Our Philippine House Project – Ceiling Fans. We find that ceiling fans are an essential part of keeping cool in the Philippines without wasting energy. We did all we could to design our Philippine house to be as comfortable as possible without using air conditioning. We insulated our light-colored reflective roof, have ten foot ceilings and very large windows. Ceiling fans were a key part of our plan to minimize air conditioning.
Frankly, we did not do a great deal of research before buying our ceiling fans. We should have done more. The ceiling fans available in Iloilo were made by Hunter, Westinghouse and then various less expensive commercial fans. The Hunter and Westinghouse fans were similar with a traditional faux old-fashioned design having five wooden blades. Some were hugely gaudy and festooned with lights. The Hunter fans seemed to be the top quality available, at least they were the most expensive and appeared to be well made. The Westinghouse fans seemed to imitate the Hunter designs, but at a lower price.
Hunter Builders Select 52" Ceiling Fan
If we were doing our shopping all over again, I’d take a look at the Hunter Osprey which is available in the Philippines. The Osprey is an all metal fan in a modern design. It offers high airflow, high electrical efficiency fan at a modest price. It moves more air with less electricity than the traditional Victorian-look fans which are so popular and which we bought. For example the Hunter Savoy uses 70W and moves 14,500 cubic meters per hour. The Osprey uses 80W and moves 20,000 m3h. The 56″ Osprey is best suited to large rooms with high ceilings. Our 52″ Hunter fans may be a better choice for bedrooms. See http://www.hansenwholesale.com/ceilingfans/hunter/model.asp?ProdNo=28496 Westinghouse makes a similar industrial ceiling fan at a lower price.
Hunter Osprey Fan
Emerson Midway Eco Fan - 24 watts, $449
Installing the fans.
Hunter fans come with good quality mounting accessories intended for mounting to wood joists or to concrete. Our Hardiflex ceilings are supported by welded angle bars. Anticipating the ceiling fans, we put a heavier (2″ x 2″) angle bar in the center of each room. The Hunter mounting bracket is bolted to the angle bar making for a very secure mounting. If mounted as-is, the fan would be about one foot below the ceiling. Since our ceiling are 10′ high, the fan would be too high above the floor for good air circulation. Hunter sells “down rods” in various lengths to bring the fan further down. Of course these are not easily available. Fortunately these down roads are just 1/2″ iron plumbing pipe so we were able to buy 1/2″ x 12″ pipes (nipples) and use these to lower the fan an additional foot. The pipe was painted white to match the fan. The length of the supplied wiring harness was just long enough to allow the 12″ extension. The mounted fan is about eight feet above the floor.
There are various options for controlling the fans; wireless remotes and wall mounted speed and reverse controls (at extra cost), but we just wired ours to a regular wall switch. We felt we would never want to reverse the airflow to flow upward as one might do in cold climates, nor would we use the lower speeds. When we turn our fans on they are in the downdraft rotation mode on high speed. This works well for us in this hot climate.
Bracket for Hunter ceiling fan bolted to angle bar joists
Hunter fan showing 12" down rod
We now have air conditioning in two of our bedrooms but still the ceiling fans run almost continuously. Much of the time the fan provide enough circulation so we don’t use the air conditioning. When we do have the air conditioning on, the ceiling fans definitely stay on. The ceiling fans are much more effective at circulating the cool air and allow us to to set our air conditioners at a higher temperature. When it’s really hot we wish we had the higher volume Osprey fans rather than the ones we bought.
Although higher quality fans such as the Emerson units mentioned above seem overly expensive, they may well pay for themselves in a climate where the fans run more or less continuously and electrical costs are very high and rising.
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January 24, 2012 at 3:45 pm
Enjoy your posts… I do have a question… Does anyone use a whole house fan in the Philippines… Seems that they would be good to get the heat out of the houses with a relatively low cost system… I am thinking of locating in Cebu and with the cost of electricity I need an efficient way to cool the house… I can remember when i lived in a house cooled by a whole house fan… Seems like it would be perfect in the tropics… Does anyone have any ideas??? Your help will be appreciated…
February 2, 2012 at 10:01 am
James, I have heard other foreigners talk about whole house fans for the Philippines but I’ve never seen them in stores here. However, there are lots of high output industrial fans available. Because it cools off so quickly, I agree that such a fan is well worth trying. Bob
September 5, 2011 at 4:19 pm
Hi, Bob–Liked the above article; very informative. I didn’t see a post on ceiling light fixtures. Is there a way to use U.S. ceiling lights in the Phils? Just like with ceiling fans, there are so many more choices here in the U.S. and at better prices than in the Phils. The Home Depot guys I talked to said there’s a way to do it but I thought I would check with you. Would appreciate your input on this.
