I have one of these mounted on a wall in my backyard (but a 4 blade fan):
It spins too fast, even on the lowest setting and is noisier than I would like. I considered removing two blades, but would need to grind them off, so it’s a one way trip and am unsure if the reduced drag would just increase speed and keep noise similar.
Could I instead wire in some electrical componentry (before the on/off/speed selector switch, for example) to lower the delivered power to the motor?
Whaty would I need to determine appropriate components and would a lower power load damage the motor, or just potentially affect it’s efficiency?
Or should I just, you know, not fuck with it and get a smaller fan?
Maybe get a smaller fan. But if you want to reduce speed, you need to reduce voltage. This is done with a resistor. However, a lot of electric things have a kind of “minimum voltage” to get going/operate. Sometimes adding resistance messes this up. With a fan I’m guessing you won’t have this issue as it’s a direct current with probably no circuit board in it. But I’ll defer to the experts on this one.
While in theory adding resistance to the circuit does reduce the voltage at the load, this is rarely done in practice. The main reason being the resistance takes the energy and converts it directly to heat. This is counter productive for a device meant for cooling the area, ands its wasteful of the energy. In practice the best way to do it is ad a transformer, and step down the voltage. Another way this is done is with a Variable Frequency Drive, wich lowers the speed that some motors turn.
Some motors do not respond well to either of these options, and with the price of transformers your best bet is to just get a new fan.
I use something similar for 2 porch ceiling fans (for over 20 years) that I don’t use the pull chains on anymore, set the fan to high manually, then use the control switch to operate it / turn it on/off.
I’d have to check when I get home, I think this is the exact one:
I see your fan uses 280watts max, but doesn’t list the starting amps, which I am guessing is <1 amp.
Eh… many wallwort power supplies use a diode regulator, which essentially does the same thing: dissipates the excess power as heat. Voltage dividers are rarely used in commercial power supplies because diode regulators produce a regulated output with components that are the same cost, rather than because of heat dissipation issues. But even for efficient step-down power supplies (like those used for laptops or phone chargers) actual inductive transformers (at mains frequency) are also rare, because switched capacitor regulators are cheaper, more compact, and just as efficient.
I don’t know enough about commercial fan motors to say for certain how to modify their speed. It’s almost certainly some sort of induction motor, but without knowing how it’s wound, and its datasheet characteristics, it’s difficult to give good advice, except that at least part of that fan motor casing has line-level AC inside it and you should really know what you’re doing before you mess with it. Worst case, you screw up grounding and end up electrifying the fan cage.
Those fan controllers are neat, but be aware they’re for a specific application. (Grainger even calls out specific fan part numbers that they’re intended to be used with.) Probably you can get away with using a ceiling fan controller on another ceiling fan, but be careful. Getting it wrong means fire, wrecked equipment and/or electrocution.
Almost all ceiling fans use AC motors and work fine with what is essentially an external dimmer switch controller, but there are plenty of standing or window mount fans that use DC motors. Reducing the input voltage to a DC motor will have no effect on the fan speed until you cross a threshold where the regulator breaks down. I can’t tell from the website what kind of motor that fan has.
OTOH, I’m not a motor guy. Every time I have a project that requires a motor or motor controller, I have to pull out my old textbooks, reference guide and datasheets and do a careful refresher before beginning the design.
