Ceiling fans: the simple idea we keep screwing up

[00:00] Did you know the ceiling fan is nearly as old as the electric light

[00:05] Actually, did you know it's older than electricity itself?

[00:09] We humans really don't like the feeling of being hot,

[00:12] and we figured out more than a thousand years ago

[00:15] that forcing the air around us to move

[00:18] a la the wind can help us cool down.

[00:21] Hand fans like this worked great for millennia, but they really did a number on the wrists.

[00:26] And while the solution to that for a distressingly long period of time was to

[00:31] outsource that problem to other humans,

[00:34] once industrialization started giving us access to powered machinery, we had a much better solution.

[00:40] It didn't take that much imagination to use that machinery

[00:44] to spin some angled paddles hanging from the ceiling

[00:47] to create artificial wind.

[00:49] Early fans were driven by simple gearing or belts

[00:52] powered by waterwheels or even steam engines,

[00:55] and the... nicer factory owners out there would spend the money to install ceiling fans

[01:02] to help their workers beat the heat in the summertime.

[01:05] And since we figured out how to build electric motors which spin things very early into this whole electricity business,

[01:12] electric ceiling fans were an obvious invention.

[01:16] Just attach some of those fan blades to a motor,

[01:18] hang the thing from the ceiling and you've got a ceiling fan

[01:22] powered by electromagnetism.

[01:24] Philip Diehl is credited for inventing the electric ceiling fan in 1882,

[01:30] the same year Schuyler Wheeler is credited for inventing the electric...

[01:34] regular fan.

[01:36] Electric fans were pretty obvious,

[01:38] and arguably the first mass market application for the electric motor.

[01:42] In fact, many pioneering motor manufacturers

[01:45] went into business to sell cooling fans.

[01:48] Much of the United States gets pretty hot in the summer, so

[01:52] electric fans became a very intriguing item.

[01:55] If you were convinced to subscribe for Electric Light,

[01:58] you'd have to do a lot of work running wires around the place to light up each room,

[02:03] and maybe you could use 'em to keep cool, too.

[02:06] The idea of an artificial wind machine

[02:08] that you could just switch on must have been incredibly compelling.

[02:12] I imagine to many folks at the time,

[02:17] But we had barely figured any of this stuff out yet.

[02:20] We still hadn't settled on AC or DC power when Diehl patented his fan, and even once we did,

[02:27] electric motors were incredibly expensive to make.

[02:30] But over time, we'd learn how to mass produce them.

[02:33] And since all it takes to make a fan from a motor

[02:36] is the fan part, before long

[02:40] they started to become a fixture of our lives.

[02:42] Around the turn of the 20th century,

[02:45] ceiling fans were a common sight, especially in public spaces.

[02:49] But by the middle of the century,

[02:51] they rapidly began to disappear.

[02:54] The advent of air conditioning

[02:56] turned a once revolutionary cooling technology into old news,

[03:01] and for many years, those of us in the US

[03:04] pretty much forgot about ceiling fans.

[03:07] Which might be surprising, because today

[03:10] ceiling fans are once again a very common sight.

[03:14] Though I hear tell much of Europe hasn't discovered them yet.

[03:18] Maybe by the end I'll convince you to give ‘em a try.

[03:20] But the reason ceiling fans

[03:25] is not quite as straightforward as you would think.

[03:29] If you're wondering how on Earth a video

[03:34] well, hello, welcome to the channel.

[03:36] You must be new here!

[03:37] But I've been spending so much time on this script

[03:40] because the humble ceiling fan can explain so much about us.

[03:45] It's resurgence in the United States

[03:50] where nostalgia for the past amplified a cultural moment of reckoning.

[03:55] But that nostalgia, while useful

[03:58] for reminding us of a good idea we had abandoned,

[04:01] also opened the door for a market

[04:04] which quickly turned to crap.

[04:06] Ceiling fans began to be sold

[04:08] not so much for their functional purpose,

[04:11] but instead for their fashionable looks.

[04:14] And when fashion comes first,

[04:16] weird things happen which we're still dealing with to this day.

[04:21] To understand what I mean, we have to start

[04:24] with what ceiling fans used to look like.

[04:26] This vintage ceiling fan made by the Hunter fan company

[04:30] might look like the most generic and traditional

[04:33] ceiling fan design you could possibly imagine,

[04:36] but that's because when this design was first made,

[04:40] fans were the only cooling technology we had.

[04:44] And the whole point of hanging one from the ceiling like this

[04:47] was to produce a lot of air movement so the cooling effect

[04:51] could be felt throughout a large area.

[04:54] That required big, aggressively pitched paddles

[04:57] which pushed on lots of air,

[05:03] However, when at operating speed,

[05:06] the paddles don't actually move very fast at all.

[05:10] At full speed, this fan only rotates at 200 rpm,

[05:14] and with the technology of the time, a strong motor

[05:17] designed to run that slowly needed to be quite large.

[05:21] Which is why the motor itself is what you're looking at.

[05:25] That's not a decorative cover with a motor inside.

[05:28] It's a 40 pound lump of cast iron and copper windings.

[05:33] This is function over form and even the details are functional.

[05:38] That pattern of holes may look pretty,

[05:40] but it's there for ventilation to keep the windings cool.

[05:44] And because those great big motors needed lots of raw materials

[05:48] and skilled labor to produce, they were pretty expensive.

[05:52] Even into the 1920s when we had figured out

[05:56] how to make motors pretty well, a ceiling fan like this cost the 2026 equivalent of about a thousand bucks,

[06:03] and pricing would remain similarly high for decades to come.

[06:08] The high cost of a ceiling fan meant

[06:10] it was mainly businesses and institutions that would spend the cash

[06:13] and go through the effort to install them.

[06:16] They had plenty of incentive

[06:17] to keep their employees happy and their guests cool

[06:20] so they could justify the cost, especially since one

[06:23] fan could handle a whole room.

[06:26] Also, thanks to the advent of light kits,

[06:29] which attached light fixtures to the bottom of a ceiling fan,

[06:32] installing one could add room lighting at the same time,

[06:35] making them a compelling purchase in the early days of electrification,

[06:40] even in parts of the country where it's only hot part of the year.

[06:44] Over time, as electrification spread and awareness of ceiling fans did too,

[06:48] they'd slowly gain some popularity in the home,

[06:52] but mainly among the wealthier set

[06:54] and mainly in parts of the country which were chronically hot.

[06:58] Once we had standardized on plugs and sockets... and voltage,

[07:02] it was a lot easier to just plug in a portable fan like this.

[07:07] These fans, with their much smaller blades designed to rotate very quickly

[07:11] could use much more compact motors, and that made them a lot more affordable.

[07:16] Plus, they don't need permanent installation

[07:18] and they can be moved around the house as you do.

[07:21] So these were a much better value in the eyes of most ordinary people.

[07:26] Still, ceiling fans were a very common sight around town wherever people congregated,

[07:31] like their favorite restaurants or maybe the barbershop,

[07:33] or the old soda fountains and the bank and whatnot.

[07:37] They were a staple of the community, which everyone would see as they went about their day

[07:41] and in the summer, which everyone enjoyed.

[07:45] That is, of course, until my hero Willis Carrier invented air conditioning.

[07:51] Fans can't actually lower the temperature in a room,

[07:54] but air conditioning can.

[07:57] And, air conditioning could also lower ambient humidity, too

[08:00] providing a whole new kind of comfort.

