Thread: Fitting Ceiling Fans and Installation

Basically there are 2 types of ceiling fans available in Thailand, those with lights and then the good ones that actually work as fans that don't have lights, now I got to admit the fans with lights do look better but the best they can do really is just swirl the air around a bit, also the fans with lights can be set up to blow air downwards or upwards depending on which way up you put the fan blades, not much use in a country that 95% of the time it is 80 degrees.

All these need are lighting cable, ie 1.5mm, they should be earthed but I can't remember the last time I saw one earthed although I have seen plenty of people get electric shocks from them when being turned on, all have survived but none were standing on a wet floor at the time and I think that would help in transferring the electric better and killing the turner on'er of the fan.

Basically the fans when bought come in loads of bags of bits and you get the fun of putting them together, first up you have to decide what you are going to anchor it all to, if you have a bungalow you have the choice of welding a similar sized metal pipe from the roof truss down to below ceiling height and using that instead of your normal mounting pole that comes with the fan, just needs a drill hole for attaching the fan unit, or maybe a great big length of wood across the ceiling to screw the hook mount to, the main thing to remember is you don't want it swinging wildly about every time you switch it on, so it does need to be secure and well balanced, also on long drops check that it is perfectly vertical otherwise it will swing wildly.

With some of these fans you get balancing stick on lead weights, also you get some plastic clips, use the plastic clips first to see where it may need the weights, once you have found the dodgy blade thats where you stick your lead weights on, on top of the blade I might add as they are a bit of an eyesore.

If it's a concrete ceiling similar to the one in the pictures then just use a couple of expansion bolts, these are real strong and take a lot of weight.



This fan is a lovely shade of sickly blue, as you can see the dirt is nice and easy to see, 4 energy saving light bulbs and 2 chains that are so short that there probably isn't a Issarn Thai in the world who could turn this fan on.



This little beasty electronic gadget is a remote control unit that can be fitted to your ceiling fan, here in Pattaya they cost 1,150baht and the fan bit itself can be hid up in the ceiling area or jammed into the fan housing, thats a right pig of a job on most fans though, it controls the lights, ie how many you want turned on, and it controls the fan speed, ie which level you want it on, works up to about 12 meters distance from the fan so is good enough for most places and you haven't got the hassle of using a step ladder (if your a short Thai) to turn on the fan or lights.



Expansion bolts to fit your fan if you have concrete ceilings, these are 16mm ones and are way too big, the mountings take either 2 or 4 bolts and 6 to 8mm is big and strong enough, unless its over the bed and ...... well, we wont go into that.



You really don't want to watch a ceiling fan being turned on do you? But if you do I just happened to find a video of a ceiling fan being turned on, and if you want I could do the 120 minute epic film version

Building a House in Thailand