In recent times, if you are out in the market to buy a ceiling fan, you will find two very different kinds of fans on the shelves. One of them would be pricier and comes with a remote control and a high star rating. This newer fan type, as the shopkeeper or the store listing would tell you, is a BLDC fan. It may not necessarily look all that different from a regular fan that our homes have had since our childhood. But, under the hood, traditional ceiling fans use a simple induction motor, which is a less power-efficient technology compared to a BLDC fan motor. This is approved by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) ratings. You can check out the top BLDC fan options in India here, but if you want to know what it is and why it matters, read on.
In the case of normal fans, you switch them on, the motor spins, and air moves. The problem is that the motor generates a lot of waste heat. And a good chunk of your electricity is inadvertently converted into that wasteful heat. So, it is not that efficient in terms of moving air.
BLDC fans fix this. Without getting into the engineering details, a BLDC motor operation involves permanent magnets and an onboard electronic microcontroller circuit that controls the motor with precision. The result is a motor that turns far more electricity into airflow, and far less into heat.
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A standard AC fan is said to draw 70 to 90 watts. A 5-star BLDC fan, on the other hand, reportedly draws 25 to 35 watts. That gap matters a lot when Indian homes run fans for 10 to 16 hours a day through summer and the monsoon months.
Now, if we consider a tariff of Rs 7 per unit, with one fan running 12 hours a day for a full year, A 75-watt (075 kW) normal fan costs about Rs 2,300 in electricity annually. A 30-watt BLDC fan, meanwhile, costs around Rs 920. That is a saving of nearly Rs 1,380 per fan, per year. If you have a 2BHK house, and say A home with four fans saves over Rs 5,500 every year. This changes how you should think about the price tag.
A basic AC fan costs Rs 1,200 to Rs 2,000. A good BLDC fan costs Rs 2,500 to Rs 4,500. That extra Rs 1,500 is what stops many buyers from switching.
But with Rs 1,380 in annual savings, the extra cost pays for itself in about 13 months. After that, every month the fan runs, you would be saving on the money you’d have to pay in an electricity bill for using a regular fan. Over 10 years, one BLDC fan could deliver net savings of over Rs 12,000.
The BEE rates fans using a metric called Service Value, which measures airflow against power used. A 5-star BLDC fan delivers around 210 to 260 cubic metres of air per minute while drawing 30 watts. Meantime, a normal fan draws about 75 watts to deliver around 230 cubic metres per minute.
So the efficiency gain is real, and comfort does not have to suffer. Well-made BLDC fans can match or surpass the airflow of traditional fans at less power.
BLDC fans are also equipped to handle voltage dips better. Their internal electronics keep the speed steady even when the voltage drops, which is something traditional fans handle poorly.
If you are replacing a broken fan or renovating a new home, and you intend to use the new fan for more than a year, we suggest a 4-star or 5-star BLDC fan. You could get the above savings benefits. The airflow is equal to or better than that of regular fans. And the technology is now mature enough that all leading brands like Havells, Crompton, Orient and Atomberg offer BLDC fans across different price ranges.
However, if you care about the upfront cost more and or only need the fan for a few months, then, you can go with a normal fan.
Keep reading Digit.in for more such educational content.
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