[08:03] Air conditioning was this marvelous new invention

[08:06] getting installed in movie theaters to boost ticket sales, and before long

[08:10] everywhere else a blast of arctic air could draw in some customers.

[08:15] As you may imagine, this caused demand for new ceiling fans to rapidly dry up.

[08:21] The public spaces they were most likely to be seen

[08:24] were also the first to install air conditioning.

[08:27] And before too long, air conditioning systems became affordable enough for average folks to buy one.

[08:34] Now, air conditioning was extremely energy intensive compared to ceiling fans.

[08:40] But during the post-war boom, where we were building power plants left and right,

[08:43] and we barely had to work to get coal and oil out of the ground,

[08:47] we weren't thinking very much about that.

[08:50] We were thinking about the tremendous work needed to upgrade the power grid

[08:54] such that all those new suburban homes could have an energy hungry air conditioner of their own, and later

[09:00] central air conditioners which cooled the whole house.

[09:03] But you know what?

[09:05] We did that work because we're humans who know how to do very hard things

[09:09] like run wires and upgrade power grids when we want to.

[09:14] If only we could remember that.

[09:16] Anyway, the point is air conditioning was expensive and very difficult to deploy,

[09:21] but energy was cheap and it was a sign of progress

[09:24] which was extremely desirable to a wealthy, growing nation.

[09:29] Meanwhile, ceiling fans were literally old technology.

[09:33] So as air conditioning became widespread,

[09:36] ceiling fans started to disappear from our lives.

[09:39] By the 1960s, there were few companies bothering to make them in the US.

[09:45] Robbins and Myers, the iron foundry turned motor manufacturer

[09:49] who made this desk fan and had acquired Hunter in 1949,

[09:53] kept the Hunter ceiling fan line in production

[09:55] as there was still reasonable demand for ceiling fans in outdoor spaces,

[10:00] but for indoor spaces

[10:03] ceiling fans became quite esoteric and the mark of a cheapskate.

[10:08] There were, however, plenty of situations where air conditioning was impractical,

[10:12] like large factories and warehouses.

[10:15] So there was still decent industrial demand for ceiling fans.

[10:19] But those buyers wanted cheap, reliable fans

[10:22] which did the job without a fuss.

[10:24] And that's how this came to be.

[10:27] This is an Emerson Heat Fan.

[10:30] And yes, it’s called a heat fan despite the fact that it's just a ceiling fan.

[10:34] That's important for what comes later.

[10:37] But those in the ceiling fan collector community often call this the blenderfan

[10:41] thanks to the motors resemblance to the base of a kitchen blender.

[10:45] And yes, there's a ceiling fan collector community because of course there is!

[10:49] Humans are awesome.

[10:50] Get yourself a proper fixation.

[10:52] It's fun!

[10:53] I know way too much about ceiling fans now.

[10:56] Anyway, much like Robbins and Myers,

[10:59] Emerson was a pioneering electric motor manufacturer

[11:02] who got started selling cooling fans

[11:05] because, again, it's the simplest thing to do with a motor.

[11:08] Stick some fan blades on it and job done.

[11:11] But over the years, Emerson grew into a major industrial supplier of electric motors

[11:16] which got used by all sorts of industries for all sorts of things.

[11:20] For decades they had been making ceiling fans

[11:24] very similar to this Hunter model, but as ceiling fans went from

[11:28] “desirable thing to keep your patrons comfortable” to

[11:31] “the solution for when air conditioning is too expensive,”

[11:34] Emerson got a little crafty with their production lines.

[11:38] They decided to take one of the washing machine motors

[11:41] they pumped out like some kind of motor factory,

[11:43] and stuck some fan blades onto it so they could sell it as a ceiling fan.

[11:47] And that's why this looks the way that it does.

[11:50] This is just a washing machine motor.

[11:53] That's a little oversimplified,

[11:55] because the technical details of this motor are quite different

[11:58] from what would go in an actual washing machine.

[12:01] Plus, they had to design a flywheel to attach the blades to

[12:03] and add a switch housing so you could actually turn it on and off

[12:06] and select between its speed settings.

[12:08] But this right here is the same case K63 motor housing which Emerson was using

[12:14] for all sorts of applications.

[12:17] They likely started using it so they could shut down the production line

[12:20] of pancake motors, which were only useful for the rapidly declining ceiling fan market.

[12:27] So as we approach the 1970s,

[12:30] you had essentially two options:

[12:32] an extremely traditional ceiling fan from Hunter

[12:36] or this... thing.

[12:38] However, the situation was very different in other parts of the world,

[12:42] particularly the warm climates of Asia.

[12:45] Buildings were rapidly getting electrified,

[12:47] but energy resources weren't abundant enough for air conditioning

[12:51] to become widespread for quite some time.

[12:54] So while we had basically stopped caring and arguably even trying,

[13:00] ceiling fan manufacturing was experiencing a huge boom overseas.

[13:05] For example, the Shell Manufacturing Company

[13:08] in Hong Kong built upon an idea

[13:13] Turning the motor inside out

[13:15] allowed for a sleeker looking fan, which was also a lot cheaper

[13:19] to build from a materials perspective.

[13:21] Here's an example of such a ceiling fan motor.

[13:24] Unlike the traditional American design where the stator windings surround the spinning rotor,

[13:29] in this design the stator windings are inside the rotor,

[13:33] and the outside surface of the whole thing is what spins,

[13:37] giving them their common name “spinner motors.”

[13:40] This greatly simplified the design of a ceiling fan

[13:44] and lowered materials cost substantially since you didn't really need a motor housing.

[13:49] Just attach the fan blades directly to the motor.

[13:53] Early designs had some glitches to work out, like bearings which failed prematurely,

[13:57] but eventually those issues were solved

[14:00] and this became a much more refined and cost effective design

[14:04] than anything we were making here in the States.

[14:07] On occasion, fans like this ended up getting imported

[14:10] to the US and sold as a cheap alternative to the fans from Emerson and Hunter,

[14:14] but it was a pretty rare occasion since nobody really wanted a ceiling fan.

[14:20] But that was about to change.

[14:22] Remember how this is called the heat fan?

[14:25] Emerson started making these things in the 1960s,

[14:29] but in 1973 we would go through a bit of an oil crisis

[14:33] which we clearly learned lots of very good lessons from.

[14:38] In response to the oil embargo causing energy to get much more expensive,

[14:42] including heating oil which was still quite commonly used back then,

[14:47] Emerson started to market their ceiling fans as heat recovery fans

[14:51] which could save on heating costs.

[14:54] See, in a space with high ceilings

[14:56] like a factory, warehouse, or even a church sanctuary,

[15:00] a temperature gradient forms in the winter due to warm air

[15:04] rising above denser, cooler air.

[15:06] And this means a lot of the heat energy coming from a building’s heating system

[15:11] simply ends up stuck at the ceiling where nobody can feel it.

[15:14] A pretty significant waste.

[15:16] If you could use some sort of mechanical device

[15:19] to push that warm air back down to the floor,

[15:22] then you could recover that wasted heat energy.

[15:25] Thus heat recovery, also known as heat reclamation.

[15:29] Getting the warm air back down to the floor where the people are

[15:32] would not only make the heat more useful, but

[15:35] since the thermostat is down there, too, the heating system won't need to run as often

[15:39] and it will burn less if it's suddenly much more expensive fuel.

[15:44] Emerson just so happened to make ceiling fans

[15:47] which would be perfect for heat reclamation,

[15:49] so they began to market them specifically for that purpose.

