We had determined which rooms need ceiling fans and decided to use the Emerson Midway ECO. It was exciting to receive the shipment and take a closer look at the product.
The energy performance label on the box struck me as odd.
I did like the numbers! An airflow of 6,513 cfm at high speed with an energy consumption of only 17.6 watts is nothing to sneeze at. And once you divide the airflow by the wattage, you get 370 cfm/watt, which is very efficient indeed.
That last number does not, however, correspond with the 336 cfm/watt from the EnergyStar product list. Who is stretching the truth here? Or are there EnergyStar testing parameters we have not been told about? Sigh …
Sometimes it feels like EnergyStar’s job is to confuse the consumer.
What about those light bulbs in the picture? The ceiling fan comes with regular CFL bulbs. To make use of the dimmer function I got a set of dimmable CFLs. I also could use dimmable LEDs with a GU24 pin base – but we would have to win the lottery first.
All right, I used up my daily quota of complaints. Let’s move on to the exciting parts, like taking the gadgets out of the box and fixing them to the ceiling.
The fan comes with a remote control. Alternatively, Emerson offers pretty sophisticated wall controls for the Midway ECO. What I found remarkable about those wall controls is that they can be installed as single pole or two-way switches. Having a two-way option on these sophisticated controls seems pretty rare.
How does the fan work? Beautifully!
It gives us the dual functionality (light and air flow) we were after. The set of four 13 watt CFL bulbs lights up the room just right. The dimming works better than I had expected from the CFLs.
The fan itself is a joy, because it is silent! No humming from the electrical motor. Once we crank the fan up to medium speed you begin to hear the air flow, but no motor noise.
These fans were quite an investment. But as usual, quality doesn’t come cheap. And we have a lifetime warranty on them.
We are ready for summer! Are you?