Jay was nice enough to give me his old ceiling fan that I think he took out of his Kitchen. It sat in the basement for several months until I worked up the motivation to clean it off and put it up. Of those two tasks, the cleaning off was harder.
The Ceiling fan itself is quit nice. It’s a Hampton Bay model AC-552 which has three speeds, fan reverse switch (which is great for winter time use) and three lights. We had a ceiling fan in this room before, but I took it out because it was squeaking and making terrible noises. I am installing this fan on the same box as the old one.
One thing to note about ceiling fans, they are a great deal heavier than an ordinary light fixture. They also generate more vibration and motion on their mounting device, therefore an ordinary ceiling light electrical box will not support a ceiling fan. Ceiling fans need an electrical box that has extra support and bracing. Connecting a ceiling fan to an ordinary light box is asking for trouble.
Notice the bolt and nut in the center of the box. This is connected to a metal bracket that goes between the ceiling joists. Last year when I was in the attic, I checked this particular installation because I was having bad dreams about the old ceiling fan flying out of the ceiling while we were asleep. It seemed to be plenty strong enough.
This is the bracket that will hold up the ceiling fan. It attached to the box and has a little ball receptacle for the fan itself. This makes it pretty easy to install, as there is no standing on the ladder holding the fan up twisting the wires together while the fan gets heavier and heavier.
This is a close up of the fan hanging from its bracket with the wires all connected. We have two switches on the wall, so we can control both the fan and the lights from the wall switch. The ground wire is connected to the ground wire in the box.
All done. We turned it on and it runs great! Now we are all ready for those hot summer nights!
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Looks great! I like ceiling fans but sometimes feel like they’d be too low. Do you happen to know what height your ceilings are? Does it feel like your head might be too close sometimes?
Ethan, The ceilings are standard issue 8 foot high type. I think the fan blades are about 1 foot below that. I am 6 feet tall, so it does seem a little close, but once I am under the fan itself, it seems to be fine. The fan itself is partially over the end of our bed too.
My 6′4″ husband has banned the use of ceiling fans in our 8′ ceilinged house… too bad, since I would love the air movement!
Yes, I could see where 6′ 4 would be a little too close for comfort. It’s funny because I think Jay himself is 6′ 3, which may explain why the fan ended up an my house.
That’s 6′2 3/4″. I bumped my head on that damn fan more than I care to discuss. It was right in the middle of the kitchen. I installed one with no rod that mounted directly to the ceiling. Believe it or not, I still sway my head out of the way, just from habit.
We have a hampton bay ceiling fan and it has clips, but we don’t know where they go. How do we fing out? Model ac 552. There are 5 clips and 4 lights. So we don’t know if they go to the 5 fan blades or the 4 lights. Thanks
Cheryl, Check with the Home Depot website, do a brand search for “Hampton Bay” they usually have the owner’s and installation manuals available for downloading.
Is Hampton Bay made by Hunter? I just battled hanging up a Hunter fan and it looks like the same bracket to mount to the ceiling box.