[15:53] And that's why their very utilitarian ceiling fan, which is the same ceiling fan it was before

[15:59] became the Heat Fan.k

[16:01] Industry and large institutions were slowly discovering

[16:05] that ceiling fans could be useful for saving energy.

[16:08] And the good word was starting to spread.

[16:11] And you know what else got really expensive very suddenly?

[16:15] Air conditioning.

[16:17] We still burned quite a lot of oil

[16:21] which meant the oil embargo made pretty much

[16:24] everything we did using energy much more expensive.

[16:27] And out of necessity, people began to realize

[16:30] that they could save some money on their electricity bills

[16:33] by turning up the temperature on their thermostats

[16:35] and using electric fans to keep cool.

[16:39] Basic portable fans were still widely available,

[16:41] now with less finger chopping!

[16:44] But while fans were all the rage,

[16:47] ceiling fans were still expensive and ugly industrial items,

[16:52] which relatively few people would consider appropriate

[16:56] [Scott Joplin’s Easy Winners plays in background]

[17:02] wave of nostalgia for the turn of the 20th century.

[17:05] Films like The Sting repopularized the ragtime music

[17:09] of Scott Joplin, and earlier films like Hello, Dolly!

[17:13] brought the Gay Nineties back into our collective attention,

[17:16] as did the restaurant chain TGI Fridays.

[17:20] Walt Disney World had just opened in Florida

[17:22] with a duplication of Disneyland's Main Street, U.S.A., bringing an idealized recreation

[17:27] of turn of the century America to a national audience.

[17:31] It was a whole thing, which lasted a surprising while.

[17:35] Cheers, the TV show wouldn't hit the airwaves until 1982,

[17:39] and yet the Tiffany lamp, stained glass and ornate woodwork aesthetic was still going strong.

[17:46] While we were enamored with that old timey aesthetic,

[17:50] well, we started getting obsessed with antiques and curios of the time.

[17:55] And, you know what was a quaint, old timey curio

[17:57] you could find in antique shops which hailed from the turn of the century?

[18:02] Ceiling fans.

[18:04] Yep, ceiling fans started to become a fashionable item

[18:09] thanks to our sudden obsession with the past.

[18:12] But it's even weirder than it sounds on the surface.

[18:15] I'm skipping details for time, but in 1974

[18:19] an antiques dealer named Burton Burton founded the Casablanca Fan Company

[18:23] to sell reproductions of antique ceiling fans.

[18:27] But when I say reproductions,

[18:30] I don't mean “ceiling fans that look like antiques.”

[18:34] I mean “objects which appear to be antique ceiling fans” because his earliest designs were,

[18:42] I kid you not, purely decorative.

[18:45] Initially, they started making reproductions

[18:52] and those made their way into lots of themed restaurants,

[18:55] including at least one Portillo's I have myself been to.

[18:59] They were rigged to rotate, but nowhere near fast enough to actually function as effective ceiling fans.

[19:05] Yet diners were so captivated by the visual of old timey

[19:11] spinning things that it became a shockingly huge fad.

[19:15] And the visual really was the point.

[19:19] For those who may not know the connection,

[19:21] the name Casablanca Fan Company was chosen

[19:24] because of how prominently ceiling fans are featured

[19:29] You know, Humphrey Bogart.

[19:30] Here's looking at you, kid.

[19:32] In the film, the ceiling fans shown on screen

[19:36] were props meant to convey to the audience

[19:38] that it's hot in Casablanca, and because they were movie props,

[19:43] they were rigged up to spin much more slowly

[19:46] than an actual ceiling fan would.

[19:48] A real ceiling fan in operation

[19:51] doesn't look very interesting or even recognizable on film

[19:54] because its blades will just blur together.

[19:57] And the look from the film is what Burton Burton was trying to replicate.

[20:03] He wasn't trying to sell actual ceiling fans.

[20:06] He was trying to sell a kind of dynamic decoration,

[20:10] which just so happened to be copies of antique ceiling fan designs.

[20:15] Quick side note, Emerson, who we already know was great at selling the same thing

[20:20] they had always been making for different reasons, also started

[20:23] selling their ceiling fans using the name Casablanca.

[20:27] I'm guessing the film must have been on TV a lot at the time.

[20:30] In fact, Emerson trademarked the name Casablanca

[20:34] before Burton Burton started his company,

[20:37] which we don't need to get into.

[20:39] Emerson was just trying to sell more of their fans,

[20:42] but the Casablanca fan company was trying to serve the weirdly huge demand

[20:47] for purely decorative turn of the century ceiling fans,

[20:51] which were suddenly all the rage in your favorite themed restaurant chains.

[20:56] This sounds nuts, but I mean, it sure was flair.

[21:00] And as the general public became exposed to ceiling fans in formal settings again,

[21:05] their reputation as quaint, oddball things to have in the home started to fade.

[21:11] After all, quaint was in!

[21:14] And the timing could not have been more perfect.

[21:17] People were being reexported to ceiling fans right at the start of an energy crisis,

[21:22] which renewed interest in their functional purpose, too.

[21:26] For a brief while, the options for actually functional ceiling

[21:34] But all it really takes to make a ceiling fan

[21:40] So many companies, including Casablanca,

[21:43] started purchasing real ceiling fan motors from suppliers like Emerson

[21:47] and concealing them in decorative shrouds

[21:50] which replicated the appearance of old timey fans.

[21:54] Give the blades some details, like perhaps a stencil or a woven inlay,

[21:59] and now you have a decorative fan,

[22:03] get this, actually works!

[22:06] Ceiling fans were now being sold as a premium item

[22:10] which was both an energy saving appliance and furniture,

[22:15] and this was only the beginning.

[22:17] You see, there would be a sequel to the 1973 oil crisis in 1979.

[22:23] And so ceiling fans, already experiencing renewed interest

[22:27] as a premium item for the nostalgic middle class,

[22:30] started flying off the shelves.

[22:33] We finally realized we had made a mistake

[22:36] in getting rid of all those ceiling fans.

[22:38] They made us comfortable before air conditioning, after all,

[22:42] and our collective decision to view air conditioning as a replacement for them

[22:46] turned out to be a false choice.

[22:50] As energy policy started to become a thing

[22:52] and we began looking at ways to increase energy efficiency,

[22:56] new homes started getting constructed with electrical boxes

[22:59] on the ceiling meant specifically for ceiling fans.

[23:03] Home builders were happy to go along with it, too,

[23:05] since a fan with a light kit could fulfill code requirements for lighting in bedrooms and living rooms.

[23:11] This massively increased the market for new ceiling fans,

[23:15] and with a new market came a flurry of innovation.

[23:19] For the first time in decades,

[23:21] new motor designs meant specifically for ceiling fans were being developed

[23:26] to make them even more energy efficient than they already were.

[23:30] Some were flops, but others were significant

[23:36] New controls for those motors appeared,

[23:38] offering more speed settings than the 2 or 3 you'd typically find.

[23:42] And if you wanted to get fancy, you could put in an in wall speed control

[23:46] so you didn't even have to pull on a chain to switch it on.

[23:50] And of course, with renewed interest,

[23:55] And now ceiling fans weren't just

[24:00] but could actually be a centerpiece of your living room

[24:03] to express your taste and brag to your friends about.

[24:07] Now I'm going to take a little bit of a break from the history here

[24:10] to explain what makes ceiling fans so different from a portable fan,

[24:15] and thus why they suddenly became desirable in the home.

