the current market

Ceiling fans have grown in popularity over the past 20 years. What started as a cost-effective alternative to air conditioning to cool the living room, bedroom or kitchen has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. Ceiling fans are now offered in many styles and price ranges, from entry-level to high-end designer styles. They can cost from less than a hundred to several thousand dollars and are manufactured to suit all tastes or preferences.

The ceiling fan manufacturing industry has evolved to provide very high quality fans at reasonable costs and has built the consumer market for these products. This led to explosive growth in fan sales through home improvement retailers like Home Depot, Lowes, and others. Showroom sales days for mid to high end fans may change due to the marketing efforts of these industry giants.

Marketing data suggests that approximately 70% of all ceiling fans are being installed by the owner within 2 years of occupancy in their home. They are replacing the existing light fixtures with higher quality fixtures and ceiling fans in the bedroom and kitchen area. The living room is also a popular choice for fixture replacement with ceiling fan and light kit combinations being installed in greater numbers.

The consumer is faced with so many choices in today’s marketplace that it can be a bewildering experience for today’s consumer. The average shopper goes to their favorite home improvement store to pick out their new fan or light fixture, or even makes their pick online. They arrive at a lighting specialty store or showroom only after being overwhelmed by choices in home improvement store aisles that provide little or no service or support.

Fan choice today is greater than at any time in the last 5 to 10 years. Many of the major brands also sell products in the home improvement market. Companies like Hunter are distributing various models at Home Depot, this trend is expected to increase as they gain market share.

changing technology

Many manufacturers have been paying attention to this trend in the consumer market and are offering fans that meet the needs of today’s consumer. The ease of assembly and use of pre-assembled components speeds up the installation of your products.

Westinghouse Lighting Corporation has a line of fans that capture all of these needs and they claim they can be installed in an average of 15 minutes. The weak link in all these upgrades is the roof box itself. This is the component to which the fan is attached and must withstand the static and dynamic loads of running the fans. It also houses the electrical wiring for the fan. This utility component has been constantly improved over the last 10 years or more to make it faster, cheaper and easier to install than the traditional metal box of yesterday.

Today’s electrical contractor uses products that increase their productivity and maximize the potential profit from their job. They have a large variety of nailing products that already have the fasteners attached to the ceiling box and all they have to do is hold it in place and nail or screw it into a joist or truss to secure it. Many of these boxes are thermoplastics which are inexpensive and easy to manufacture. They also have the added benefit of not requiring an electrical ground connection, thus saving the extra labor required for metal boxes.

This fact is not lost on ceiling box manufacturers who are producing junction, outlet and ceiling boxes that install quickly and are made from plastics that require less and less labor to install correctly. This has gotten to the point that there is now a light box that just needs to be pushed onto a wooden post to secure it; no bras needed at all!

However, ceiling fan manufacturers may not keep up with the trend in ceiling box installation practices. They advise the consumer of their products to retrofit or replace the existing fixture with a fan-rated ceiling box, which is prudent, though are consumers paying attention to their installation directives?

The installation instructions for many of the fans available today show a metal type case that has screws that go through the case and lock onto the case. This is not what is installed in most new construction homes using labor saving nailing products. As a general rule, builders and contractors do not provide blocking above the roof box with a nailing product, as the additional material and labor is not cost effective.

The average plastic studded roof box is rated to hold only a 35-pound static load. They are also not classified as fans. This requires that the ceiling box be replaced with a fan-rated box prior to the installation of a ceiling fan. Boxes rated for fans are capable of supporting loads of 70 pounds and are rated for this application. This is easier said than done! Nailing products do not lend themselves to easy reinforcement as the labor savings have also been applied to the construction of the homes themselves. In many circumstances, the average house does not have an attic, only a narrow space between the joists is provided. This, combined with the blown insulation, makes ceiling box placement difficult, if not impossible, when a fan is to be hung on an upper floor.

Installing a ceiling fan between floors leaves few options for this task, as it cannot be easily accessed from above or below the ceiling, as the top floor is directly above the ceiling box. It is not wise to drill a hole in the ground or tear down the roof simply to place blocks on top of a roof box. Medallions are available, but the additional expense, labor, and time can be prohibitive, especially if the medallion is painted to match the ceiling. The clamp-type products sold today are an alternative, although they work better in theory than in practice, since the old roof box needs to be removed before they can be installed. Home Depot has a web page dedicated to this process which they claim can take half a day to complete.

a better way

Following the trends used in today’s home construction methods has led to the development of a new and simple method of retrofitting an existing roof box into a fan-rated box that is consumer friendly. Access is gained through the roof box itself with a small bracket used in what is in most cases wasted space within the roof box itself. Two fasteners are inserted through the ceiling box and into the joist or truss with the bracket held securely in position. Independent tests by a leading product testing laboratory have shown that this mount allows the roof box to support very large dynamic loads.

This test revealed that ordinary thermoplastic roof boxes reinforced in this way are capable of withstanding loads in excess of NEC requirements (314.27D and 422.18). These NEC building codes apply to the installation of ceiling fans and fan-rated ceiling boxes. Another added feature is that this product installs in just 2 minutes or less with common hand tools and allows for a ceiling fan installation to be completed in less than an hour from start to finish. If Westinghouse fans were used with this product, you could do it in 17 minutes or less! The product can also be used with metal boxes after drilling 2 holes in the roof box.

Failure modes during product testing revealed that the breadboard was being torn out of the ceiling box. The roof box is left intact and firmly secured to the simulated test truss. A grounding lug and screw are provided on the bracket to facilitate grounding of the perforated ceiling box to alleviate any problems associated with an energized component outside the ceiling box. This product is manufactured in the United States by EE Products Inc. as FAN-EZE under the following US Patents 6,881,900, 6,909,045, and 6,965,077 and is available for distribution through retail and wholesale outlets. More information about the products can be found at http://www.eeproductsinc.com or contact the company directly at 801-254-5144.

Alan P. Halbert

President

EE Products Inc.