Can anyone recommend a quiet fan? My wife likes to run one most of the night, but the noise bothers me. Is there any solution? And no whole house AC isn't a solution

This would work.

tanstaafl.

Yeah. We installed a ceiling fan over the bed, and for perhaps 5 nights a year it runs all night (this is the Great White North, after all). Very very silent on the lowest speed, and very effective.

Cheers

Clearly I need to get a new keyboard as the 'o' key is sticking.

I'd love a ceiling fan, but the bedroom ceiling is rather low, and not wired

I just love the stuff you write, but I've never bothered telling you before: I'm just a quiet fan!
Apart from which, can you explain why we have the central heating and the fan going at the same time, in this house? My gripe is, always, that most fans are just stirring the same stuffy air, without introducing anything fresh.
The need for fans is not a big issue here in North Yorkshire, but I hope someone comes up with something.
How about a couple of these?

How about one of those far too expensive Dyson things http://www.dyson.com/fans/

We don't have A/C here and use fans on a daily basis. These Lasko fans aren't silent, but are pretty quiet and emit just a whisper that you quickly become accustomed to. And they're pretty cheap. They don't distract from TV watching or keep me awake.

They're "bladeless" in that you don't have massive blade spinning in the middle but there is actually a fan with blades inside the base. Not sure how they can still claim its bladeless because of that. They're not that quiet either.

The one I saw at Best Buy appeared to be silent. Yeah it was in a noisy place but I was quieter than a normal bladed stand fan. Way too expensive to bother with though.

If you can find one of these, they're awesome:

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-hunter-electric-fan-10-in-zephair-very

It's called a Hunter Zephair. I think they were made in the '40s or maybe '50s, but I've never met a better fan. I found one about 30 years ago and am still using it. Around here it goes on in the spring and off in the fall.

There are ceiling fans that don't have the dangly pipe that fit tighter to the roof:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_3489-93591-00260_4294935502_4294937087?productId=3078879&pl=1&currentURL=/pl_Ceiling%2BFan_4294935502_4294937087_?rpp=15$No=45

I have these all over the house.

And if there's one thing I learned from my time in Singapore, it's that wires don't need to be routed in the wall...

John, is it that particular Lasko model or all Lasko models?

Here they have two different lines of fans, a super cheap one and a "performance" line that's like $10 more. The pro ones are quieter and seem to last longer.

I was thinking about it this morning, and I sleep with my ear about 6 inches from mine (has to be tucked under the mosquito net) and it is noisier at that distance, but if you're at least 5 ft from it, you should be fine.

I believe (and correct me if I'm wrong, anyone), that the idea of ceiling fans is precisely to move the air around.

All our ceiling fans have switches on them to change their direction of rotation. From what I've heard, you're supposed to set the fan to blow upwards in the winter and downwards in the summer. In the winter, the fan will blow upwards at the ceiling, forcing the hot air down the walls and heating the whole room. This makes your central heating's job easier, and makes you feel like the heat in the room is more consistent. So in the end the hope is that the fan could save you money on heating.

In the summer, the idea is the more straightforward kind, where the fan will supply a down-draft directly onto you, using evaporative cooling with your sweat to cool you. Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of being cooled by having a fan blowing on me. I tend to feel a little ill from that, plus I generate a great deal of internal heat, so the fan in our bedroom doesn't help me much because if I even have just the bed sheet on me, I'm trapping all the heat I'm generating under the covers and in the bed its self. I've always secretly coveted this Japanese product. It doesn't do any actual cooling either, but it's carrying the heat away, and it's not blowing directly on me, which I don't like.

In the end, my preference is to keep the house cooler. It costs a great deal, but it's the only way I'm comfortable. As my wife says, it's "like a meat freezer in here." Yup! And I LOVE IT!

*edit*
ps- however, I continue to constantly battle the temperature difference between our two floors. For example, at this moment our office and bedroom on the second floor are 77 and 75 degrees, respectively, but our first floor is about 67. NOTHING I do gets these two floors anywhere near the same temperature.

And yet somehow it still cools you. Trust me, if you had to sleep in 33 degree heat with 95% humidity and no air conditioner, you'd give your right eye for a fan. I encounter this situation almost every night.

How many right eyes do you have?!?

Wow, I just saw one of these in Bed Bath and Beyond today. For the time being, lets leave out the prices, and compare it to the very standard Vornado desk fan I saw on the other side of the table. First I turned on the Dyson, then I turned the Vornado on to a similar wind speed. I noticed three things:

1- the Dyson is freaking loud! it was way louder than the other fan
2- I disliked the way the air flowed on the Dyson. Essentially it throws out a cylindrical tube of air, which means if you're within about four feet of the thing, you feel a circle of air, with the center not blowing on you at all. It's pretty weird...
3- the Dyson is simply underpowered. I wasn't satisfied with the airflow. I had the Vornado on its middle setting, and it was still blowing harder while staying quieter. The highest setting on the Vornado was more than twice as powerful than the Dyson at its highest setting and only slightly louder.


Okay, now lets throw the prices back in. I checked the price on the Vornado - $59. Okay, that's a little pricey for a hunk of plastic with a motor, but it's about what I expected. So what's the price on the Dyson? $299!!! What the hell? Seriously? My mind was blown, and I could not figure out who on earth would buy that piece of crap. It's very well made, but it simply fails at being a freaking FAN! Not to mention, if you didn't mind a little extra noise, there was a tiny desk fan there that cost $20 and was still almost twice as powerful as the Dyson.

The "air multiplier" is officially a stupid product.

Vornado make some awesome fans. I have one for my garage that is just amazing. That thing can move some air.

Here's an interesting ceiling fan concept-
http://www.gizmag.com/ribbon-ceiling-fan/15660/

Ordered the Lasko 2527 16" Performance Pedestal Fan, it is quieter than the Honeywell we had (now moved to the sitting room) it is far from the Whisper-Quiet their marketing department claims.