When purchasing and hanging a fan, it's important to know the proper height at which to hang it. The general rule is to make sure your fan is approximately seven to eight feet from the floor. If you have a very high ceiling, you will need to use downrods to get your fan to that height. This general rule is to ensure that the proper air movement takes place around your room.

What do you do when your ceiling is only seven or eight feet tall? Well, you'll have to get a low profile ceiling fan. This is when a fan gets mounted directly onto the ceiling as opposed to using a downrod (for tall ceilings) or a pivot ball (for angled ceilings). Many fans come standard with all three kinds of mounting fixtures. This allows you to work with whatever you have at home and not worry about getting the right fan.

There are several names for low profile fans. As you look, you might also see such names as hugger, close-to-ceiling or flushmount. Any of these terms refers to attaching the fan directly to the ceiling. Mounting a fan this way also makes the fan less intrusive in the room. You don't have to worry about things running into it or people having to duck to get around it.

The Right Size

Now that you know about mounting your fan, you'll want to make sure you pick up the proper size for the room as well. A fan that's too small won't do much of anything in a big room. You can, however, always go for a bigger fan in a small room. Most 52-inch fans push air out and away from the fan, so you'll want to go with something smaller for small rooms.