I bought a ceiling fan, and ordered one rated for 110 volts. When it arrived, the fan motor housing was marked 220 volts. I told the seller they'd shipped me the wrong unit, and I'm being told (in bad English) that the fan will work fine at either 110 volts or 220 volts. I'm not sure how that's possible. In my understanding, the fan will draw twice as much current at 110 volts, which could result in overheating and damage. Am I missing something? Is it possible that this is actually safe?
Electronic – Ceiling fan voltage
fanmotorvoltage
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I was recently (today) helping someone with their home renovations, including replacement of the three-speed fan controllers. The old one, which we ripped out and replaced, is shown below. Note the crude circuit diagram on the black box object (the fan speed controller.)
I infer that the fan controller works by inserting a capacitance into the fan's power supply circuit. The slow speed is obtained by using the 4.3uF capacitor (purple, P), the medium speed is obtained by using the 2.1uF capacitor (red, R), and the high speed is obtained by direct connection (no capacitor.)
Here's a circuit diagram for a very similar three-speed motor controller by Clipsal.
I don't understand single-phase induction motors well enough to state with certainly exactly how the extra capacitance modifies the speed of the motor. Sorry!
Note that single-phase induction motors aren't self-starting and must include a phase shifted auxiliary winding to provide starting torque. The phase shift is provided by a capacitor, which may be relevant. (If anyone knows more about the workings of single-phase induction motors, please come forward!)
The solution is not to use the wall switch to control the fan, but the remote, as the product is designed; and to produce a wall holder for the remote which is placed such that people coming into the room are guided to use the remote rather than the switch, and such that they can invoke the "light on" function of the remote without removing from the holder, so that the remote acts as the de facto wall-mounted light switch for the room.
The issue is clearly that when you walk into the room, the main switch is always in its expected location, which reinforces the behavior of reaching for it, whereas you have to look for the remote. If the remote is in a holder that is more conveniently reachable than the switch and as easy to operate, that problem will solve itself via user behavior modification.
You could also make modifications to the wall switch to make it less convenient to operate. For instance, if it is a large, flat rocker switch, build a cover for it so that the rocker can only be operated through finger-sized holes in the cover, discouraging regular use.
If these Hunter Fan people were more clever, they would sell or include junction box covers that double as remote control holders. That way users could uninstall their light switch (wiring the circuit so that it is permanently on) and replace the switch panel with the remote control holder panel, so that the remote control now appears exactly where the switch used to be.
Best Answer
It will run fine, but will not be capable of its full 220V speed
It is common practice to speed-limit fan motors by reducing the supply voltage. They don't see increased current because the torque drops off faster than the speed.