Monday, July 9, 2007

My Love Hate Relationship with Ceiling Fans

I love ceiling fans. They are energy efficient and they don't take up any space. I hate them because they are a pain in the butt to install. All those wires, and you have to stuff them into that tiny box in the ceiling. The remote control, the fan blades, the poorly written installation instructions -- it can take a few hours to put one up. Plus, the decent looking ones are not cheap. But, I have three of them. Until last night, the third one was sitting in the box for over six months. Why? Because it required moving one fan from upstairs to downstairs and the second was a new install. Plus, one had a wall mounted motor controller, while the other was remote control. But the heatwave dictated that this was the time to finally do it.

A few frustrating hours later, we had three installed and fully functioning fans. Victory. Except, when I went to turn on the circuit in the basement, I discovered that the basement lights and the dining room light were no longer working. The lack of light in the basement made it impossible to find the voltmeter with a flashlight. One step forward, two steps back. Well, at least the reduced lighting and the additional fan makes the house feel a bit cooler during this heatwave. And hopefully it won't take six months to get this next repair done.