The 10 Best Ceiling Fans With Lights
This wiki has been updated 29 times since it was first published in April of 2017. If your bedroom, den, or basement does not have many windows, there’s a decent chance it could get both muggy and dim on occasion. One of these ceiling fans with lights can help you vanquish the heat, improve air circulation, and significantly brighten up any space in one fell swoop. Some are safe for outdoor areas, too. For safety's sake, these should only be installed by a licensed electrician. When users buy our independently chosen editorial choices, we may earn commissions to help fund the Wiki.
1. Westinghouse Brentford
2. Westinghouse Comet
3. Harbor Breeze Mazon
Editor's Notes
July 09, 2019:
Moving into the top two spots on the list are Westinghouse models, which are made by a 133-year-old manufacturer of electrical products. The Brentford sports a rustic design that’s great for a den or any other room where you want to relax, as well as covered outdoor porches and patios. The Comet is a budget-friendly choice that’s both powerful and convenient, with a steel motor and built-in switch for easily reversing the blades’ direction. Both of these selections come with detailed instructions and are easy to install. (Any product that involves working with live wires should be installed only by an experienced, licensed electrician.)
For another affordable option, consider the Harbor Breeze Mazon, which is ideal for small rooms, thanks to its compact size and flush-mount design. It comes with dimming capabilities and an integrated, 18-watt LED module. Its sleek, brushed nickel finish looks great with most decor.
When choosing the right ceiling fan for you, consider factors like the dimensions of your room, size of the fan, the number of blades, and the materials it’s made with. For those who prefer or need a flush-mount ceiling fan, there are plenty of options that come either with or without illumination. The same can be said for ones that come with remote controls. Whichever you choose, for safety’s sake, be sure to have it installed by a professional.
October 12, 2018:
Removed two items due to user-reported quality issues and another due to availability concerns. Noted that the Westinghouse Harmony tends to make noise. Added the RainierLight Crystal and LuxureFan Industrial, both of which offer links to videos that help with installation.
4. RainierLight Crystal
5. LuxureFan Industrial
6. Hunter Kingsbridge
7. Hunter Hatherton
8. Westinghouse Harmony
9. Craftmade Litex
10. Hunter Key Biscayne
How A Ceiling Fan Keeps You Cool
It turns out that sweat glands don’t just exist to embarrass you with pit stains and a sopping wet brow whenever you try to ask someone on a date.
A ceiling fan keeps you cool in much the same way as any fan does, or any breeze for that matter. This is actually a two-part process, involving both the intake of fresh air and the evaporation of sweat.
As a fan blows, it moves air around the room, often bringing in fresh and expelling old air, though this will have a lot to do with whether there are any window or doors open at the time. That fresh air will often be cooler, especially if the space you’re in is heating up, in part, due to the number of bodies in it. Generally, this air cycling will leave you feeling less hot, even if it doesn’t do much for the temperature of the space. Since most of the cool air in a room occupies the space around the floor, however, a fan’s ability to whip it up and mix it with the warmer air around your core and head should make a difference of a degree or two.
The second part of a fan’s cooling process is, by far, the more powerful, and it’s directly related to the human anatomy, specifically the sweat glands. It turns out that sweat glands don’t just exist to embarrass you with pit stains and a sopping wet brow whenever you try to ask someone on a date. They also serve the purpose of helping to regulate your body temperature. To be exact, the chemical composition of nervous sweat and hot sweat is actually quite different, but that’s for another article. The sweat you put out when your body temperature rises is relying on the phenomenon of evaporation to keep you from overheating.
The rate of evaporation for a body of water can be affected by a number of variables, one of which is air flow. The faster air flows across a body of water, the faster that water evaporates. If that body of water were a single bead of sweat, it would evaporate more quickly with air flowing over it, and when your sweat evaporates, that process ferries some of your body’s heat away from you thanks to the laws of thermodynamics.
Don’t believe me? Let’s do a quick experiment. Go ahead and lick one of your forearms. Your choice. Now, hold your arms next to one another and blow on them. The one you licked feels cooler, right? Welcome to science.
Choosing The Right Ceiling Fan For Your Home
Before we give you the lowdown on choosing a good ceiling fan for your home, it's important to understand the potential dangers that face you with its installation. If you're purchasing a new ceiling fan to replace an old one, then some of the already existing hardware might make your installation process a little easier. If you're installing your new ceiling fan from scratch, however, then you can anticipate a significant amount of electrical work, and possibly a little carpentry to get the thing set up. In either case, if you have any reservations whatsoever about doing this job yourself, please hire a professional. They get paid to get electrocuted and fall off ladders; you don’t.
Now that that’s out of the way, we can talk about the fans themselves.
Now that that’s out of the way, we can talk about the fans themselves. And let’s be honest: we could get into the nitty gritty of blade speeds, motor power, construction materials, and a few other aspects of these fans that could really matter to you down the line — and you should look into these things — but your primary concern with a new ceiling fan is going to be style.
So, make sure you find something that either complements the decor you already have or that can be part of the first wave in a transformation of your space. That means opting for matching or complementary colors, and blade shapes that don’t clash to much with the furniture beneath them.
Since you’re investing in a ceiling fan with a built-in light fixture, you’ll want to pay particular attention to this component. Not only is the style of this crucial, but you’ll also want to investigate how many bulbs it can hold, and what their maximum brightness can be. If your light is too dim, or its fixture not quite right for the space, you might not find yourself using it enough to justify the purchase. It’s better to get something the brightness of which you can more easily control that really complements the look you’re going for.
Other Great Ways To Beat The Heat
A ceiling fan is one of the most effective tools for beating back the summer heat short of running your air conditioner all day long. If you need some extra help in that department, there are some great additional means you can employ to help keep you cool.
It won’t do the same work as an AC unit, but it will make a noticeable difference at a fraction of the electricity cost.
If you need a little extra breath of cool air in a space that won’t accommodate a ceiling fan, an evaporative cooler can work wonders. This device creates a cross breeze combined with a burst of cool air created by strategic evaporation just behind the placement of its fan. It won’t do the same work as an AC unit, but it will make a noticeable difference at a fraction of the electricity cost.
Floor fans and standing fans are also great additions to your cooling strategy, as these can be placed pretty much anywhere you like. That can come in handy if you’re busy in the kitchen and your ceiling fan is doing its work in the living room. If you can, it's usually a smart idea to place one of these facing out a window, which will help create a cross breeze and get hot, stale air out of your space.
Perhaps most importantly, however, is to remember to stay hydrated. Dehydration can really result in an awful experience, and having enough water in your body will help you sweat sufficiently, which we already discussed is the main way your body keeps itself cool. Grab an icy glass of unsweetened tea or some infused water to keep it healthy while you’re at it.
Karen Bennett lives in Chicago with her family, and when she’s not writing, she can usually be found practicing yoga or cheering on her kids at soccer games. She holds a master’s degree in journalism and a bachelor’s in English, and her writing has been published in various local newspapers, as well as “The Cheat Sheet,” “Illinois Legal Times,” and “USA Today.” She has also written search engine news page headlines and worked as a product manager for a digital marketing company. Her expertise is in literature, nonfiction, textbooks, home products, kids' games and toys, hardware, teaching accessories, and art materials.