Below are some pics of the ceiling fans we have in our 2nd and 3rd bedrooms as well as my office (installed by the builder before we came along). They are OK for the most part, but the light isn't very bright and it's sort of annoying sometimes. I thought I might be able to put some brighter bulbs in, but I can't seem to find a way to access the lights on these things. I did some reading and found that some ceiling fans are now coming with "integrated LED" lights. I assume this is done because those LEDs should last for a very long time, but not having access to them is a little annoying.

I'm not really interested in adding recessed lighting to these rooms (we have recessed lighting in the master and it's great). I'm just trying to find out if I have any options or not.

Does anyone have any experience with these? Is there a way to open the globe that I'm just not seeing? (I've tried unscrewing pretty much anything I can move)





Thanks!

Good chance that they are not using a lamp. It'll be diodes stamped onto a surface. I have no idea how you would add anymore to make it brighter. I'd probably complain to the builder and see if you can switch the whole fixture out with something brighter.

Does it have a remote?

Nope

Find out who makes the fan and switch the light kit out with one that uses actual bulbs. Watch out for light kits that use mini base bulbs. They're just as bad as the integrated led units.

A lot of the slim light housings have an array or surface mounted LEDs that can't be changed.

I had a home declarations fan like this, but it'd put out 1000 lm or something significant.

Lamps?

Post a pic of the lamps please

The white glass globe at the bottom is not removable....At least not that I can tell. I thought it might thread into the fixture above it, but no luck. Then I thought maybe there were some screws that help hold it in place that I could access from above (see 2nd pic), nope again.

TwoMarksHand said:

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Good chance that they are not using a lamp. It'll be diodes stamped onto a surface. I have no idea how you would add anymore to make it brighter. I'd probably complain to the builder and see if you can switch the whole fixture out with something brighter.

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I think you're probably right about no lamps. My under-cabinet lighting in the kitchen looks like it would have fluorescent bulbs, but when you pull off the cover it's just a long strip of diodes.
This light probably has a cluster of diodes. I might just have to deal with it. It's not horrible, just not as bright as I would prefer.

OldArmyBrent said:

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Lamps?

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Lighting industry term for bulbs.

That white thing probably just screws right off. If you can see in there for the diode connect you might can get some more powerful diode's and change them out

I just went and tried it again. It does not unscrew. It looks like it was seated down into the metal part surrounding it and then the light components and top cover were set on top and clamped down. Looks like it is not built to be messed with.
I'm going to try and see if I can track down the manufacturer info.

The three screws in the part with the fan switch should allow removal of the light kit.

Texag1987 is correct
The three screws on housing where fan reversal switch is located

You are both correct. And I'm an idiot, or just a whimp.

I took out the 3 screws and got the light assembly on the table and started taking apart as much as I could, only to hit a dead end again. So I tried the globe again and i was finally able to break it loose. It was on pretty tight, but I guess I was just afraid I was going to break it.
Inside there were 2 regular CFL bulbs. I replaced them with a couple of brighter LED bulbs. Problem solved.

Thanks!

Well, at least you figured it out!

tsuag10 said:

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You are both correct. And I'm an idiot, or just a whimp.

I took out the 3 screws and got the light assembly on the table and started taking apart as much as I could, only to hit a dead end again. So I tried the globe again and i was finally able to break it loose. It was on pretty tight, but I guess I was just afraid I was going to break it.
Inside there were 2 regular CFL bulbs. I replaced them with a couple of brighter LED bulbs. Problem solved.

Thanks!

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Wait...the fixture claimed it had "integrated LEDs", but yet you pulled regular CFLs outta there? That seems like some false advertising.

Quote:

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I did some reading and found that some ceiling fans are now coming with "integrated LED" lights.

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Some do. His, obviously, was a CFL. I don't think he has the literature on his fans.

****re-reading the title, I see he indicated he had integrated LED's. Was probably assuming is my guess. ****

TwoMarksHand said:

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OldArmyBrent said:

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Lamps?

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Lighting industry term for bulbs.

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I got that. I was suggesting floor or table lamps.

TexAg1987 is correct. When I couldn't open it at first, I incorrectly assumed it had integrated LEDs.

Ahh. I gotcha.

The fan in our living room has this crap and it's annoying as hell that we can't change to a brighter bulb. I'd change fans if it wasn't a 2 story living room that required scaffolding to change.

Speaking of, does anybody have any idea how much scaffolding would be if I chose to toss this POS fan out and put in a good one?

aTm2004 said:

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The fan in our living room has this crap and it's annoying as hell that we can't change to a brighter bulb. I'd change fans if it wasn't a 2 story living room that required scaffolding to change.

Speaking of, does anybody have any idea how much scaffolding would be if I chose to toss this POS fan out and put in a good one?

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12' scaffold at Home depot for $32/4 hrs or $46/day

***Edit*** says working height is 6' Not sure if tall enough. They have some big ladders too.


[url=https://www.homedepot.com/tool-truck-rental/Interior-Scaffold/APHDI-41837/][/url]
https://www.homedepot.com/tool-truck-rental/Interior-Scaffold/APHDI-41837/

I've got 2 story ceiling in our family room and entry way, and we replaced a couple of 20 foot light fixtures/ceiling fans when we moved in. I found the cheapest (and safest) option was to just hire out the work to a handyman. Was surprisingly cheap.

Thanks for the replies. We've kicked around the idea of replacing it (and might as well do the lighting fixture in the foyer as well), but never thought about hiring a handyman to do it. Pretty simple stuff but getting to it is hard.

aTm2004 said:

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The fan in our living room has this crap and it's annoying as hell that we can't change to a brighter bulb. I'd change fans if it wasn't a 2 story living room that required scaffolding to change.

Speaking of, does anybody have any idea how much scaffolding would be if I chose to toss this POS fan out and put in a good one?

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If you like the ceiling fan itself, you could just purchase a new light kit and replace the old one with it...

Gary79Ag said:

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aTm2004 said:

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The fan in our living room has this crap and it's annoying as hell that we can't change to a brighter bulb. I'd change fans if it wasn't a 2 story living room that required scaffolding to change.

Speaking of, does anybody have any idea how much scaffolding would be if I chose to toss this POS fan out and put in a good one?

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If you like the ceiling fan itself, you could just purchase a new light kit and replace the old one with it...

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I do like the fan itself, but the wife doesn't. You know who will win that battle.

aTm2004 said:

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Thanks for the replies. We've kicked around the idea of replacing it (and might as well do the lighting fixture in the foyer as well), but never thought about hiring a handyman to do it. Pretty simple stuff but getting to it is hard.

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Yeah, I usually do all of this kind of stuff myself and don't initially think handyman either, but once I was to the point of having to investigate scaffolding to do it safely myself, that's then I decided to check out the handyman route. I think they did both for something like $100 total. Maybe $150, but I'm pretty sure it was $100-125 total.

That's really not bad at all.

Yeah, I don't really know what the going rate for ceiling fan installation is. This was just a handyman that our RE agent used a lot and we ended up using for a few things on the house we were selling at the time. So maybe I just caught a break, or maybe there are plenty of others out there willing to do it for similar. But compared to the thought of renting, transporting, and assembling scaffolding and then dangling a couple of light fixtures 25+ feet up, for $100ish bucks, I was like "take my money".

Maybe look at renting a scissor lift from HD. I looked into it previously and don't remember them being too expensive for a day.