[24:19] For one thing, mounting a fan on the ceiling

[24:22] means it's out of the way, yet always there which is convenient.

[24:26] But putting a fan on the ceiling produces

[24:34] Ceiling fans are still directional, of course,

[24:36] and you'll feel their breeze most when you're directly underneath them.

[24:40] But their large diameter means they produce a large column of air moving downward,

[24:46] which will bounce off the floor and spread out sideways,

[24:50] producing noticeable air movement throughout a room.

[24:53] As a matter of fact, this is the principle behind

[24:55] those high volume, low speed ceiling fans which have been popping up lately.

[25:00] Put a giant ceiling fan at the top of a warehouse or shopping center,

[25:04] and it will send strong lateral currents of air through the aisles and over a really large area.

[25:11] Ceiling fans are essentially trying to replicate a natural breeze.

[25:16] If you can imagine the sort of relief you feel on a warm day

[25:20] when the wind picks up enough to make the tree leaves rustle...

[25:23] well, that's pretty much the point of a ceiling fan.

[25:26] And you feel relief for two reasons.

[25:29] First, in still air, your warm body heats up the air next to

[25:37] you end up surrounded by a bubble of air

[25:42] A ceiling fan, even if it's running at a low speed, is able to constantly push that air away from you,

[25:49] which has the effect of making the room seem cooler than it is.

[25:53] This is perfect for amplifying

[25:57] and since most ceiling fans only draw 20 or 30W of power when running at their medium speed setting,

[26:03] that amplifying effect comes with virtually no cost.

[26:08] But it doesn't just amplify what your air conditioner does,

[26:11] it also amplifies what your body naturally does.

[26:15] We cool ourselves through perspiration,

[26:20] heat energy is pulled out of our bodies

[26:22] thanks to the same mechanism which makes air conditioning possible:

[26:26] The latent heat of vaporization.

[26:28] A ceiling fan churning up the air in a room

[26:32] will help your sweat to evaporate faster,

[26:34] which not only cools your body faster,

[26:37] but can also keep your sweat from building up on your skin

[26:40] and making you feel all gross.

[26:42] Best of all, a ceiling fan can do this without making much noise.

[26:48] Running at high speed, most ceiling fans

[26:52] and running at lower speeds, many are effectively silent.

[26:57] That's the logic which caused them to get popular again.

[27:01] Everyone already knew they could save energy using fans,

[27:04] but every other style of fan is not only loud,

[27:08] but also only really works for one person at a time.

[27:12] And while oscillating mechanisms existed

[27:14] to make portable fans like this sweep across the room...

[27:18] well, that's its own kind of annoying.

[27:21] Ceiling fans allow for a constant,

[27:25] and if that breeze makes you feel comfortable enough to raise your thermostat set point by a few degrees,

[27:31] a ceiling fan will save energy

[27:36] So for the millions of Americans who already have ceiling fans but might have gotten out of the habit of using them,

[27:43] switch those suckers on and see how they make you feel.

[27:47] It's a subtle effect, so it may take a while to notice,

[27:50] but their subtlety is the point.

[27:53] And ceiling fans have other benefits beyond cooling.

[27:56] Most ceiling fans offer a reversing function

[27:59] because by drawing air from below

[28:03] they can churn up the air in

[28:08] In fact, many fans set to their lowest speed

[28:14] but they'll still be moving enough air to keep the room at a uniform temperature,

[28:19] which can be very useful in the winter.

[28:23] Thermal gradients aren't as much of an issue in a home with typical ceiling heights,

[28:25] but keeping the air mixed up just enough can reduce the effect of drafty windows and doors,

[28:33] and can even help an HVAC system operate more efficiently,

[28:37] particularly when your system has distribution issues like poorly placed vents and returns.

[28:42] But let's get back to the story from the past,

[28:45] because their sudden popularity would soon lead to some inevitable consequences.

[28:51] Domestic manufacturing,

[28:56] couldn't possibly keep up with this very sudden demand.

[29:00] Not only were new homes getting constructed with several fans each,

[29:04] but folks looking to add fans to their existing home wanted options, too.

[29:09] In yet another example of fortuitous timing, the rather new concept of the big box home improvement store

[29:16] was starting to sweep the nation, and ceiling fans were some of their best selling items.

[29:22] Accordingly, the purchasing departments of stores

[29:25] like Builders Square, Home Depot, Lowe's and Menards

[29:28] started contracting with overseas suppliers

[29:35] Remember how Hong Kong was making

[29:39] Well, suddenly they were making them for us, too.

[29:43] But even that wouldn't be enough.

[29:45] The ceiling fan market in the US continued to grow

[29:51] So tons of ceiling fan factories started

[29:57] They were apparently puzzled by our desire

[30:02] but they were still fundamentally motors on sticks,

[30:06] and thus they were pretty cheap to make and to customize.

[30:10] Just as Casablanca was putting motors

[30:14] Chinese factories would do the same with their own motors.

[30:18] There's even some evidence that the, uh, unauthorized copying

[30:23] of intellectual property common in Chinese manufacturing started thanks to, of all things,

[30:30] the sudden and explosive growth in ceiling fans.

[30:35] Saying that it started thanks to ceiling fans is obviously speculation.

[30:38] But this was all happening right as manufacturing in mainland China was getting serious

[30:44] and factories were constantly copying design details from one another

[30:48] as deals brokered for American firms were made and, uh,

[30:54] broken.

[30:56] We're not necessarily the good guys in those stories.

[30:59] My friend Dan, who served as

[31:03] and who supplied many of the fans I've shown you,

[31:07] if you'd like to know the specifics of certain situations,

[31:10] but the early to mid 80s were a wild time!

[31:15] Nostalgia, the growth of big box stores, the shift to overseas

[31:23] all lined up to make ceiling fans

[31:29] which everyone wanted to be a part of.

[31:31] Because if you could manage to import

[31:36] But, if you didn't already see this coming,

[31:39] here's where we get to the bad news.

[31:42] Or, more fairly, the complicated news.

[31:46] As ceiling fans became popular and manufacturing got cheaper,

[31:51] the market changed in many ways which made ceiling fans abundant

[31:56] but ultimately much worse at their job.

[32:00] Initially, imported fans were pretty good.

[32:03] Yes, the motors were made cheaply, but they were still powerful.

[32:07] Remember, Hong Kong was making ceiling fans because it's hot over there too,

[32:12] and the compact size of the spinner motor

[32:18] It was really a match made in heaven.

[32:21] But the ceiling fan would become a victim of its inherent simplicity.

[32:25] And before long, things would go off the rails.

[32:29] Now that ceiling fans had become a commodity,

[32:32] most were being sold for one of two reasons:

[32:36] style or price.

[32:38] And both of those things began

[32:44] Big box stores had already started

[32:49] and were encouraging their

[32:53] The motor is the most expensive component in a ceiling fan.

[32:57] And to make it cheaper, it's got to get smaller and weaker.

[33:01] So they did.

[33:03] And ceiling fans became rather weak sauce.

[33:06] And this didn't get any better because

[33:11] didn't matter to the motor

[33:14] manufacturers quickly realized they could

[33:19] many different styles of fan and create a huge product line

[33:24] all based around the same pretty crappy components.

[33:28] But style is also what sells many premium fans, so even the quality options on the market

[33:35] would start to suffer as vanity took hold.

[33:38] For example, while the turn of the century fad would eventually end,

[33:43] a new fan fad started in the 90s, where plain ceiling fan blades were replaced with giant leaf looking things.

