A fan regulator is a crucial component that serves to increase or decrease the speed of your fan according to your needs. You have a choice between conventional and electronic regulators. The technology along with the circuitry that controls the fan speed is quite complex.
Conventional Regulators
Older versions of conventional regulators were quite bulky to look at. A square box jutting out of a board with a circular knob or toggle switch did not make for very sleek appearance. The box contained the circuit elements of the regulator system. You had to adjust the knob to set the fan at the desired speed. Modern day conventional regulators present just a toggle on a board that incorporates the switches for the other electrical devices for the room. You do not get to see the regulating unit concealed in the wall behind the board.
To understand how a regulator works, you must know something about resistances. Any electrical conductor allows current to pass through it. The conductor however, offers a certain amount of resistance to the passage of current. The resistance depends upon the material of the conductor.
The regulator has spools of wire with different amounts of resistances. When you set the knob at a particular position, you include a certain resistance in series with the fan. A series connection implies the resistance is in line with the fan. This reduces the voltage drop across the fan and its speed to your desired level. The greater the resistance, higher is the voltage drop across it and that lowers the speed of the fan.
Considerations
These regulators are available at a reasonable cost. The difficulty in using them is that the heat generated in the resistance causes wastage of power. Hence, you reduce the speed of the fan at a considerable cost. In fact, you incur a significant loss in power, when you set the regulator for a very low fan speed.
Capacitor Regulators
You can overcome this problem by using capacitor regulators. This type of regulator helps you to save power at all speeds of the fan. The regulating unit is visible as a much smaller knob, compared to those of conventional resistors. You can change the resistance by rotating the knob.
The idea behind a capacitor regulator remains the same, which is to adjust the voltage across the motor of the fan. Now, when you increase the capacitance, the voltage across the capacitor decreases but that across the fan motor increases. Accordingly, the speed of the fan increases. In other words, you need to increase the capacitor value to increase the fan speed. However, since there is no power loss in the capacitors, there is no heat generated, and consequently, no extra expense.
Benefits of Capacitor Resistors
Capacitor resistors present many obvious benefits. They are smaller, lighter and less clumsy to look at than their conventional counterparts are. In addition, these units provide linear control of speed. Since they are energy efficient, they help you to save on your power consumption. Compared to electronic speed controllers, there is no distracting humming sound when the fan is on. Additionally, you can expect to get a reliable performance especially as compared to the electronic regulators.
