Balancing a ceiling fan

Jul 13, 2013 25 Replies

I recall looking through a list of accidental deaths in the US due to electrical issues, and somewhere near the bottom of the list was

2 people killed per year due to ceiling fans falling on them.

Used to work in a large office at GEC which had 10 or so of these giant helicopter type fans hanging from the ceiling. After several years, they were taken down because real aircon was being installed. I looked at them all lined up on the floor waiting to be removed, and just about every one of them had at least one of the eight bolts holding the fan blades sheared off.

Reversing makes it suck up or blow down depending where it was.

I'd call that a mechanical issue. And I can't see those lightweight blades killing anyone. In fact, here's proof they don't:

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- his wobbles more than mine for some reason.

I would have thought it depended on where the 'hit' person was hit - and, to a certain extent, how old they were. If a small child was hit the damage could be worse than if the victim was an adult.

But NASA managed to land a man on the moon with far worse failure stats:-)

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