trapped in the ceiling area. By doing this, it raises the temperature of the air at the lower levels and makes one feel warmer.

Definitely.

All too often, we have energy-guzzling heaters or gas burners creating heat in a room only to find that the hot air they generate, rises and becomes trapped up at the ceiling!

By running your Fan at slow speed (no need to reverse rotation) the downdraft re-circulates the hot air trapped at the ceiling, to provide even, comfortable heat throughout the room.

A ceiling fan consumes roughly 5% of the energy of an average 1500Watt electrical heater used in the home, but can achieve heating savings of up to 30% by dispersing the hot air normally trapped in the roof space.

You could probably run about 20 – 30 ceiling fans for the same amount of energy that would be needed to run one domestic air conditioning unit. That’s a huge difference in energy consumption!

In hot or humid environments where an air conditioner is considered essential, it makes a lot of sense to operate a ceiling fan in tandem with the air conditioner. By doing so, one can limit the operating time of the air conditioner and obtain the same cooling effect with the fan circulating the already chilled air.

Please contact Timber Fans on the specifics of your planned system. Our speed regulators are designed to be compatible with our fan motors and we cannot guarantee compatibility when other systems are interposed or are used instead of our regulators.

Yes definitely.

By using a fan in conjunction with an air conditioner, one can reduce the workload and energy usage of the air conditioner by as much as 20% – 30%. This is a huge savings considering that a fan uses less than 5% of the energy of an air conditioner.

Yes. Mosquitoes and flying insects don’t like the draft.  But that is not to say that some determined mosquitoes will not manage to get through and attack you!

Yes, they certainly can, but you will need to get your builder or carpenter to install a wooden “boss” or wedge in the ceiling to provide a firm horizontal surface for attaching the down rod.

Note that the down rod must be long enough to ensure that the fan blades do not touch against the slanted ceiling.

A long down rod does not make a fan more likely to wobble, as all our fans fitted with long down rods are pre-balanced.

We can supply down rods up to 3 meters in length.

For the Classic, Piccolo and Solano ranges, we can supply down rods up to 4 meters in length.

For our BLDC ranges (except the Solano), the receiver sits in the top ceiling cup. Should anything happen to the receiver (for example, damage from a power surge), access to the ceiling cup will be required to replace it.

This should be taken into consideration if your ceiling is very high, inaccessible, or would require scaffolding to reach.