Wanted to get opinions on the design of ceiling fan lights when they will be the primary way to light a room. It seems that many ceiling fans with integrated LEDs don't "fill" rooms with light as well as those with standard bulbs. Most are designed with the light facing down, and those with just a small disk feel more like a spotlight to me. Do others agree?

I'm considering getting a Hunter fan of some type (examples below) since you can choose your bulbs, and the light covers stick out a bit which will hopefully cast the light outward rather than just straight down.

I recommend nixing the ceiling fan light kit and just installing 4 disc/wafer lights. They look like cans but take a normal 4" rough in box. Last nearly forever and don't have to change light bulbs. Light kits in on fans cheapen the overall look IMO.

• BULBS INCLUDED: Includes 2, 9-Watt energy-efficient, dimmable LED bulbs
• A 60-watt incandescent bulb emits the same light output as a 9-watt LED 800 lumens
• Dining room: 3,000 to 4,000 lumens. Living room: 1,000 to 2,000 lumens. Bedroom: 1,000 to 2,000 lumens. Hallway: 500 to 1,000 lumens.

So it seems to meet the criteria to light an average sized bedroom but rooms larger (MBR) or needing brighter lighting will require additional fixtures to serve ... reading & other tasks.

I never found 2x60w sufficient in any room in-the-day, not even when the halogen appeared.
As a general light or moody ambiance only, then OK.

In MBR planning, we use the recessed cans (see above opinion) in addition to light kits but the kits can go if enough cans, lamps, etc. are present.

Ceiling fan lights are not near bright enough for a 10x10 room that I have looked at lately
Get the thin recess lights that you can cut in exactly where you want them, if you hit a rafter no big deal, they still pop in. I just did 2 bedrooms and it is absolutely a game changer

All of the rooms in our house have fans as the only source of lighting. When I installed them, I selected fans that had standard light bulbs, four bulbs each, to be exact. They came with bright LED bulbs. They are quite bright and more than adequate in my opinion. 4 800-1000 lumen bulbs on a 10' ceilings satisfies even my want for lighting.

Plus, when all those fancy 250,000 hour LED bulbs burn out in 4 months, you can run down to Walmart and buy an 8 pack of 6 bucks and replace them. When the leds in the OP fan stop working, you'll likely do without lights or buy a new fan. That sucks.

Shayboy3 said:

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Ceiling fan lights are not near bright enough for a 10x10 room that I have looked at lately
Get the thin recess lights that you can cut in exactly where you want them, if you hit a rafter no big deal, they still pop in. I just did 2 bedrooms and it is absolutely a game changer

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This right here. I think there is also a big difference in position of the light. 1500+ lumen from center of room has a completely different feel that 1500 from every corner reflecting off the walls at 2-3'.

Personally, I don't care for most ANY of the lights or light kits that come on ceiling fans. I don't think a central light as located won't light up walls or corners without shadows.
That being said our past house have 'can light' in addition to the ceiling fan light, and was new enough that at least the light was on a separate switch.

I have recently seen what looks like 'can lights' in your big box home improvement stores, but actually they are about the thickness of the sheetrock, So they can be installed almost anywhere in the ceiling. These are LED's and several you can control the brightness with a provided remote or you phone.

As far as switches go, IF your lights are on a separate switch not problem. Just delete the light kit. If they are not, all you need to do is get 1 more wire (conductor) down to your switch box, change from a std light switch to a combo switch. (Good electricians can pull out your 3 wire cable and replace it with a 4 and wiring in the attic is relatively simple. Even following the code.

A lot of builders put a 3 wire to the ceiling box and switch and cap them. Cheaper fans (builder junk) just use black and you pull a string for fan speed.

I was able to repurpose the red in every switch and then just had to deal with daisy chaining the red from the fan to all 4 corners.

tgivaughn said:

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• BULBS INCLUDED: Includes 2, 9-Watt energy-efficient, dimmable LED bulbs
• A 60-watt incandescent bulb emits the same light output as a 9-watt LED 800 lumens
• Dining room: 3,000 to 4,000 lumens. Living room: 1,000 to 2,000 lumens. Bedroom: 1,000 to 2,000 lumens. Hallway: 500 to 1,000 lumens.

So it seems to meet the criteria to light an average sized bedroom but rooms larger (MBR) or needing brighter lighting will require additional fixtures to serve ... reading & other tasks.

I never found 2x60w sufficient in any room in-the-day, not even when the halogen appeared.
As a general light or moody ambiance only, then OK.

In MBR planning, we use the recessed cans (see above opinion) in addition to light kits but the kits can go if enough cans, lamps, etc. are present.

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I think the OP is right about the pattern though. Light bulbs are going to throw light in all directions, so in those globe type light kits you probably do get more light thrown outward. If you put a bunch of LEDs on a circuit board pointing downward, it won't get the same coverage.

I would put the thin led recessed lights all over the place. I'm hoping that more fan options without light kits become available. Not expecting it though.

TMoney2007 said:

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I think the OP is right about the pattern though. Light bulbs are going to throw light in all directions, so in those globe type light kits you probably do get more light thrown outward. If you put a bunch of LEDs on a circuit board pointing downward, it won't get the same coverage.

I would put the thin led recessed lights all over the place. I'm hoping that more fan options without light kits become available. Not expecting it though.

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I can share photos of ours later, but a led wafer in each corner for a room does a great job of hitting the walls and reflecting light. It's all personal preference, but I don't even bother with lights on ceiling fans anymore.

We replaced ours with a Minka Aire fan that doesn't even include lights.

One thing to keep in mind: it's important that the LED light be far enough away from a ceiling fan so that it doesn't strobe. I dislike that too. =]

Minka Aire made the fans that we put up under my mom's patio cover. They were one of the few options for modern-ish looking fans that didn't have lights.

Shayboy3 said:

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Ceiling fan lights are not near bright enough for a 10x10 room that I have looked at lately
Get the thin recess lights that you can cut in exactly where you want them, if you hit a rafter no big deal, they still pop in. I just did 2 bedrooms and it is absolutely a game changer

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This has been my solution. Even with 100W equivalent LEDs in the fans, it's not enough to adequately light the corners of the room. I use flat LEDs in the corners.

+whatever on can or wafer lights. Most of the light kits where you can get any kind of real bulb tend to look tacky as F, I type as I stare at one in my dining room. Most of the integral light kits are kind of, here, we added a light for you, check the box, and limited by energy requirements. Then the 5hitass limiter fails and they blink.

I will caution you about adding downlights. When I did it in our living room, we had to get new furniture. You see the 9 years of wear nobody'd noticed before. Stick a dimmer on them and you can go from soft ambient to operating room.

Quote:

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I will caution you about adding downlights. When I did it in our living room, we had to get new furniture. You see the 9 years of wear nobody'd noticed before. Stick a dimmer on them and you can go from soft ambient to operating room.

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Oh yeah, all the new things you'll see can be horrifying.

Get a fan with a 4 light kit that points at angles outward


4 60 watt eq led gets you 3200 lumens

4 100 watt eq led gets you 6000 lumens