Ceiling fan and television: avoiding LED glare on the screen and blade flicker

A screen is a dark mirror. Any light source placed in the zone the screen reflects toward the sofa is seen in it. That zone works like a mirror: light located behind and above the viewer, opposite the screen, reflects right in the middle of the picture. Light placed above the sofa or in front of it, outside the reflection angle, is not seen.

The practical rule: the fan goes in the centre of the room or above the sofa area, not above the space between sofa and screen. In a standard living room the existing light point is in the centre and the sofa is against the wall opposite the screen: in that layout the reflection stays at the top edge of the picture, barely visible, and vanishes entirely with the LED at 20%.

Flicker, that blade shadow passing back and forth on the wall or screen, comes from a light source placed above the blades: a recessed spot beside the fan, or a neighbouring ceiling light. Each blade cuts the light as it passes, and the eye perceives a blink at a few hertz, exhausting in the evening.

With an LED built in under the motor, light is emitted below the blade plane. The blades never pass in front of it. So there is no flicker, whatever the speed. The only case to watch: recessed spots less than a metre from the fan centre. Then simply switch those spots off when the fan runs, or move them outside the blade radius.

In front of a screen, visual comfort calls for low, warm ambient light, rather behind or beside the screen, never a white ceiling light at full power crushing the contrast. The Boréal 107 LED adjusts in three temperatures, 2700, 4000 and 6000 K, and dims from the remote. For a film: 2700 K, 20 to 30%. It is the light of an ambient floor lamp, without the lamp.

The same ceiling light goes to 4000 K at 100% for reading or hosting, and 6000 K for cleaning. The setting is memorised: the remote switches back on at the last value. The room no longer needs a second light source for television.

Last annoyance, the most discreet: blades that stay in the field of view above the screen eight months a year without serving. With retractable blades the question disappears. Closed, the Boréal 107 is a flat disc about 15 cm thick under the ceiling, white on white ceiling, with the LED in the centre. It looks like a ceiling light.

In summer the blades unfold from the remote, run at 30 dB, and fold away in September. The room is arranged around the screen, not around the fan, and nothing on the ceiling competes with the picture.