Slowing down a home fan

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Slowing down a home fan

Postby RCMikeofIndiana » Tue Aug 16, 2011 9:55 am

I see many ingenious way people solve RC questions here so I thought I'd throw this non-rc electronic question out. My wife and I like to have a fan in the window of our bedroom during the cool nights. Unfortunately the low speed of all of the fans we have placed in the window is still too windy. I would like to slow it down a little more. Is there any commercial product or a DIY idea that can be added to the fan (or power cord) to slow down an AC fan?

Thanks!

Mike
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Re: Slowing down a home fan

Postby Sid Sideslip » Tue Aug 16, 2011 11:43 am

Tie your wife in front of the fan, or, if that is still too windy, get a fatter wife.

(joke)
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Re: Slowing down a home fan

Postby RCMikeofIndiana » Tue Aug 16, 2011 12:16 pm

Sid....

I fell out of my chair when I read your reply.....

Thanks for the chuckle...
Last edited by RCMikeofIndiana on Tue Aug 16, 2011 2:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Slowing down a home fan

Postby ergocentric » Tue Aug 16, 2011 1:36 pm

open a window at each end of the house/apt

put the fan in the window away from the bedroom, blowing out

worked for me for several years

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Re: Slowing down a home fan

Postby John_Edward » Thu Aug 18, 2011 5:02 pm

If it is an old-school, toggle button fan with no computerized functions, then you might want to find a simple light dimmer, preferably one that goes in the socket, like this : http://www.amazon.com/Lutron-TT-300H-WH ... y_hi_img_b

Even if that wouldn't work with your fan, you would have a handy dimmer for your lamp :)

But yeah, ergocentric's plan would work well too, as long as the air can only come from your bedroom window.
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Re: Slowing down a home fan

Postby roger52010 » Fri Feb 17, 2012 12:33 pm

Hi Guys. My solution is cheaper than a dimmer control. If you have a three speed fan you should have four wires to the speed switch. Determine which wire goes to the low speed winding of the motor. Cut this wire and solder a power resistor in series with the cut wire. Ten ohm ten watt is a good starting point . If the resistor gets too hot use a twenty watt. If the speed is still too fast try a twenty ohm resistor. This mod will not affect medium or high speed. Some electronics knowledge is necessary and some common sense. I did this to keep my stereo power amp cool without the fan noise.
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Re: Slowing down a home fan

Postby heliplanes » Thu May 10, 2012 5:02 am

Why not buy a ceiling fan. They can be turned down really slow. Cheap to run and quieter than a smaller pedestal fan.
What goes up, must come down, the heaviest parts first.
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Re: Slowing down a home fan

Postby zann68 » Thu May 10, 2012 6:16 pm

image_18028.jpg
image_18028.jpg (6.4 KiB) Viewed 19086 times

Goto Harbor Freight they have a Router Speed control box for about $16.99 item number #43060. This thing is plug and play. Plug your fan into it and adjust the knob to the desired speed.
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Re: Slowing down a home fan

Postby zann68 » Tue May 22, 2012 2:15 am

nikssehagal wrote:
zann68 wrote:
image_18028.jpg

Goto Harbor Freight they have a Router Speed control box for about $16.99 item number #43060. This thing is plug and play. Plug your fan into it and adjust the knob to the desired speed.



The harbor freight is simple in design.Also it is cheap.I find it user friendly.Can you please let me know more information about it ?


It works great for me in my shop. I have a couple of them in use. One of them is setup on my router table to control the speed. The other one I have hooked to a motor that has a fan mounted to it. Just the same it will run it at full speed to or slow it down. The control plugs into a standard plug and the fan or motor plugs into it. The speed control works with any universal AC/DC brush-type motor, 15 amps or under, to give you control over your speed.
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Re: Slowing down a home fan

Postby zann68 » Tue May 22, 2012 9:39 pm

borybosell wrote:
zann68 wrote:
image_18028.jpg

Goto Harbor Freight they have a Router Speed control box for about $16.99 item number #43060. This thing is plug and play. Plug your fan into it and adjust the knob to the desired speed.

I am looking for goto harbor freight because I have urgent needed for it. You say it is good condition and speed but these are not enough information for me. So would you give me more information?


Do they have Harbor Freight Stores in England? This speed control is designed to work with US 110v. In my fantastic travels of the world most countries use 220v with various plug designs. It's a vary simple setup. Plug into the wall outlet the box has a 3 way switch for on & variable modes. The Rheostat allows you to adjust the amount of voltage to motor to vary the speeds. Easy as pie. They are easy to make yourself. Need a Fan Control Rheostat, wall box, outlet, cover, some length of cord (electrical) with and end (male). Buddy made one for himself, cost about $12.00 US. I would say his has the most adjustment compared to my store bought ones.
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