This begs the question of what is the most quiet fan(s) on the market? If all of us sat down in a room together and had this mission, what would it look like? An electrostatic fan (using electrohydrodynamics) would be pretty silent, but provide very little airflow. It's a fun problem to solve and would love to see a company create better products than those overpriced Dyson fans (which are junk IMHO).

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newman8r 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

https://grapeejapan.com/66162

Theirs probably isn't silent, but you certainly could figure out how to make this very quiet and gentle sounding, building tension in a spring between strokes with some kind of silent linear actuator

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eth0up 3 days ago | parent [-]

This is intriguing and I assume the mechanical and balance (force distribution) have been addressed with strange, extremely light but strong materials. I think it's the parent comment, but someone mentioned Dyson fans, criticizing them as junk. I haven't owned one due to cost, but have been impressed with air/noise ratio.

I once knew a rogue architect who rode a bicycle, wore broken glasses mended with tape and lived in a home in south Florida (warm humid summers). He had dug trenches beneath his house, which he explained were for air circulation intended to work in harmony with interior modifications which I can't remember.

Unfortunately the city condemned and demolished his house. But I've been intrigued by solid state cooling methods since. The Japanese fan, though of questionable mechanical efficiency, ispires me as an example of easily overlooked but formidable design. Neat!

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newman8r 3 days ago | parent [-]

> which he explained were for air circulation intended to work in harmony with interior modifications which I can't remember.

That's intriguing. Along those lines, I've also been interested in the idea of using pressure sensors and anemomenters to automatically open/close different windows in my house to create optimal airflow. Unfortunately the house I'm in is 100 years old, so for now it's just a daydream.

	▲	eth0up 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		That seems a pretty... cool idea. I love old houses and would rather live in 100yo cracker house than the finest mansion on the planet. I know it can be a lot of work though. I wish you a meantime epiphany that fits if the master plan won't do.

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asdff 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Most all ceiling fans I've had make no noise until you are on the "blow all the papers around the room" setting. For the ones that do make noise usually it's merely a balance issue.

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IAmBroom 3 days ago | parent [-]

But they are also very low-throughput.

Essentially they make the same sound, but 100's of times lower in audible volume, just as they move 100's of times less volume of air per second. (It may not be linearly scaled, but it's definitely proportional.)

	▲	asdff 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Have you ever used a ceiling fan? They move plenty of air. Like I said you can recreate that tornado scene in Wizard of Oz pretty trivially. The fan is probably 3ft diameter sometimes a whole lot more. No box fan is nearly so large.