[PLUG-TALK] fan speed control..

Russ Johnson russj at dimstar.net
Sat Jul 2 04:12:38 UTC 2005


Brent Rieck said:
>   Does anybody know if I can safely use a standard incandescent light
> dimmer to control the speed of the fan?  I built a little test rig using
> parts from my electrical scrap bin and it works to control the speed of
> the fan, but I have safety concerns - will the switch overheat and catch
> fire, will the fan overheat and catch fire, will either crap out while
> I'm out of town for a week and cause all my machines to melt down, etc,
> etc.

http://www.fancollectors.org/info/speed.htm

See this site.

Specifically:

FAN DIMMER, or ELECTRONIC FAN SPEED CONTROL: $ 10-20
(Solid state phase angle firing of a triac with additional needed
components for inductive load (motor) operation) I've seen them with a
rotary switch or a slider control. They always turn on at high speed and
then adjust to slow. Good ones have a minimum speed adjustment. (If they
don't have a min. speed adjustment they don't go very slow.) (Get one with
a user settable minimum speed adjustment) No solid state dimmer operates
real well at real low speeds. Fan dimmer type speed controls are usually
rated about 5 amps. Did I say to get one with a minimum speed
adjustment??? These controls are quite efficient.

-- 
Russ Johnson
Stargate Online
http://www.dimstar.net




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