Ceiling fans are a great way to circulate the air in your home, maintain a more even temperature, and save on the heating bills, because they bring the warm area (hotter air rises up to the ceiling) back down into the living space, making for a more comfortable temperature so you don’t have to set the thermostat quite so high. But if you have low ceilings in your home—or tall people—it can be a challenge to install anything that hangs from the ceiling without causing other problems.
Low profile ceiling fans are the perfect solution and are sometimes referred to as “huggers” or “flush mount” models. These units install directly to the ceiling without a down rod, so they don’t hang down as far. Many measure 7.5 inches or less from the ceiling to the bottom of the fan blades, with an overall measurement of around 9.75 inches (some are even less than this) from the ceiling to the lowest point on the fan unit. This, of course, is utilizing the ceiling fan alone—without a light kit installed. For rooms with other lighting available, such as lamps, good ambient lighting from a window, or task lighting in other areas, this can be ideal.
There are a wide variety of low profile ceiling fans available to fit most any décor. Whether you prefer brass or wicker, an antique pewter finish or a modern contemporary style with strong, clean lines, there are many different styles to suit your home.
Crosby’s fans talk about how “relaxed” he was, how “natural,” how “casual and easygoing.” By the time Presley began causing sensations, the entire country had become relaxed, casual and easygoing, and its younger people seemed to be tired of it, for Elvis’s act was anything but soothing and scarcely what a parent of that placid age would have called “natural” for a young man. Elvis was unseemly, loud, gaudy, sexual—that gyrating pelvis!—in short, disturbing. He not only disturbed parents who thought music was a soothing by Crosby, but also reminded their young that they were full of the turmoil of youth and an appetite for excitement. At a time when the country had a population coming of age with no memory of troubled times, Presley spoke to a yearning for disturbance.
— Russell Baker (b. 1925)
Most low profile ceiling fans come with reversible blades so you can decide what kind of finish or color you’re looking at and coordinate them with your home. Some come with solid white blades. Others are available in faux walnut, oak, chestnut, natural maple, country pine, mahogany, and more.
The Modern Fan Company produces some very sleek contemporary models, like the Cirrus/Hugger model available in brushed mahogany, white glossed, or maple blades which comes in 36 inch, 42 inch, or 52 inch blade spans and includes a halogen or incandescent light—all of which mounts with an overall length configuration of just 13 inches from the ceiling. This contemporary version doesn’t utilize a pull chain, so it uses a wall mount switch and/or remote control instead.
Hunter offers the low profile III and IV models with blades in 42 inch, 48 inch, and 52 inch sizes, and Monte Carlo makes some very stylish hugger low profile ceiling fans, as well.
Mother baseball. I enjoy speculating about its bloody beginnings as a fertility rite. Funny that with all the verbiage about the sport no one mentions the obvious structural relationship between a baseball stadium and a womb: in design, a stadium is both a circle and a “ Y,” two notorious female symbols. The curved and sloping shape of the stands is like a plush endometrium in which we fans cozy up to watch a lone batter square off against the universe.... I especially like to think about that when announcers describe players’ bats as fast, corked, dead, quiet, live, or as loaded barrels—and pitches as high hard ones.
— Vanalyne Green, U. S. video artist. Originally published in M/E/A/N/I/N/G #1(December 1986)
Before you purchase any ceiling fan, it’s best to consider the height of your room from floor to ceiling, the height of the tallest person in your home (or likely to visit your home), the stride this person will be using at the point in the room where the ceiling fan will be mounted (some people have a bit of a bounce in their step), the configuration of the room, the arrangement of the furniture, and the traffic pattern in your home.
For instance, if you’re installing a ceiling fan over a kitchen table, you can probably get by with one that hangs a bit lower and perhaps includes a hanging light fixture, as well. But if you are installing a ceiling fan right over the main traffic area where people will be walking continually, you will want to have more clearance between the heads of anyone walking beneath that ceiling fan. In this case, low profile ceiling fans are definitely the way to go.
Even within the category of low profile ceiling fans, however, there are differences in the overall length configuration, so you will want to compare the minimum height you require for heat clearance in your home with the space required for installation for each specific model you consider and select the one that fits your needs best—both in size and design.