ceiling fan questions

[borderboy1971]

I'm in the process of rough wiring my new shop, and am wondering if anyone knows how many ceiling fans I can put on one circuit? I'm in saskatchewan Canada if it makes any difference to code. I'm pretty sure on any single circuit we are allowed up to 10 or 12 outlets, but I have never put that many on a circuit anyways. I'm just not sure if a fan qualifies the same?

Also, does anyone have a recommendation for how many fans I should put in the shop? I realize I could buy a big *** fan but that's just not in my budget. The shop is approximately 3800 Sq ft.

 

[wssix99]

Fans will have an amperage rating on them, so you can simply calculate it out. A large household fan will draw less than 1A. If you are going to have more than two fans, I'd definitely put them on their own breaker. (They tend to create a lot of electrical "noise.")

Your biggest problem is probably going to have with a lot of fans is a switch/control. Having a single control that operates more than one fan gets really complicated/expensive, so you'll definitely want to research that before you wire.

If you control multiple fans from one control, you'll need a special multi-fan control. (Otherwise, be sure to have a fire extinguisher handy!) The challenge with multi-fan controllers is that they make the motors hum-loudly. You can get no-hum controllers, but they can cost more than the fan. High amperage multi-fan controllers cost even more.

 

[rburke65]

Yes this will depend on the current draw of the fans and the size of the wire that you have installed. So.....can you run conduit to ceiling boxes for the fans from your panel and that way you might becover d for the future fans. Make sure you run large enough conduit of course. I have no idea ho many fans you plan to have but don't forget you might want to run conduit down to a location for the switche(s). Good luck.