Ceiling Fan Shop?

karoc · Wednesday at 4:31 PM

Ok before everybody start recommending Big *** Fans, well their like Festool in my world just out of my league.
With summer temps coming on strong, I came across ceiling fan with 100” blades at 300.00. Dang if it actually pushes air down from my 12’ ceiling height that would be great. I’m sure this is old subject, ceiling fans for shop, but wondering if there’s anyone that can say their fan actually works? Not just for shop declarations, but moves air. With me being able spend more time in shop trying finish my 1000sq ft retirement home, it be nice be cooler and maybe keep mosquitoes off of me. Any thoughts, suggestions, pics, links? Day dreaming-Tks

larry4406 · Wednesday at 4:35 PM

Can't help with your fan, but have you considered using a hybrid heat pump installed in your garage for your water heater?

Your climate would seem ideal. It cools and dehumidifies the space its in.

y'sguy · Wednesday at 4:51 PM

Any easily movable fan on the floor works better for me. Cheaper. Not hanging from the ceiling. Especially if you have a 12' ceiling.Lots of hot air up there. If you can find an old attic fan, set on its side, with protection around it, Perfect. Roll it out of the way when you're done. I use an old furnace fan. It was almost free. Mounted on casters After I wash out the garage I use it to dry the floor. Takes just a minute. The ceiling fan in my art studio with high ceilings was a complete waste of time and money.

matt_i · Wednesday at 5:14 PM

Key imo is a down rod...the longest you can stand without getting the fan hit. Does wonders for air circulation as compared to those tight to the ceiling.

jhelrey · Wednesday at 7:19 PM

I have a ceiling fan in my finished garage that is about 10" from the ceiling with 12' ceilings. It's nothing special and it moves enough air to feel it.

nadogail · Wednesday at 7:35 PM

We used Ceiling fans in the house until we had the Air Conditioning installed. My shop has several floor fans, all discarded by former tenants.
My former tenants have left behind many useful things.

Hank11 · Wednesday at 8:56 PM

Yes, you want a fan and yes, it’ll move air and make the space more comfortable. And if you live in a place with high humidity, a dehumidifier will help in your shop a lot too.

LeonardY · Wednesday at 11:43 PM

I use a Vornado garage fan came with some wall mounts.
I also have a Jet air filter. It’s a bit loud on full but low it’s fine to me.
I put a deflector on the output of the Jet to better circulate the air.

WildBill · Wednesday at 11:46 PM

I just have a inexpensive 58" one in my 24x36 shop and it makes a big difference. Especially when I finally remember to switch directions on it every spring/fall so it moves the hot air the right way.

bluedog225 · Wednesday at 11:53 PM

My big 10 foot $300 Home Depot fake big *** fan doesn’t move a lot of air. I think it’s too close to the ceiling. Have to build a box to move it down.

Next time it’ll be a wall mounted fan

jmarkwolf · 2026-05-21T04:43:10-0400

I have a Hampton Bay 54-inch ceiling fan (no light, wired control) in my 28ft x 30ft x 10ft shop, purchased from one of the home supply big box stores (can't remember which). The fan runs 24/7 and has done so for 13 years now.

The blades are "aerodynamic", meaning efficiently twisted like a propeller, and at the lowest speed works great at uniformly circulating both heated and air-conditioned air year-round. Any higher speed would "sweep the floor" from 10 feet up.

I installed the fan in December 2013 when I realized the heated air in my new shop stratified badly, meaning the upper half of the room was comfortable, but below the belt was very cool. After installing the ceiling fan, the heat was uniformly distributed.

I'll buy the same fan again when this one needs replacement, if it's still available.

Notgrownup · 2026-05-21T06:50:41-0400

We just installed 6 10’ CANARM Fans in our warehouse at work, ceilings at 30’ high and we feel it. They were free from a Duke energy grant we just had to get them installed. Big As fans are very nice but holy shmoly, they are expensive.

Lassen Forge · 2026-05-21T07:26:51-0400

We installed ceiling vent fans in the old garage in Sacramento, the heat build up up there was WAY too intense, pushing it down would have been disastrous... better to flush all that heat outside. Had vents near the baseboard to let air in, also we had some old variable controlled electronics rack fans (3x4 grid, about 4 of them) in the windows to draw more air in for the soffit blowers to remove...

I eventually built a swamp cooler gig in one of the (former) windows to get some moist, cool air in there... but the biggie was venting the heat OUT.

