every electric (non-ceiling) fan I have ever used is operated with a dial with settings off, high, mid, and low in that order. Why does it go from off straight to high? Why not do the more intuitive “get higher the more you turn away from off”?
In: 935
Modern fans exist that work with DC current, not AC, and thus haven’t those limitations. They even have like 30 different speeds instead of the simple low, medium and high, and other fancy features like sucking ground level air so it’s fresher.
There is an entire, long, in-depth explanation to this here, [https://youtu.be/hQ3GW7lVBWY](https://youtu.be/hQ3GW7lVBWY)
But for the TLDR : Fan motors are not very powerful, and need to run at high setting momentarily to reliably overcome the resting weight of the blades to start spinning
Some fans will have troubles starting up if power is applied from a still state to the lowest setting.
Putting the “high” position between “low” and “off” mitigates that issue by ideally forcing the fan to be briefly run at full power, helping to make sure it starts up
I recently bought two fans that sit on the floor. Same brand and model. The switch on one is: Off-High-Medium-Low. The other is: Off-Low-Medium-High. Very confusing.
The ELI 5 answer is:
To make a moving fan move takes less energy added than making starting it up from 0.
With a direct drive in fan motors the most efficient is to start on high (best for the motor) and then be lowered to a slower speed.
Hmm I’ve never encountered this. Granted, I’ve only used 4 different types but still I wasn’t aware this way a thing
In addition to the inertia problem with the motor, they don’t go very fast and most people probably want to start high to cool down a stuffy room and will adjust down as the comfort level increases.
Never seen this. All fans I’ve used go 0,1,2,3 where 0 is off. Is this an American thing?
I always thought it was because if I’m turning on the fan, I’m likely hot. And what better setting to solve that then high. Fewest clicks for the most/quickest relief.
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