Thanks for the help all. I got the first fan hung. WOW was it a huge PITA.
I end up using butterfly anchors, which meant drilling quite large holes in my wooden ceiling, and then drilling into the beam that was about 3" above that in order to have enough room to get the anchors in. Once the anchors were in, the rest was straight forward, except for the fact that the wires were too short to easily connect while the fan hung on the hook in the mount plate. But some arm-pain later, I got it all working. Now my bedroom has light and air, yay!
Next up is the office!
(wonders how much they'll charge me for all the ceiling holes when I move out)
Invest in some filler before you leave. I've even heard people using 'toothpaste' to fill in holes.
You can eitehr buy this in powder form or pre-mixed in tubes (depending on how much you need and how much you want to pay as the premixed is more expensive), you can even use 'decorators' silicon as this can be sanded and painted if necessary.
I am buying 2x ceiling fans for my bedroom and living rooms, both to get the air moving, and as a nice visual feature. Conrad do a nice looking model for only 99chf http://www.conrad.ch/ce/de/product/5...r-132-cm-78370
I take it this is the kind of thing an expat "Odd-job man" like is advertised on the forums can do without "too" much difficulty? Anyone had one put up lately?
The thread is from 2008, and the person you quoted no longer posts. However, if you read the thread you will see people have posted the benefits of ceiling fans for Summer/Winter.
We bought two ceiling fans for the rooms in the top floor of our house. They are great in the summer. I have never used them in the winter, although there is a setting for winter. I had them professionally installed by an electrician. If you use an "odd job" person, just be sure they carry insurance.
They create a breeze in the summer to cool you off, and for winter they have a reverse switch to make the fan run in the opposite direction so that they push the warm air down from the ceiling. In theory, they will reduce your energy expenses if used properly.
Please see the below photo for where my fan will go. Can anyone who has had a fan installed please let me know if it's possible for the electricians to put it up into the ceiling there without needing to do anything special?
It's gonna be really wobbly if you hang it on that hook
I helped install one a couple of months ago (well I held the tools at least) The important bit is underneath your ceiling. It will need to be strong and solid like wooden beam or concrete.
Fans now reduced to the silly low price of 79.95, amazing considering how good people are saying they are... the next cheapest fan that's anywhere near as good looking is over double the price!
Going to order two today, then worry about how to get them up.
EDIT - 188chf for two fans, with extra 2 years guarantee (4 years total) and delivery costs. Not bad at all!
Now what you have saved will go towards the electrician. They are one of the highest paid tradespersons. I would only use a qualified electrician for the installation of a ceiling fan.
With the current temperatures I am very glad we have them.
Fust and Interdiscount etc sell useful fans, but generally you here are in Zürich. I well remember a visit to Khartoum. where I made a comprehensive city walk-around, and it, with the sun in the orbit, became 44 degrees centigrade in the shadow, some 50 degrees in reality. . When I returned to the hotel at 13.20 I retreated to my room, then first brought the ceiling fan into full swing, and then some kind of air-conditioning machine. And brought temps down to cool 40 centigrades
Later on, after a visit to Yemen, I returned from Khartoum to Cairo. The plane, after having reached maxicmum height, descended towards Cairo at MACH 0.99 and Cairo was welcoming people with a cool and refreshing plus 27 degrees centigrade
Richdog, the only problem I can see with the fan you've selected is that it has no light built in. So you'll have no ceiling light (unless you have two ceiling wiring junction boxes in the room of course).
So you're the type of person that buys those extra warranties . It would have never crossed my mind to get one for a ceiling fan! Hubby used to work at GE and they learned in their 6 Sigma training just how lucrative those things are for the companies offering them...
The fan does look nice, but the lack of a light is an issue for me, too. At least I am sure I would miss it in the winter time!
I just counted all of the houses we've owned and fans I've installed. At this point in my life I have installed 12 ceiling fans. Back when we were poor, I took one apart, repainted all of the gold parts to a more updated finish, and then put it back together and reinstalled it.
I'm not a licensed electrician, but I haven't burned a house down yet. I mean really, there are only 2-3 wires going into it, and it comes with instructions a monkey could understand. It's no harder to wire a ceiling fan than it it to put up a light fixture. The hardest part is making sure you have the base plate securely mounted to the ceiling, so it doesn't come crashing down.
Desert Rat, can you please look at the picture I posted above of my ceiling fitting and tell me in your opinion there will be any issues to fix the ceiling fan to the ceiling? Will everything required like the support plate etc come in the package, or do I have to buy anything extra before I get it fitted? Ceiling Fan
The ceiling is not super hard or thick like stone, just a regular apartment one, and there is no access to it from above.
The kit should come with a base plate that gets mounted to the ceiling, then the fan hangs from a hook or socket type of contraption that is integral to the base plate. then there is a plastic cover that hides all of that stuff from view.
The biggest issue that I see would be in getting the base plate secured, since the fan is obviously a lot heavier that a regular light fixture.
I've never installed one in a concrete ceiling, but I would imagine you would need to drill through the plaster and secure the baseplate to the concrete with either some good concrete screws or toggle bolts or whatever.
If it were me, I'd look up the installation manual online and see what it comes with and how they say to install it in a masonry ceiling. I probably wouldn't try to hang it from that little hook I can see in the picture.