Safety Concerns With Installation
A typical ceiling fan weighs between 15 and 50 pounds when fully assembled. While many junction boxes can support that weight while the fan is hanging still, a fan in operation exerts many additional stresses — notably torsion — on the object from which it is hung; this can cause an improper junction box to fail. For this reason, in the United States the National Electric Code (document NFPA 70, Article 314) states that ceiling fans must be supported by an electrical junction box listed for that use. It is a common mistake for homeowners to replace a light fixture with a ceiling fan without upgrading to a proper junction box.
Another concern with installing a ceiling fan relates to the height of the blades relative to the floor. Building codes throughout the United States prohibit residential ceiling fans from being mounted with the blades closer than seven feet from the floor; this often proves, however, to not be high enough. If a person fully extends his or her arms into the air — as sometimes happens during normal tasks such as stretching, changing bedsheets, or recreation — it is possible for the blades to strike their hands, potentially causing injury. Also, if one is wearing a tall hat, carrying a ladder, long wooden board, pipe, or some other long and awkward object, one end may inadvertently enter the path of rotation of a ceiling fan's blades, which can be dangerous and can cause damage to the fan regardless. In 2004, the Discovery Channel series Mythbusters tested the myth that a ceiling fan is capable of decapitation if an unwary individual was to step headfirst into the path of the blades. Their tests proved that residential ceiling fans are, apparently by design, largely incapable of causing more than minor injury, having low-torque motors that stop quickly when blocked and blades composed of light materials that tend to break easily if impacted at speed. More powerful industrial ceiling fans with steel blades proved capable of causing injury and laceration (building codes require industrial fans to be mounted with blades 10 feet above the floor), but still lost energy rapidly once blocked and were unable to decapitate the test dummy.
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