non-electric ceiling fan???

bobrok

Hello,
I chose the "green" forum as the best place to post this. If I need to be redirected please acknowledge.
Has anyone ever heard of or seen plans for a mechanical (that is, a non-electrically operated) ceiling fan? I'm looking for something to gently push the heat down from the ceiling when heating my off-grid cabin in the winter and I would love to cobble something together if I just knew how to apply the mechanics of, say, an old fashioned wind up mantle clock to the propulsion of fan blades. I figure I would have to rewind frequently but I am prepared to deal with that part if the other is possible.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance for replies.

DangerMouse

you might be able to retrofit something from an old grandfather's clock with the pull chains.

just a thought

DM

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Rio del Viento

Were you able to find plans for a mechanical off-the-grid ceiling fan? I am looking for the same thing.

DangerMouse

another idea could be a solar powered attic fan. although it would have drawbacks.

DM

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giascott

At some point, touring some historic site, they had a ceiling fan that was powered by a wind up spring, not unlike winding up a clock. I've been searching trying to find someone that still manufactures these fans, but so far-no luck. I don't even know who made them in the 1800s. I'm fairly certain that wherever I saw this original fan was in the western USA, but it was still likely to have been manufactured in the east.

johnconor

If you are attempting to conserve energy, create constant airflow, or just want to add a decorative touch to any room, an electric ceiling fan might just be what you are looking for. An electric ceiling fan will cool in the warm months and pull warm air down from the ceiling during colder months.

giascott

I think the whole point was NON-electric for a variety of reasons. The fan I saw was would by an oversized "key". I think it had 2 teeth that fit into the fan gear works with a simple crank handle that was operated from the floor level-the fan was like 12-15 ft off the floor.

DangerMouse

i still think a small solar/battery unit would be fine, although i like the idea of a spring wound better.
i'd like a link to any photos of what you saw, giascott. i googled antique fans, found mention of them, but no pics.
a grandfather clock type chain pull system would still work too..... but of course, you'd be forced to use some ingenuity to create it....

DM

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johnconor

An electric ceiling fan will cool in the warm months and pull warm air down from the ceiling during colder months.i still think a small solar/battery unit would be fine, although i like the idea of a spring wound better.

Scuba_Dave

Perhaps you missed the "off grid" fact??

I saw one that worked off a pulley system
Connected to a bicycle somehow

DIYtestdummy

My grandfather had something like that many years ago...geez, I was very tiny then, suprised that I still remember.

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gma2rjc

Were there some playing cards connected to the spokes of the wheels, by any chance? J/K...

MBunker

I don't know if this story will help, but who knows. In 1999 I had a two day stop in New Orleans. It was my first time to New Orleans so I decided to catch a cab to the French Quarter and check things out. After a lot of walking around, I found myself in a bar/cafe establishment eating a sandwich. I noticed that the ceiling fans were all connected by belts (like... fan belts). All the fans (about 12 or so) turned lazily and I couldn't help but stare at them because they looked so old. After I had been there about 20 minutes, I noticed the bartender go over near the main entrance door and he pulled on a long chain that went up near the ceiling. It turns out that the fans were operated (like an earlier responder said) like an old grandfather clock. Once every half hour or so, the bartender would walk over and pull this long chain and the fans would keep spinning. Anyway, later on (about 6 years ago) when I was moving my whole family off-grid, I looked up these fans to see if I could find any. I wasn't able to find any of these non-electric fan belt fans online, but I found replicas that were powered by fan belts. The fan belt of the first fan came from a small motor that turned all the subsequent fans in order. Maybe something like that could be retrofitted with some mechanism like a grandfather clock chain. Then I looked up the history of those fan belt fans and it seems that New Orleans (and much of the south) was really a "hot spot" (so to speak) of the non-electric fan business. However, when small motors became affordable, many of the New Orleans businesses installed a small motor outside the back of the establishment and powered the old non-electric fans with the small motor. It would be great to find some of the old antique chain mechanisms and fix up a non-electric fan system for my cabin and office. We have been off-grid for 5 years and would never go back.

Anyway, don't know if this story helped.

MB

eredluin

Hi, I was searching/googling for the same type of fan. Did you ever find one, or make one?

CNM Design

Last time I saw one of those, it was on an old Tarzan movie. It hung from the ceiling of the hut and some native was pulling on a rope. Do you have any kids?

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