[33:50] And you can still by fans that look like that today.

[33:54] That design is charming,

[33:56] at least to some folks,

[33:57] but it simply doesn't work as well as a traditional fan.

[34:02] That design is far more decorative than it is functional,

[34:06] which is poetic given that's what put

[34:11] The resurgent ceiling fans of the late 70s were never sold purely on their merits,

[34:16] and once it became obvious that style was the main thing which sold ceiling fans,

[34:22] manufacturers looked at the race to the bottom they were already in and floored it.

[34:27] Before long, the mass market ceiling fan

[34:32] barely passable slop.

[34:35] And we are still dealing with that.

[34:37] There are countless options on the market today,

[34:40] but having played around with some vintage fans,

[34:43] it's become quite clear to me that we've pretty much lost the plot.

[34:47] The high speed setting of almost every ceiling fan I've ever lived with

[34:52] is nowhere near as powerful as this old Emerson fan.

[34:56] So if you've ever felt that ceiling fans don't seem to really do anything,

[35:01] there's actually some truth to that beyond their inherent subtlety.

[35:06] They genuinely became much worse when form took precedence to function.

[35:12] And there's what I would call a truly remarkable piece of evidence for this.

[35:18] Remember that ceiling fan from Hunter I showed you earlier?

[35:22] This particular example was made in the late 1970s,

[35:25] but this design traces all the way back to 1906.

[35:31] when Robbins and Myers

[35:35] they just sort of let those guys in Memphis keep on making the same ceiling fan motors they had always been making.

[35:42] If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[35:45] And you bet the folks at Hunter

[35:49] Here's the installation instructions for

[35:55] And if you think it's remarkable that a fan from 1906

[36:02] wait’ll I tell ya they still haven't stopped!

[36:05] This is the Hunter Original,

[36:08] a 120 year old ceiling fan design which is somehow still in production.

[36:16] There's a bit of a Ship of Theseus situation going on here

[36:21] doesn't have quite the same motor design due to technical revisions over the years,

[36:25] and plenty of smaller details have changed, too.

[36:28] Plus, it's now made in China because of course it is.

[36:30] But Hunter is still using the same cast iron housing,

[36:35] and they are still using an oil bath bearing.

[36:40] Yes, that means this thing needs oil.

[36:44] There are so many reasons that's wild in 2026,

[36:47] but as the box is proud to boast,

[36:50] this is a proven design which stands

[36:55] You can probably already tell I am extremely fond of this.

[36:58] It's such a unicorn of a thing.

[37:01] What other machine has been in

[37:07] But before I fawn over it too much,

[37:09] I want to make sure you know that it takes a certain kind of crazy to buy one of these things.

[37:15] A Hunter Original currently retails for $750,

[37:19] which is quite a lot of money for such a basic fan

[37:26] But I am that kind of crazy.

[37:29] And this is a fascinating case study of what has happened to ceiling fans over the years.

[37:34] This is a machine which is stuck in time

[37:40] It's not trying to look cool or chase trends.

[37:43] It's not trying to be a cheap option, that's for sure.

[37:45] It's simply trying to be an excellent ceiling fan,

[37:49] and its continued existence proves that at least some people are still willing to pay for that.

[37:55] Let's do an unboxing, shall we?

[37:57] The first thing we're greeted by is the instruction manual,

[38:00] which lets you know right away

[38:06] I really appreciate that Hunter does this,

[38:08] especially since so many actually antique

[38:14] These things last forever.

[38:16] And before you ask, it's going to perform

[38:20] The motor produces a constant power output,

[38:23] so adding the fifth blade will just

[38:27] but it's still going to move the same amount of air.

[38:30] though the five blade configuration is a little bit quieter.

[38:33] As we keep going, we have the blades, of course,

[38:36] and like many fans, they're reversible

[38:40] Then we have the included bottle of oil

[38:45] just like its 1906.

[38:47] You will likely never really need to add oil again once installed,

[38:51] but it comes with a pipe cleaner to check the oil level,

[38:53] which they recommend doing every five years.

[38:56] Then there's the included very tiny

[39:01] This would be appropriate for standard eight foot ceilings,

[39:04] but if you've got taller ceilings,

[39:08] Two of the cast iron fan blade brackets are here, too.

[39:12] And then there it is.

[39:14] The 37 pound cast iron motor

[39:21] This is the same exact fan as the vintage one from earlier.

[39:25] The only major differences are that this one is painted brown rather than polished into an antique brass finish,

[39:31] and the blades are attached very differently.

[39:34] The vintage fan has a shaded pole motor which is not reversible, so to provide a reversing option,

[39:41] Hunter created the Adaptair

[39:46] Bet you didn't think there were ceiling fans out there with collectives.

[39:50] The current Hunter Original has a much more efficient permanent split capacitor motor,

[39:54] and since this kind of motor is trivial to reverse,

[39:57] it now has a reversing switch.

[40:00] Much less cool, but also much more practical.

[40:03] One quick note I want to make sure I include

[40:05] is that while this fan doesn't come with a light kit,

[40:08] it does come with an adapter ring

[40:13] This is actually how ceiling fans were traditionally sold.

[40:17] They'd be pre-wired for a light kit

[40:19] (that's why there's a blue wire coming out the top of this thing)

[40:22] but you'd get to choose which

[40:26] Or to not get one if you didn't need it.

[40:29] In fact, way back in the day,

[40:33] so you were basically building your own fan from a series of options.

[40:38] Too bad the world doesn't work like that anymore.

[40:41] And this motor, while identical in appearance...

[40:44] Well, it's now a little harder to say

[40:49] The current design actually is an inside out spinner motor.

[40:53] The windings are now close to the center of the fan

[40:56] and the rotor surrounds them.

[40:58] It's still a cast iron rotor and it still has that old bath bearing.

[41:02] So this is very much an old fashioned way to build a ceiling fan.

[41:06] But now it is more like a modern motor

[41:14] This is really apparent from the top, where you can see

[41:20] Obviously the smaller guts mean the cast iron

[41:26] but I for one, think it's extremely cool that Hunter has chosen to keep making it exactly like they always have.

[41:35] Except for that vent hole.

[41:37] Why is that hole a circle?

[41:39] That's very irritating.

[41:41] But I'll deal with that,

[41:42] because installing one of these

[41:47] (yes, that does mean I did buy two of them)

[41:49] has proven to be somewhat revelatory

[41:54] This thing is simply a much better ceiling

[42:00] Well, except for the vintage one of these.

[42:03] For one, this motor is nearly silent.

[42:06] At high speed I can detect the faintest bit of 60 cycle hum,

[42:10] but it's completely overwhelmed by the wind

[42:14] and running at full speed, despite the fact

[42:19] the noise it makes is remarkably tame.

[42:22] It might be a touch louder than the extremely ordinary

[42:28] Even more notable to me is that on its medium speed,

[42:35] It's just a very faint rustling on medium,

[42:38] and yet it feels like the

[42:44] Now "feels like" is an important thing to call out.

[42:48] I'm going to discuss this more later on

[42:50] because there's a lot more to a ceiling fan’s

[42:55] But I did buy an anemometer so I could measure wind speed

[42:59] to provide the closest thing to an objective comparison I can.

[43:03] The Kichler fan I took down,

[43:09] was registering about 2.2m/s

[43:14] This reading was taken at arm's length directly below the fan, and I moved around to find the sweet spot.

