Ceiling fans

[MojoMoon]

Does anyone in the UK have ceiling fans in their house, particularly the bedroom?

They are common in the southern US and as summers get hotter here, would they be useful?
Can you just fit them in a normal light fitting?
Are they hideously ugly and I would regret it?
Is there a good reason I am missing about why they are rare here?

I've been sleeping with a desk fan on bedside table for the last week which has helped as it feels cooler with air circulation even without it cooling the air.

Air con with an external unit would be challenging here. There is water cooled air con but also challenging to find space for the unit internally and I'm not sure it's that effective. It's also expensive given it's only really needed for a few weeks of the year.

I am saving up to get them installed in my home. I will need quite a few, and I want to make sure they are all the same design - hence, why I am not doing a few at a time.

Many modern ceiling fans come with the ability to change directions - so in summer, they can "lift" the heat up from the room, but in winter they can "push" heat back down into the room. I have seen designs for fans with quite a small radius, so they are suitable for smaller rooms/lower ceilings.

I think for most British people, they are simply not accustomed to ceiling fans, so don't think in terms of installing them (I grew up in a place where ceiling fans are in common usage). Ditto for verandahs, and flyscreens for windows and doors..

I am most definitely getting the ones that I’ve had in a box under the stairs installed this week

We have them in all our bedrooms, they are from Argos, £70 each and come with options for fan blade colours under separate listings.

Are they beautiful? No. Are they practical? Yes and I would rather be cool at night and no one sees my bedroom except me, Dh and the children.

They are very quiet compared to a pedestal fan. In our room right over our bed. In the children's rooms they are in the middle and their beds are against the wall but they still feel the air movement.

We have had them for years. They do need to be wired in and so depending on your skill level and how many wires you have coming into your light fitting to begin with it might be doable. There are youtube videos showing lighting wiring diagrams for the UK and also people installing ceiling fans in the UK.

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/3262821?clickSR=slp:term:ceiling%20fan:9:14:1

They are an efficient solution, much cheaper to run than air con.

Remember you cannot just hang them off a plasterboard ceiling, they weigh a ton and need to be properly fixed in, probably on a joist or on a crossbar between two joists.

There is water cooled air con but also challenging to find space for the unit internally and I'm not sure it's that effective.

Are you talking about the freestanding box units, where you put a tube out of a window? Measurements around 1ft x 1ft x 3ft?

Because we had one of those during a heatwave in Germany six years ago. It got a 20ft x 30ft, 5th floor room down from 32 degrees to 22-24 in the space of an hour, and that was all that was needed each night to get the room cool enough to actually get off to sleep.

OH has dragged it across countries and five more properties since, and refuses to get rid of it!!

There is water cooled air con but also challenging to find space for the unit internally and I'm not sure it's that effective.
I wonder whether you mean those expensive fans rather than actual air con?

I'm with @KievLoverTwo 's DH here.
The single best purchase I ever made was my portable air con unit. I bought it one January at a good price. It takes up a small floor space and you hang a pipe out of the window. Of course fully installed air con is prettier but this cost me a fraction of the amount. It brings my bedroom down from the furnaces of hell to "actually it's a bit chilly" in about an hour. I don't leave it on all night because once the room is chilled it's not necessary. It gets used a handful of times a year and is stored away in winter.

I would love ceiling fans but have very low bedroom ceilings in my cottage (hence the heat in bedrooms) and a ceiling fan would be dangerous.

My parents have had one for years in their bedroom.

I've seen lightweight fans advertised on tiktok shop and temu that fit into your existing light bulb fitting but no idea if they're any good. I can't try one because I'm in a cottage with 6ft ceilings so I'd spend the rest of my life tangled in it by my hair!

We had one in the master bedroom in our previous house. I loved it. It also had a light. It had three speeds and light could be dimmed. Though dh didn't like sleeping with it unfortunately.

I stayed in a villa last year on a Spanish Island and the bedroom had a ceiling fan as well as air conditioning. I left the fan on the lowest setting all night. It had a remote control which was good. Our new house is a new build with great insulation but hard to cool in the summer if heat builds up. Thinking of getting a ceiling fan again but would definitely want one with remote control.

I wish I could have ceiling fans but I'm not sure my ceilings are up to it 😬

For water cooled Aircon, I meant things like this: https://www.urbancooling.com/

Not the portable units.

My bedrooms are small so even a small portable unit takes up a large chunk of floorspace so trying to avoid that.

I had them in a former rental house, owners was Indian and said it was the first thing she installed when moving in!

Australian here.

I have one in my living room and I have slept underneath it on hot nights. It’s good. In summer, I turn it on and leave it on for days. The draught makes a difference. I’m not fond of the spot where it’s placed - it was there when we bought the house. My parents put one in each bedroom and one at each end of their very long open plan space. We have pedestal fans in the bedrooms.

I will say that when we light the fire and turn the fan on, it does a fantastic job of circulating the warm air through the house.

Just a thought, if you run a dehumidifier, that will help keeping you cool as it is the evaporation of sweat from your skin that cools you. We have a reverse cycle air con on one wall and in summer, mostly run that in the Dry setting. It’s much cheaper than the Cool setting and does most of the day comfortably.

Love ours and have always have them in bedrooms wherever we've lived. Pp isn't right - they certainly don't weigh a ton?!
Ours were installed by an electrician- v quick and easy and just replaced the central light fitting.
They make sleeping bearable, even in the recent heatwave

We had some installed 15 years ago and they are awesome.
Our ones are not that ugly but does it matter. A good night’s sleep is more important and who sees them?

We have them in bedrooms and love them. They are generally put into an overhead joist, for their weight, and as pp said, they can change direction to push warm air down in colder weather. Ours is not directly over the bed so it’s not directed on to your face.
We have a large attic bedroom and the fan makes it bearable.

I’ve just returned from a blisteringly hot few days in Surrey. The ceiling fans, whilst hideous, were all that kept me from expiring overnight. I believe there are more modern and less aesthetically offensive offerings, so I would definitely recommend.