No way I would have put a big air stirring fan or 3 in the shop like we had in the bedroom etc... it would have done nothing but push superhot air down at us, or draw that heat along the walls to the floor to be recycled up. Air movement is fine, but not if it's a convection oven.

bdbecker · 2026-05-21T07:32:56-0400

HVLS (High-Volume Low-Speed) fans like Big *** fans (and any of their derivatives) work by creating a low speed, but larger column of air when compared to a conventional ceiling fan. If your shop is not conditioned, circulating air using a HVLS will not do much to actually cool the space, it'll just make the temperature more consistent throughout. Because they are designed to circulate air efficiently and break up stratification, they do not necessarily create the breeze effect that people are accustomed to from conventional, higher speed fans. It's not that HVLS fans don't work, they just work differently.

If you want to feel a breeze and keep the mosquitos off your back, you won't be happy with a HVLS fan. A good size barrel fan (or two) pointed at your work area would be the better option.

bluedog225 · 2026-05-21T08:53:05-0400

bdbecker said:
HVLS (High-Volume Low-Speed) fans like Big *** fans (and any of their derivatives) work by creating a low speed, but larger column of air when compared to a conventional ceiling fan. If your shop is not conditioned, circulating air using a HVLS will not do much to actually cool the space, it'll just make the temperature more consistent throughout. Because they are designed to circulate air efficiently and break up stratification, they do not necessarily create the breeze effect that people are accustomed to from conventional, higher speed fans. It's not that HVLS fans don't work, they just work differently.

If you want to feel a breeze and keep the mosquitos off your back, you won't be happy with a HVLS fan. A good size barrel fan (or two) pointed at your work area would be the better option.

sounds right.

But the fans at Costco sure do blow

Lassen Forge · 2026-05-21T09:20:58-0400

I always wanted one of those barn sized swamp coolers from the local farm store... Tweren't cheap, but my god they made a hot space bearable...

jmdirk · 2026-05-21T09:27:51-0400

I installed two cheap industrial fans from Home Depot. Wired, no lights, just basic fans. I think they are in 50-52 inch range. You definitely feel the air moving when you've got them on medium or high. I think they were $200 CAD at the time.

bwringer · 2026-05-21T09:44:11-0400

The size of the shop matters... some of you are talking about really big shops with HVAC, some are talking about unheated/uncooled garages .

As mentioned above, in an un-air-conditioned space like yer average garage or small shop, I'd want to vent that heat out in the summer rather than stir it up and mix it with the cooler air below. So a gable or attic fan, depending, would make more sense here, along with some floor or wall-mounted fans for local cooling and to perhaps slightly inconvenience the mosquitos.

The OP mentioned 12' ceiling and mosquitos, so that would seem to imply a smaller shop or garage, often used with the door open.

Steve W. · 2026-05-21T10:00:25-0400

bluedog225 said:
My big 10 foot $300 Home Depot fake big *** fan doesn’t move a lot of air. I think it’s too close to the ceiling. Have to build a box to move it down.

How high is the ceiling and how close is the fan to it?

I don't have any fans in the shop, but have several in the house. House ceiling is about 7' 9", so we have "ceiling hugger" fans. I have found that at any speed faster than LOW, the fans simply refuse to blow DOWN. Mainly due to supply starvation. With the fan blowing down, air needs to move across the ceiling to get above the fan blades. Due to the hugger situation, there is simply not enough room. The bigger the fan, the bigger the problem.

I have also found that with the fan blowing UP, air above the blades moves across the ceiling quite nicely, gets to the walls, drops down, then returns to the area under the fan for another cycle. Nice air movement in the room, but no direct breeze blowing on me. :thumbup:

Yes, this works for heating or cooling seasons. As someone previously mentioned, it's more for removal of air stratification than it is for 'cooling' breezes.

Because of this behavior (and my preference for not having air blowing directly on me), I don't even bother to change fan direction with the seasons. They always blow UP.

.

Ceiling Fan Shop?

karoc

Well-known member

larry4406

Well-known member

y'sguy

Well-known member

matt_i

Well-known member

jhelrey

Well-known member

nadogail

Well-known member

Hank11

Well-known member

LeonardY

Well-known member

WildBill

ALLIANCE MEMBER

bluedog225

Well-known member

jmarkwolf

Well-known member

Notgrownup

Well-known member

Lassen Forge

Well-known member

bdbecker

ALLIANCE MEMBER

bluedog225

Well-known member

Lassen Forge

Well-known member

jmdirk

Well-known member

bwringer

Well-known member

Steve W.

Well-known member