ceiling fan electricity costs 3 speed

[notrub]

I have a standard ceiling fan with 3 speeds on a chain pull switch.  This is a mechanical not electronic switch. Question is, do all speeds cost the same?  With light dimmer switches electricity is consumed equally even on very low illumination, I am told.  Is the consumption on these fans less when just slowly turning?  Or is it equal on all.  Make is Carini I think, from home pro.  Thanks in advance for any ideas.

[bankruatsteve]

For most purposes you can consider an equal demand for all speeds.  Unless you have 100's of them, the electrical consumption of fans is not going to be a significant part of the bill - if that is your concern.

[Crossy]

Yeah, fans are a peculiar load, something to do with the fan itself being a cube-law load.

 

I actually did some tests with a stand fan a while back, the power-factor changed quite a bit but the actual wattage remained remarkably constant over the speed range.

 

Reckon on 100-150W for most of them.

 

By the way, a triac dimmer on a regular light bulb will reduce its consumption, but again it's not a linear relationship as the filament resistance changes (a lot) with temperature.