[43:20] And whaddya know, the Hunter Original

[43:26] while only running on its medium setting.

[43:30] So not only does it feel like the same thing to me,

[43:33] but the numbers seem to agree.

[43:36] This is especially interesting to me

[43:38] because the Kichler fan drew about 55W from the wall to produce that wind speed,

[43:43] while the Hunter fan was

[43:48] This ancient design would appear to be more energy efficient

[43:55] Now it will draw much more power on high.

[43:58] Here it was drawing 85W, though I've seen it get

[44:04] But of course when it does that

[44:09] The sweet spot on high seemed to bounce back and forth

[44:12] between 3.3 and 3.4 meters per second.

[44:15] That's 50% faster wind speed than the Kichler fan could produce.

[44:19] And best of all, it doesn't seem to be any louder when it does so.

[44:24] Look closely at the fan blades,

[44:28] It may not come across super well on camera,

[44:31] but the blades of the Original are pitched

[44:36] This means they don't need to be moving nearly as fast

[44:43] As has always been the case,

[44:44] this motor is only designed to rotate at about 200 rpm,

[44:48] but with these sharply angled blades

[44:54] The ceiling fan it replaced also got up to nearly the same rotational speed, but with shallower blades

[45:01] that just meant it made a similar amount of noise while not being nearly as effective.

[45:06] Another very traditional thing about this fan is how it mounts to the ceiling.

[45:11] While most fans now incorporate some kind of ball and socket joint

[45:15] which allows them to be suspended from angled ceilings,

[45:17] this is using an old fashioned hook and rubber bushing.

[45:22] That's it.

[45:24] Because this fan is so dang heavy,

[45:26] they really want you to attach this directly to the building structure.

[45:30] But if you know you've got a true ceiling fan

[45:37] Except despite knowing I had a ceiling fan box,

[45:40] these mounting holes in the bracket didn't line up in my case,

[45:43] so I had to drill an extra one and use a big washer for peace of mind.

[45:47] That was annoying, but I got there.

[45:50] The decorative canopy which conceals its mount and wiring attaches directly to the downrod itself

[45:55] and leaves a small gap against the ceiling.

[45:58] This looks a little weird,

[46:00] but it means if the fan is rocking somewhat

[46:06] and you don't have any irritating clicking or ticking noises to worry about.

[46:11] This is old fashioned,

[46:13] but it is truly an excellent fan and I would say

[46:19] That is, if what you want out of a ceiling fan is extremely good performance.

[46:25] But here's where we get to the very frustrating reality at the bottom of all this.

[46:31] Everything -

[46:32] Every single thing about a ceiling

[46:39] but also deeply subjective.

[46:42] We all have different priorities,

[46:43] and perhaps you would rather trade performance for something a little more modern.

[46:48] But we probably also don't even agree on what performance means.

[46:54] Every human is going to have a different reaction

[46:58] Our bodies perspire at different rates,

[47:00] which means the literal cooling power of an identical breeze

[47:04] is different from person to person,

[47:08] I can't really tell you what makes a good ceiling fan,

[47:12] because that depends on so many things,

[47:14] and that's a huge part of why ceiling

[47:19] It's difficult to be objective, so nobody really tries.

[47:24] Now we have come up with ways to make objective comparisons between ceiling fan models.

[47:30] But I am now pretty thoroughly convinced,

[47:33] mostly due to my experience with this fan,

[47:36] that those methods don't actually work.

[47:40] Let me explain.

[47:42] If you shop for a ceiling fan, you're going to find

[47:44] that they're given an airflow rating

[47:50] The EPA, through its Energy Star program,

[47:52] developed a pretty scientific test procedure,

[47:55] along with quite the testing rig for doing this.

[47:58] Now, I'm not actually sure

[47:59] whether this is the test procedure done to all ceiling fans,

[48:02] since it's the Federal Trade Commission which is responsible

[48:05] for these energy guide labels and not the EPA.

[48:08] Plus, this test is meant for

[48:13] Regardless, that's not important to the argument I'm about to make.

[48:18] Well, it might be, but more on that later.

[48:21] CFM is something we can measure objectively, and on the surface,

[48:25] it feels like the most apples to apples

[48:30] This thing is, after all, a fan.

[48:33] And moving air is how fans make you feel cool.

[48:37] But a ceiling fan is not a blower fan with a cowl

[48:45] Nor is it a squirrel cage fan feeding a duct.

[48:48] It's just a great big fan hanging in the open air, and its purpose isn't to move volumes of air,

[48:55] but to create artificial wind you can feel.

[48:59] Therefore, the velocity of the air once it gets to where you are is what matters to perceived performance.

[49:06] And because we're talking about ceiling fans, you're probably not going to be that close to it all the time.

[49:12] Sure, that testing rig can measure the volume of air flowing through that cylinder.

[49:17] But that's not actually very relevant

[49:22] To be clear,

[49:26] And if we look back at those old instructions

[49:31] So this isn't a new thing, but I am saying that CFM on its own

[49:36] describes less than you'd think.

[49:39] Take a look at this reading from the anemometer.

[49:41] I've placed it a couple of paces back from the ceiling fan,

[49:45] so it's measuring the lateral currents produced

[49:50] The reading is hovering around 0.8m/s.

[49:54] This is what matters to the subjective experience of a ceiling fan,

[49:58] because that wind speed determines what you're feeling on the ground.

[50:03] And the thing is, if all I do is

[50:08] the reading is cut in half and occasionally the airflow nearly stops.

[50:14] Turbulence is going to affect how quickly

[50:19] and you can see from the fact that the reading is bouncing around that it's anything but consistent.

[50:25] The effect is even more pronounced

[50:29] Ah, but what about the stand?

[50:32] Could that be influencing the reading of the anemometer?

[50:36] Perhaps, but that's kind of my point.

[50:39] Obstructions in a room like the furniture are going to change the path air takes after a ceiling fan throws it to the floor,

[50:47] and especially since air currents collide with each other,

[50:50] that could increase or decrease the wind speed on its way to you,

[50:55] and thus how effective the ceiling fan seems to be.

[50:58] CFM is irrelevant to those factors.

[51:02] It's not just the stuff in the room either.

[51:05] The shape of the room, the size of the room,

[51:07] and even where the ceiling fan was installed in that room

[51:11] all make significant differences to how it performs.

[51:15] Another huge factor is how close the ceiling fan is to the ceiling.

[51:20] As the sweeping blades push air downward,

[51:22] it has to be replaced by new air from above,

[51:26] and when the blades are right up against the ceiling,

[51:28] the fan can only grab new air through a relatively narrow slot at the edges,

[51:33] and that creates pressure gradients above the fan, which screw up its air distribution.

[51:39] This is why so-called hugger fans, designed for rooms

[51:45] In general, the lower the fan can be from the ceiling, the better.

[51:50] Safety standards in the US require the fan blades to be seven feet off the floor,

[51:54] and with standard eight foot ceilings,

[51:58] So I get why hugger fans exist,

[52:01] but the test procedure the EPA uses hangs

[52:07] so the results from that test are not representative of almost anyone's reality.

[52:12] Setting aside all those real world variables,

[52:18] can themselves deliver air extremely differently.

[52:21] For instance, these fans with their simple paddles

[52:25] are really just producing a column of downward air movement.

[52:29] And that means the fan’s diameter is going to affect

[52:32] how tall the lateral currents of air are

[52:35] once it hits the floor and spreads out sideways.

