Early 80s Banvil 448 (n?)

[hazelsmrf]

I figure if there is anyone that can answer this question it would be here    I didn't realize that fans of fans were actually a thing  

My house was built in 1981,  it has a cathedral ceiling,  and this lovely fan:  (Please excuse the dust!  I can't reach up there,  the photo of the info plate was taken by attaching my camera to a stick!)







And this is the wall control,  I never noticed,  but it seems that it has been installed upside down -  you can see how observant I am,  I've owned the house for 10 years now!




The model seems to be written as 448-N.   When looking online for more information about this model,  or an installation manual or anything at all,  I've found other 448s but no N.  Any clue what the N might stand for?    I'm trying to figure out if there is a way to reverse the direction of the blades,  if there is they sure don't make it easy to figure out!  There are no obvious switches or buttons,  so I'm at a loss.    The fan is really more important in the winter for us,  all that precious heat is trapped up there,  and it's cold here!  (Montreal).   In the summer it blows the air downwards,  but if I had to choose only one direction,  I'd pick it blowing upwards for sure,  it would save me a lot on my heating bill!    If it can't rotate that way,  do you think I could just manually install the blades upside down?   I can't think of a reason why it wouldn't work,  but then again I'm not an expert on fans

I'd appreciate any information you guys know about my fan! 

[Jean Lemieux]

Bonjour et bienvenue sur Vintage Ceiling Fans. Je vis aussi à Montréal.

That's a very nice vintage Banvil you go there. I hope you keep it. We can see that the date is 1980 so it was installed at the same time the house was built.

I could not tell you what the N is for but I can tell you that this fan is not reversible and is meant to blow air only downward. They are similar fans that could be reversed but not this model. Usually the ones that are, have a nose on the bottom of the motor and pull chains or sometimes there will be a reversing switch located on the lower canopy.

[hazelsmrf]

Merci!    It seems like an odd choice for a cathedral ceiling in a location where the heating bills are a bigger concern than cooling down in the summer!   I do like the fan,  and I certainly don't want to volunteer to climb up there to replace it (eeep!) but I'm wondering if it might be cost effective down the line to have a fan to circulate the heat trapped up there,  the winter hydro bills are scary!   The only reason I even thought to check if I could reverse the fan is that i'm going through the house and trying to improve insulation and cut drafts etc,  I'm a bit sick of the 600$/month electricity bills in the winter!

[Jean Lemieux]

Is this the only ceiling fan in the house? It's actually pretty common to have a ceiling fan on a ceiling of this kind, it's just that not everyone knows that not all fans are reversible. The highest part of the ceiling is more than three meters tall? It's difficult to imagine the proportions without seeing the whole room. I never heard of someone having 600$ electrical bills in Montréal in the winter for a house of 5 bedrooms or less.

Running it on the lowest speed, even on downdraft, should help circulate the heat, it's just that it will create a little unwanted draft underneath but if the blades are more than two meters from the floor, the draft will not be felt much. I would try it.

[hazelsmrf]

I'll give it a shot.    The first photo was taken from the 2nd story,  it's just that the fan is further out,  I can't lean over the rail far enough to reach it,  so it can only be accessed from the main floor.  Which would require a longer ladder than I own,  and someone with less vertigo.   600$ bills,  I wish I was kidding.  It is a 5 bedroom detached home,  electric baseboard heaters,  but the insulation we're starting to realize was really not a great job.  The house is drafty and every year I get it a bit more efficient (new windows,  better insulation,  find random gaps and plug them) but there's still obviously some work to be done.     But I probably heat more than the average,  because my old apartment in Rosemont was gas heating and the winter bills were 700$ per month,  and that was in 2000!

Oh and yes,  it's the only fan in the house!

[hazelsmrf]

(I'll probably also just take out an old box fan and point it at the ceiling from the 2nd floor, should work without having to replace the ceiling fan, which I really didn't want to do!)

[Deleted]

i perfer not to replace it,keep it as long as you can/like

[Obi-Wan Canopy]

I like this fan a lot.

Running it on low should have the same heat reclamation effect as running it in reverse.

[hazelsmrf]

It's running on low now, will see how it goes, you can't really feel any drafts from it from below.

[Max C.]

Hello Hazel, welcome to VCF! Echoing what others have already stated, that is one stunning fan.   In regards to electric bills, your heating situation is clearly the main culprit. Electric baseboard heating is generally expensive to begin with.  Couple that with already high rates, and the outrageous prices you pay are (unfortunately) to be expected.  If not installed already, programmable thermostats are a solid option for saving energy.  I would also suggest a complete LED-replaming for your entire house, however that would not likely prove beneficial in Winter due to their low typically heat-output.

I hope this helps,

Max