Bedroom Ceiling Fans

Why Use a Bedroom Ceiling Fan?

Matthews Irene 3 Hugger Ceiling Fan

Ceiling fans are widely used in the bedrooms of the World’s best high-end hotels and resorts.  Why is this?  It is due to the many creature comfort benefits that they offer both with and without air-conditioning resulting in a better night’s sleep.  They offer a viable alternative to air-conditioning when it is hot but not too humid. This avoids the dryness of the eyes and negative health effects as well as avoiding the very high electricity costs of air-conditioning. AC units tend to be quite noisy unless you use the top of the market ones.  Bedroom ceiling fans can be left on all day and night using the same energy as a low energy LED light bulb and will not only provide cooling by the wind-chill effect but remove stuffy stale air (which in a bedroom at night is depleted of oxygen) by drawing in fresh air through the windows as well as cooler air from the night outside.

MrKen Wood in Soneva Luxury Resort Maldives

How does a Ceiling Fan Cool the air in a Bedroom?

Without any open window the air in a bedroom will get stale, depleted in oxygen, hot and saturated with water
moisture as the night progresses especially if there are two people in the bed sleeping.  The smaller bedrooms found in many UK flats and houses make the situation even worse leading to overheating and sweating.  A ceiling fan cools the room by two important physical actions:

1. Wind chill effect – Slow moving air over the skin causes sweat to evaporate cooling the skin.  Any water vapour from trapped heat and sweat under the duvet will eventually find its way out often hanging around the faces.
2. Moving air in and out of the window – Expelling stale air and drawing in fresh air doesn’t happen naturally and easily especially if there are curtains present unless the window if sufficiently wide open.  A ceiling fan achieves this easily and with the window only slightly open thus keeping any outside noise and light to a minimum.

Air Temperature and Sleep

When used in conjunction with air-conditioning ceiling fans can dramatically reduce the energy consumption and associated costs since the cooling producted by the fan means the ac can be set to a warmer temperature thus saving power. It also means that the often noisy air conditioning unit can be set at a much lower fan speed reducing the sound markedly resulting in a more comfortable environment.

Studies for the bFan bedfan have shown that overheating at night causes the body to seat and wake up resulting in disturbed sleep.  If excess heat and moisture is removed from the room effectively by a ceiling fan along with fresh oxygenated air then deeper and better sleep are assured.  Sleeping regularly in stale, carbon dioxide filled air is recognised as leading to some major long-term health issues such as Parkingson’s disease.

What Makes for a Silent Bedroom Fan?

Henley Falcon Hugger in town house in Kensington

It is absolutely essential that any ceiling fan used in a bedroom is able to work in a completely silent manner.  Sure there will be a little bit of air movement noise at higher speeds but with the speed set on the lowest settings this will disappear.  The result should be a very gentle stirring of the air with completely laminar (smooth) airflow which is also good for the eyes as opposed to the buffeting and drying of turbulent air.

There should be no noise from the motor which means no annoying grinding, buzzing, rattling or electrical hums all of which can and do exist with cheaper fans.  How can you tell?  It comes to the quality of the motor construction and materials used. The motor laminates need to be made from quality hard silicon steel and the electrical windings need to be made from copper rather than aluminium wire.  Cheaper laminates and the resin around them can start to break down after just a few years leading to hums.  The capacitors used to control the fan speed also need to be of good quality in order to last for more than 2-3 years before breaking down.  Also the motors should be brushless to avoid any noise arising from the brushes moving against the armature.

Another source of noise are hums that arise when the fan is not mounted on a solid ceiling location allowing for vibration and resonance to occur which can also be exacerbated by badly balanced fan blades which will cause wobbling and noise.

How Much Sound Does a Ceiling Fan Make?

Many brands of ceiling fan are just not quiet enough to be of practical use in a bedroom where in the quiet of night every minute sound gets amplified which can lead to interupted sleep.  Quality ceiling fans should be tested in an approved sound laboratory for motor and air movement noise.  

The Henley Zephyr fan has been tested for noise measurements conducted at the German VDE testing and certification institute in Offenbach, considered by many to be one of the best in the World. The lower limit for the laboratory measurement is 32 dB(A) for the sound power LW and 15 dB(A) for the sound pressure LP at 3m away.  Since many ceiling fans are published on the market with one or the other value, we state the measured noise values both as sound power LW and as sound pressure LP 3m.  The results for the Zephyr LED lab testing are as follows:

Speed 1  LP <15 dB (ie below the lower limit)

Speed 6  LP 20 dB

Speed 1  LW <32 dB  (ie below the lower limit)

Speed 6  LW 40 dB

Interpretation: The decibel range is a logarithmic so a 20 dB sound is 10 times louder than a 10 dB sound. The level of noise in a quiet bedroom, 30 dB, is 100 times louder than 10 dB. And 40 dB is 1,000 times louder than 10 dB.  So this fan is the quietest on the market with the sound being imperceptible being below the lower measurable limits at low speed and just above a normal quiet bedroom at maximum speed.  Speed 1-2 is perfect for sleeping in as it creates the required air movement which is slow and gentle but will provide the necessary cooling and freshness as well as draw in cool air though a window with absolute silence.