[52:39] A small fan with an identical CFM rating to a large one may not produce a noticeable air current except right down by the floor,

[52:48] which is not very useful if you're looking to install a ceiling fan

[52:54] This is, incidentally, why I think these newfangled

[53:01] The whole point of a ceiling fan is

[53:07] That's also why I find sizing guidance based on square footage to be silly.

[53:11] It seems mostly based on

[53:16] Go as big as you want.

[53:17] It'll probably work better.

[53:19] But even ceiling fans with identical diameters can distribute

[53:26] Fans with curved blades or fancy airfoil shapes are like that

[53:34] Those fans will throw some air out to the sides,

[53:37] so that their output can be felt directly

[53:42] And that can avoid the issue of obstructions changing the direction of air currents,

[53:47] which may or may not be better

[53:52] This CFM rating does absolutely nothing to explain any of this.

[53:57] Therefore, I am simply not at all convinced

[54:03] And even if it were,

[54:06] I am now very convinced that the

[54:12] Again, all of this is subjective

[54:17] But in my previous home, I installed two outdoor ceiling fans from Menards, which the Energy Guide label rated 3,911 CFM.

[54:28] Since the Hunter Original is also an outdoor rated fan

[54:35] the CFM numbers should be apples to apples,

[54:38] and since the original is rated 4,620,

[54:42] those Menards fans should have been

[54:46] But they were definitely not.

[54:50] I can't go back in time to make a true side by side comparison,

[54:53] but I would estimate that the Hunter is at

[54:59] So not only do I have plenty of logical reasons

[55:05] but I also have firsthand

[55:10] And it gets worse.

[55:12] The credibility of these labels

[55:18] If you look at the Hunter original on the Lowe's website,

[55:21] you'll see that they are claiming it moves 6,716 CFM.

[55:26] Awfully close to the 7000 Hunter was claiming back in the 70s.

[55:30] It's almost like it's the same fan or something.

[55:33] So where does this 4,620 number actually come from?

[55:38] Could it be there listing the airflow

[55:43] That would, after all, line up with typical use, I suppose.

[55:48] Well perhaps.

[55:50] But that 53 watt figure there?

[55:52] That's awfully strange.

[55:54] And not just because the FTC doesn't seem to know watts aren't energy.

[55:58] My testing, which says this fan runs at between 85 and 90 watts on high and at less than 40 watts on medium

[56:06] would seem to imply this fan was tested at a speed which doesn't actually exist.

[56:11] So how on Earth am I supposed to trust that CFM number means anything relevant to the fan's real world performance?

[56:19] But now we've got to talk about

[56:23] Because even if I had no reason to doubt their accuracy,

[56:27] I think there's a very good case to be made

[56:29] that the motivation behind them is backfiring

[56:32] and defeating the very point of a ceiling fan.

[56:36] Much like the energy guide labels on things

[56:40] this is there to encourage you

[56:45] Ceiling fans are an energy consuming appliance, after all,

[56:48] and that's why it shows you an estimated cost figure.

[56:52] And look, there are certainly gains to be made there.

[56:56] We've gotten much better at making motors over the years,

[56:59] and that's how the Hunter Original of today

[57:03] to do what the fan of 1970 something needed 155 watts to do.

[57:09] But we're not actually evaluating the efficiency of ceiling fans based on how efficient their motors are at performing work.

[57:16] We're doing it based on CFM per watt.

[57:20] Now, I understand the logic there.

[57:22] You can put the same motor into all sorts of fan designs,

[57:25] so the finished product matters more than its guts.

[57:29] But since I'm not convinced the CFM number from a test

[57:36] we could very well be making ceiling fans worse at their job by chasing a metric which is effectively meaningless.

[57:43] I think we need to remember

[57:45] we're talking about ceiling fans, folks.

[57:48] They are themselves an efficiency play,

[57:50] and the whole point of their resurgence

[57:56] And in order to actually be successful at that,

[57:59] first and foremost, the ceiling fan needs to be

[58:05] A fan could have a miraculous CFM per watt

[58:11] but then it might not be powerful enough to actually do anything.

[58:15] And that's the maddening thing here.

[58:18] We know that the relationship between CFM

[58:23] CFM per watt numbers get higher at lower fan speeds,

[58:28] so the metric becomes more impressive

[58:30] the weaker the fan is.

[58:33] Now, Energy Star is aware of this,

[58:36] and that's why the number they give is a weighted average.

[58:39] For instance, this fan model is rated 220 CFM per watt, despite the fact that on its highest speed,

[58:46] which draws 29.5W while supposedly delivering 4,053 CFM,

[58:51] the number only works out to 137 CFM per watt.

[58:56] But I don't actually know that its

[59:01] because Energy Star doesn't tell you CFM numbers, and the Energy Guide label hasn't specified which speed it's showing you.

[59:07] And the Energy Guide label says the fan only moves

[59:15] This whole situation is just royally forked up.

[59:18] But most importantly,

[59:20] performance is the thing which actually matters,

[59:24] and a fan which uses more energy can very well end up saving energy because it does a better job at being a fan.

[59:31] To illustrate this, let's go back to the Hunter versus the Kichler.

[59:35] The 85W this fan draws on high

[59:38] does mean the fan uses more energy than the Kichler,

[59:44] And yeah, that means using the Hunter fan will cost more.

[59:49] But if the Hunter running at 85W cools

[59:57] which it definitely will,

[59:59] then it can buy you a couple extra clicks on your thermostat,

[1:00:02] which will more than pay for those extra 30 watts.

[1:00:06] Even if you ran the fan 24/7.

[1:00:10] If spending an extra 30W means you can keep a tiny 1 kW air conditioner from running for just an hour a day,

[1:00:17] you'll have spent an extra 720 watt-hours

[1:00:23] And don't forget, this has a medium speed, too. Even a low one!

[1:00:27] And you don't have to run it 24/7.

[1:00:29] So it's not always going to use 85 or 90W.

[1:00:33] You simply cannot possibly come up with a single CFM number

[1:00:40] and our efforts to try are ignoring that an efficient

[1:00:47] So are we possibly barking up the wrong tree here?

[1:00:50] I think there's pretty good evidence that we are.

[1:00:53] Now look, if you've been watching me for a while,

[1:00:55] you might already know that my feelings here are complicated.

[1:00:58] I understand the desire to reduce

[1:01:03] especially since your average Midwestern home

[1:01:08] But they have to be good at the thing they're supposed to do

[1:01:11] if we have any hope of them offsetting air conditioning use.

[1:01:14] If we're creating efficiency targets based around CFM per watt,

[1:01:19] that may look good on paper,

[1:01:23] then we're defeating the point of

[1:01:29] To be clear, I'm not blaming energy policy

[1:01:34] It may play a part, but there are plenty of other pressures

[1:01:39] The race to the bottom is still very much a thing.

[1:01:42] But I am saying policy may be too focused

[1:01:47] and we should probably refine how we're evaluating them.

[1:01:50] Because as of now, it feels like we've lost the plot.

[1:01:54] And remember. We're talking about ceiling fans.

[1:01:59] They're not exactly power hungry

[1:02:03] And through our decision to chase diminishing returns,

[1:02:07] we're creating pressures I'm not super fond of.

[1:02:10] For example, the Energy Star certified fan we've been looking at

[1:02:13] has a DC motor, and many of them do these days.

[1:02:18] Those can be more energy efficient,

[1:02:20] but that adds a lot of complexity

[1:02:26] DC motors need DC power supplies

[1:02:31] which adds two electronic devices with potential points of failure.

