Ceiling light fan sizes

Petermet · Jun 14, 2010 12:56 pm

Looking at lighting options for our new house. We have 4 bedrooms and a large open plan area (Games, meals and family).

I plan on using fans in all of these rooms (is that a good idea?). I have never had fans before and our air con will be evaporative if that's relevant.

The room sizes are:

Bed 4: 3.2m x 3.2m (10 M sq)
Bed 2&3: 3.2m x 3.7 (12M sq)
Bed 1: 4m x 4.6 (18M sq)

Open plan about 80 square meters and would have 3 ceiling fan lights.

I am unsure if I should get 48" for the small bedrooms (most common size) or the smaller 42". I think 48" for the main bedroom and 3 52" fans for the open plan area.

I would want the lights to be good enough as will be the only lights available and need to be energy efficient.

Any suggestions as what brands / lights would work well? I am finding it all quite confusing as shops seem to change the advice depending on what they have in stock

fanman · Jul 26, 2010 4:15 pm

Hi Petermet

You have sized up well the fans for those rooms:
48" & 52" are popular choices for bedrooms and 52" & 56" are popular for living areas.

If you want energy efficient lighting then go for something with at least a 26W fluoro which are available in both the
Hunter Pacific "Intercept" and the Martec "Lifestyle". The 26W fluoro should be ample lighting for the bedrooms but the open living room could be a different matter. It is a big ask of only three fan/lights to illuminate an 80sqm area. You may need to supplement the lighting with either downlights, wall lights or floor lamps.

You have also correctly assessed the difficulty of getting unbiased advice from retailers who will naturally promote what they have instock (in reality no-one' advice is unbiased - even mine). Retailers who import their own range of fans will strongly promote their own brand. It may be safer to go with brands that are nationally recognised and not exclusive to one particular retailer.

Many of the brands look similar and have similar warranties so it becomes hard to distinguish between them. Often people will seek the advice of their electrical contractor for a recommendation - if you have one aleady you may want to ask them. In the past, I have sold many different brands and have found some reputable brands are:
- Hunter Pacific (Australia)
- Hunter (America)
- Martec

Hope this helps, you seem to be on the right track.