[Mach1460]

Im going to put some ceiling fans in my garage for some airflow and hopefully some more light. Ive been searching around lowes and menards and I see a lot of "industrial" fans but none of them have any lights. Would a regular housefan work? Im curious about the motors of regular house fans if they spark or not since I do paintwork out there i dont feel like blowing up.

[eloc431962]

Originally Posted by Mach1460

Im going to put some ceiling fans in my garage for some airflow and hopefully some more light. Ive been searching around lowes and menards and I see a lot of "industrial" fans but none of them have any lights. Would a regular housefan work? Im curious about the motors of regular house fans if they spark or not since I do paintwork out there i dont feel like blowing up.

That's what i have in mine , when i changed mine out in my house i moved the old one's to the garage and works just fine.



Cole

[eloc431962]

I just re-read your post hummm i do some paint work out in mine also haven't had a blow up yet, but that may depend on just how much paint you have flying around too. you should be able to get a light kit for better safety for a industrial style fan i would think. JMO


Cole

[Mach1460]

Im thinking too, I have 3 stalls and want 3 fans, the ceiling fan wont be running in the paintbooth stall anyway... I guess Ill go with 3 house style fans. even though they dont have the light output that id like... none that I have seen so far anyway. They do look nice tho

[S10xGN]

I can't imagine any kind of fan-mounted "light" putting out enough usable light for a garage or shop...

Russ

[66GMC]

Originally Posted by S10xGN

I can't imagine any kind of fan-mounted "light" putting out enough usable light for a garage or shop...

Russ

Ditto. Most of the light fixtures will have a "MAX 60W" sticker on them.

I have an infra-red heater and 2 "industrial" fans running in my 24x34 garage. The intended purpose of the fans is to help to get that warmed air into the "shadows" and to keep the garage windows clear.

Those fans run (at low speed) 24/7 from October to April ... and I'm a little dubious whether household fans would stand up to that kind of use.

I'm also thinking that they might be awfully noisy attached to a rheostat?
I mean most of the household variety have a pull-chain (low, med, high) to control fan speed, whereas the "industrial" variety are infinitely adjustable with the rheostat.

[matt167]

Max 60W relates to the current draw. You can put 100W equivlant CFL's in place and there only going to draw 25W.. multiply that by 3 or 4 lights per fixture and you can get some serious bright light.

[Mach1460]

Right now I just have single bulb fixtures. Some of the fans ive seen have 3 bulbs in them which would have to be a little better because Im getting by fine with the single bulbs. I have the top half of my garage painted gloss white which reflects a lot of light. I usually have a separate light plugged in anyway..

In my last house, which i had bought from my brother, who had bought it from my parents. The house was in our famlly for 35 years... there was a ceiling fan in the bedroom that had never been changed out since my parents put it in in the 70s and was still running strong. my fans in my house run non stop also. There relatively cheap, the ones im interested in at lowes are 120 each, even if they only ran for 4-5 years id say id have my moneys worth...

[302 Z28]

Home ceiling fans have induction motors and as such do not produce sparks like a brushed motor would. The switches however are a different story. Every time you turn one on or off you produce a spark in the switch. I have several converted AC air handling unit fans that move a tremendous amount of air.

Vince

[Silverback]

My only concern would be grinding dust/welding fumes, which leave conductive deposits and anything vented tends to eventually die (CFL bulbs have vented ballasts and eventually die, but I've replaced my individual bulb fixtures with 2x2 42W CFLs, and found that the big ones seem to last longer). House ceiling fans will probably fail with that kind of use. I used to have a house just normal oscillating fan in my garage that worked till I turned it off, then the crud built up in it prevented it from ever restarting.