[1:02:35] And I do think it's a bit ironic that this Energy Star certified fan

[1:02:38] has a standby power consumption of 0.3W,

[1:02:43] meaning it's going to use at least 2.6kWh

[1:02:49] That's fun.

[1:02:51] There are advantages to a DC motor

[1:02:56] For instance, they don't hum like an AC motor can,

[1:03:00] and they can offer many more fan speeds without requiring a fancy and potentially persnickety motor controller

[1:03:07] like you do with an AC motor.

[1:03:09] Solid state variable speed fan

[1:03:13] but they're not easy to come by.

[1:03:16] Additionally, though it's not my cup of tea,

[1:03:18] it's easier to incorporate things like smart controls

[1:03:23] when your ceiling fan has a DC power supply on board.

[1:03:26] So I get that market pressures

[1:03:32] Regardless, the permanent split capacitor AC induction motors in a typical ceiling fan are still pretty energy efficient,

[1:03:38] and best of all, they simply get hooked right up to line voltage.

[1:03:43] They don't have any electronics controlling them other than a capacitor,

[1:03:47] and thus there are only two things

[1:03:51] Either the bearing can fail

[1:03:56] or the capacitor can fail which will cause the fan to spin slowly or perhaps not at all.

[1:04:01] Barring a catastrophic short in the motor windings,

[1:04:04] or I guess a failed power switch,

[1:04:07] That's really all that can go wrong with a traditional ceiling fan.

[1:04:11] And replacing a failed ceiling fan capacitor is really easy, too.

[1:04:15] In fact, hardware stores stock replacements.

[1:04:17] There's plenty of merit to the simplicity of an AC motor,

[1:04:22] and the Hunter Original proves

[1:04:26] You just have to, you know, try.

[1:04:30] This is why I've developed more than a bit

[1:04:35] It's an extremely old ceiling fan design, and yet it seems to be among the best performing ceiling fans out there,

[1:04:43] at least of the kind you typically find in a home.

[1:04:46] And I mean,

[1:04:47] while it feels very surprising

[1:04:49] given that we live in the age of computer aided

[1:04:54] in other ways, it's really not.

[1:04:57] Yes, 1906 was 120 years ago,

[1:05:00] but it's not like we didn't know how to experiment back then.

[1:05:04] And we definitely wanted to

[1:05:10] Four plain, rectangular paddles

[1:05:14] but it clearly works and a lot

[1:05:21] Ceiling fans essentially didn't change at all

[1:05:27] and the resurgence of the 1970s.

[1:05:31] We just figured them out!

[1:05:34] That's how you make a ceiling fan which is good.

[1:05:37] Other than Emerson switching to a cheaper motor

[1:05:42] ...and shut down a production line,

[1:05:45] the fundamentals remained exactly the same

[1:05:51] And that's what's tricky about this story.

[1:05:54] The purpose of a ceiling fan

[1:05:59] Performance didn't matter as much now that they were meant to help your air conditioner

[1:06:04] and not provide cooling on their own.

[1:06:06] And that created affordances for

[1:06:12] Cost cut ceiling fans, in turn,

[1:06:17] And then once every big box store

[1:06:21] that created competition based on style.

[1:06:23] And then once everybody was copying each other,

[1:06:26] that created competition based on gimmicks like remote controls

[1:06:29] and these days, Alexa integration.

[1:06:33] After several rounds of this nonsense, we sort of forgot

[1:06:40] And all that complexity is before we get to the energy standards,

[1:06:47] we were measuring performance of a ceiling fan correctly.

[1:06:51] Which I'm not.

[1:06:54] And the fact that Hunter still produces

[1:07:01] Its existence is no means hard evidence of anything.

[1:07:05] A cast iron motor housing and an oil bath bearing

[1:07:08] are certainly not necessary for a well-performing ceiling fan.

[1:07:12] Anyone could copy this fan's performance for a much lower price.

[1:07:17] All you need is a motor which is equally strong,

[1:07:19] and fan blades with the same specification.

[1:07:22] And that's not hard to come by.

[1:07:24] But the enduring existence of this design proves

[1:07:27] there are enough people out there who believe function matters over form, and are still willing to pay for it.

[1:07:35] This thing's sales are helped, no doubt, by its timeless appearance,

[1:07:39] but asking someone to check the oil in their ceiling fan every five years with a pipe cleaner

[1:07:45] would certainly be a bridge too far for anyone who doesn't really care about ceiling fans.

[1:07:50] I suppose that's the rub, isn't it?

[1:07:52] Many people care enough to have one,

[1:07:54] and many people care what it looks like.

[1:07:57] But the ceiling fan as a concept is so simple

[1:08:01] that it's hard to believe there's more to it than that.

[1:08:04] I didn't until I met someone who collects these things, and now,

[1:08:08] unfortunately, I've been cursed with knowledge of what's been lost.

[1:08:12] I believe The Good Place has taught us that

[1:08:15] the Hunter original is the ice cream of ceiling fans,

[1:08:22] As Michael said,

[1:08:23] "there's something so human about taking something great and ruining it a little so you can have more of it."

[1:08:30] That's pretty much what happened with ceiling fans.

[1:08:33] It's not all bad news though.

[1:08:36] While most of the fans you can find in the home

[1:08:41] premium ceiling fan brands now exist,

[1:08:44] and I'm sure many of them made

[1:08:49] It's just kind of a shame what things look like today.

[1:08:53] Everyone who's got experience with ceiling fans

[1:08:55] probably has complaints about them too.

[1:08:57] I know I've had my fair share of them

[1:08:59] which rocked just enough to make some kind of a ticking noise which wouldn't go away,

[1:09:03] or which had a loud motor buzzing away all night,

[1:09:06] or which was weak and useless.

[1:09:09] But those complaints really come from

[1:09:16] Still, I'd rather have a landscape

[1:09:20] in every bedroom and living space they spend time in.

[1:09:24] And fans which don't need oiling.

[1:09:27] I know I'm repeating myself,

[1:09:28] but it's not like the Hunter original represents

[1:09:34] But its endurance makes a pretty airtight

[1:09:40] The formula has always been there,

[1:09:43] but first we need to stop ourselves from reinventing the wheel.

[1:09:47] I wouldn't have thought that

[1:09:50] would become subject to seemingly every human impulse

[1:09:54] and every Earth-changing event

[1:09:58] But maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

[1:10:01] After all, that's capitalism.

[1:10:05] ♫ tempestuously smooth jazz ♫

[1:10:08] Bonus thing!

[1:10:09] The builder grade fan I took down to replace

[1:10:15] of how we are still importing Asian fans

[1:10:20] This motor housing mimics the size

[1:10:25] which the Hunter Original actually is,

[1:10:28] but the flywheel the blades attach to

[1:10:33] just hiding in a vast expanse of empty space.

[1:10:37] We just still expect ceiling fans to look like this.

[1:10:40] And I mean, in the days when we were cost cutting like crazy,

[1:10:44] there was a time

[1:10:46] when we were just dangling light kits below spinner motors.

[1:10:50] But this just looks weird.

[1:10:55] So, did this video... blow your mind?

[1:10:58] I hope you didn't think it was too long-winded.

[1:11:01] Though that runtime sure is fun. Can't get mad at that!

[1:11:04] And I swear that wasn't just an excuse to pad the script with hot air.

[1:11:07] It's just a...

[1:11:08] fantastic coincidence.