September 5, 2011 at 7:39 pm
Incandescent (not fluorescent) fixtures should work fine. You just need to use 220v incandescent or compact florescent bulbs with them. Any 120v fluorescent fixture which has a ballast is a problem.
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December 31, 2010 at 6:09 am
May the New Year bring plenty of Blessings to both of you in your new home. Finally you can truly say “we’re home”!!!
December 26, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Great meeting you two today. Fantastic job on the house! All the best, Pat & Myrna
December 26, 2010 at 11:08 am
Hello
Feliz Navida Bob And Carol.
We Also have (3) three of the hunter fans in our home and we are very happy with them. Very quiet and also effective on our mosquitos situation in Los Cabos.
We would like to extend our best wishes to you both for a happy new year in your home.
Michael Y Cheril
December 25, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Hello.
Merry Christmas to you Bob and Carol.
I read your thoughts about energy saving and other.
I have comments to the importing issues.
50HZ or 60HZ, it means that the rotationational field is 50 or 60 times a second. In a motor, the magnetic field is switched 50 or 60 times a second, but it make no difference in normal soft-iron motore, as they can deal with it. A very slightly higher loss in the iron is all, but the rotation field in a 3 pole / 3 line motor will be 20% higher, but as the fans are only 1 pole, and a “Shadow pole” the speed at 60Hz might not be that much more.
The higher speed will give more air, and a higher consumption, but as long as the motor isn’t overloaded, its not a problem.
Its a lot to save on energy between the mentioned fan’s. ??
from Emerson ECO to hunter its a 2000 pesos a year in consumption, which in the end will pay the more expensive ECO models. Evens its on sale for 449$ in Hansens, again the hunter 107$. Give a pay – even time of 6 years.
With regards.
John Thede
December 23, 2010 at 10:13 pm
Happy Holidays, Bob and Carol!! do you have your “TREE” up yet?
since Hunters are much cheaper here in the US, would you recommend buying a few units here to be installed there later? the plan is to have a crate sent with all the ‘worldly belongings’ worth bringing.
i’ll use your research as a guide in buying units…thanks for those pointers. Electric bill is huge there in Iloilo
December 24, 2010 at 9:43 am
Natie, Sorry no tree this year but thanks for your good wishes — you too!
Don’t bring ceiling fans unless you can find 220v 60 cycle versions at a good price. Much of the rest of the world is 220v 50 cycle. I don’t know if these would last in the Philippines. Yes, bring as much stuff as you can from your house there. We wish we had brought more.
Bob and Carol
December 23, 2010 at 9:07 am
Hi Bob, its always worth planning for the bedrooms to be on the East facing walls, then the sun wakes you up but leaves the room at noontime.
A fan also keeps the mosquitos away since they are poor fliers and don’t have stabilizers hoho
Hope you and Carol have a nice Christmas in your new home, best wishes for the new year and may your vegetables Flourish.
Peter
December 23, 2010 at 2:17 am
Bob, I find it admirable that you are making a strong attempt to live with out air conditioning. I have to admit that if it was me there would be air in the bedroom and perhaps another room that I spent a lot of time in. My air would run most likely every hour I was in that particular room. I am also sure that my electric bill would be high but its a luxury I think I would avail myself with. Merry Christmas.
December 23, 2010 at 10:10 am
Hi Ron, we are not martyrs! When we need air con to be comfortable, we’ll get it and use it. The wiring is all in and ready. The air con units are already researched and selected. Our house design will reduce but not eliminate the need for air con. I think we are just so enjoying having the construction over and living here that we are putting off further work (wardrobes, screens, aircon) to give ourselves a break. Best wishes — Bob and Carol
December 22, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Well, Bob, we’re over in nearby Guimaras and don’t have any ceiling fans installed yet. We did install an air con in our bedroom, however, this past April, as I just couldn’t take the heat anymore. Before that we were just using the oscillating fans that you mention.
December is the best month for sleeping in the Philippines, at least in our region, and I usually don’t even need any fans during the day now. Looks like you have done a lot of research. Definitely will check out the ceiling fans, though. Thanks for the info.
December 22, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Hi Dave, before we moved into our house we were in a very nice apartment, but it was so hot we had to use aircon in our bedroom almost every night. When we built the house we put in circuits for split aircon units. We’ll probably install at least one unit in a guest bedroom. We have a good friend who has emphysema who we want to come visit us. He could not survive here without aircon. As for our bedroom, we’re going to wait to see how comfortable we are without aircon. If we have to get a unit it will be a Panasonic inverter type split unit. We had Panasonic splits in our apartment and loved them. But even with aircon, ceiling fans can allow you to turn up the temperature on the aircon. In our apartment we used a fan plus the aircon set at 29 degrees. Regards Bob
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