Ceiling fan controllers
 

The little church that I goto has high ceilings and has a couple of
very old ceiling fans. The ceiling fans are on speed-control
switches that look like light dimmers. The fans run too fast unless
the speed controls are all the way down, and in winter even that's
too fast.

All the speed controllers that I looked at at Home Depot today had 3
or 4 speed settings; the ones in the church have infinite settings
like a light dimmer... Is it possible whoever install this use
light dimmers instead of fan controllers?

If these actually are fan motor controllers, is there an adjustment
somewhere to set the minimum fan speed? I'd like to be able to set
them to just barely turn in the winter just enough to keep the air
stirred up without creating a draft.

-Bob

Ceiling fan controllers
 

On Jan 29, 9:50*pm, zxcvbob wrote:
The little church that I goto has high ceilings and has a couple of
very old ceiling fans. *The ceiling fans are on speed-control
switches that look like light dimmers. *The fans run too fast unless
the speed controls are all the way down, and in winter even that's
too fast.

All the speed controllers that I looked at at Home Depot today had 3
or 4 speed settings; the ones in the church have infinite settings
like a light dimmer... *Is it possible whoever install this use
light dimmers instead of fan controllers?

If these actually are fan motor controllers, is there an adjustment
somewhere to set the minimum fan speed? *I'd like to be able to set
them to just barely turn in the winter just enough to keep the air
stirred up without creating a draft.

-Bob

Can you take the cover plates off of the present controllers and get
some identification, make, model, guess at their age, etc???

Ceiling fan controllers
 

hr(bob) wrote:
On Jan 29, 9:50 pm, zxcvbob wrote:
The little church that I goto has high ceilings and has a couple of
very old ceiling fans. The ceiling fans are on speed-control
switches that look like light dimmers. The fans run too fast unless
the speed controls are all the way down, and in winter even that's
too fast.

All the speed controllers that I looked at at Home Depot today had 3
or 4 speed settings; the ones in the church have infinite settings
like a light dimmer... Is it possible whoever install this use
light dimmers instead of fan controllers?

If these actually are fan motor controllers, is there an adjustment
somewhere to set the minimum fan speed? I'd like to be able to set
them to just barely turn in the winter just enough to keep the air
stirred up without creating a draft.

-Bob

Can you take the cover plates off of the present controllers and get
some identification, make, model, guess at their age, etc???


I should be able to do that tomorrow.

-Bob

Ceiling fan controllers
 

"zxcvbob" wrote in message
...
The little church that I goto has high ceilings and has a couple of very
old ceiling fans. The ceiling fans are on speed-control switches that
look like light dimmers. The fans run too fast unless the speed controls
are all the way down, and in winter even that's too fast.

All the speed controllers that I looked at at Home Depot today had 3 or 4
speed settings; the ones in the church have infinite settings like a light
dimmer... Is it possible whoever install this use light dimmers instead
of fan controllers?

If these actually are fan motor controllers, is there an adjustment
somewhere to set the minimum fan speed? I'd like to be able to set them
to just barely turn in the winter just enough to keep the air stirred up
without creating a draft.

-Bob

What you have are infinite fan speed controllers. Years ago they were fairly
popular but tended to have humming issues, especially at lower speeds. The 3
speed controllers seem to have solved the humming problems. Some of those
controllers do have a low speed adjusting screw, which I believe is
accessible if you remove the cover plate

Ceiling fan controllers
 

zxcvbob wrote:
The little church that I goto has high ceilings and has a couple of
very old ceiling fans. The ceiling fans are on speed-control
switches that look like light dimmers. The fans run too fast unless
the speed controls are all the way down, and in winter even that's
too fast.

All the speed controllers that I looked at at Home Depot today had 3
or 4 speed settings; the ones in the church have infinite settings
like a light dimmer... Is it possible whoever install this use
light dimmers instead of fan controllers?

If these actually are fan motor controllers, is there an adjustment
somewhere to set the minimum fan speed? I'd like to be able to set
them to just barely turn in the winter just enough to keep the air
stirred up without creating a draft.

-Bob
If you do that they might burn out.
A motor stopping at the stall current will heat up, and maybe die.