Ceiling fans, surface mounted conduit?

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Max Headroom

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Claremont CA 91711
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Hello everyone, part of the scope of work here is to remove four luminaires and replace with three ceiling fans with light kits, the wiring method is surface mounted conduit (see photo). I am wondering how I can support my fans from this kind of wiring method, am I going to have to use EMT with fan rated boxes, that would not look very nice and would probably be too costly, thank you.
 

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jmellc

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Durham, NC
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Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
Independent support is allowed, if you can get to a joist. But some fans with large canopies won't look good on a surface mount box. Ones with small canopies would do OK. Have you seen the fans or have they been chosen yet? Homeowners have a remarkable ability to get the opposite of what you need.
 
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hillbilly1

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letgomywago

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Washington state and Oregon coast
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residential electrician
jmellc said:
Independent support is allowed, if you can get to a joist. But some fans with large canopies won't look good on a surface mount box. Ones with small canopies would do OK. Have you seen the fans or have they been chosen yet? Homeowners have a remarkable ability to get the opposite of what you need.
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That's why I mentioned the bell fan box it has a flange to make canopies look good.
 
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letgomywago

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Washington state and Oregon coast
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hillbilly1

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North Georgia mountains
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Owner/electrical contractor
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Max Headroom

Senior Member
Location
Claremont CA 91711
Occupation
General Building Contractor/Electrical Contractor
M

Max Headroom

Senior Member
Location
Claremont CA 91711
Occupation
General Building Contractor/Electrical Contractor
since there is four existing lights to be removed and replaced with three ceiling fans I think I might be rebuilding from the switch outlet all the way to the end of the run, that Legrand Wiremold® Small Steel Single-Channel Raceway System will look nice and work well. For bonding this system do you think pulling in a egc and bonding to the lights/fan or am I going to have to install all the little straps/fittings that allow the conduit to be considered an egc, I've heard that is a rather tedious endeavor?
 
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Max Headroom

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Location
Claremont CA 91711
Occupation
General Building Contractor/Electrical Contractor
jmellc said:
Independent support is allowed, if you can get to a joist. But some fans with large canopies won't look good on a surface mount box. Ones with small canopies would do OK. Have you seen the fans or have they been chosen yet? Homeowners have a remarkable ability to get the opposite of what you need.
Click to expand...
She is the designer in charge of this project and this is an assisted living facility, she will send me documentation for the fans she likes. So you are sayin stay away from the larger canopies, closer to the size of the ceiling box would look better. That makes sense, maybe even a small amount of the box exposed might even look good. Thanks for you advice.
 
LarryFine

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
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Electrical Contractor
Mark Steinberg said:
For bonding this system do you think pulling in a egc and bonding to the lights/fan or am I going to have to install all the little straps/fittings that allow the conduit to be considered an egc,
Click to expand...
A properly-assembled Wiremold system qualifies as an EGC just like EMT does.
 
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Max Headroom

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Location
Claremont CA 91711
Occupation
General Building Contractor/Electrical Contractor
hillbilly1 said:
After looking at the pictures, it does look like it. Why change it to conduit? Wiremold makes fan rated boxes.
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I think this is what she is going to get, I'll see what size canopy her preferred fans have and suggest we find something close to the size of the box, thank you all very much for your participation, it's a great thing this forum is, thanks again.
 

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tom baker

tom baker

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Bremerton, Washington
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letgomywago said:
I always pulled a green in wiremold it's just to hard to make everything bite good. It's the only metal wiring method I feel this way about.
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I agree. I am not a big fan of WM as it’s fussy work and getting all the correct fittings, but it can be the best for exposed applications
I go back far enough WM was baby puke brown, then ivory, now white.
 
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Max Headroom

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Location
Claremont CA 91711
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General Building Contractor/Electrical Contractor
LarryFine said:
A properly-assembled Wiremold system qualifies as an EGC just like EMT does.
Click to expand...
That's what I've been told but I was also told to build it to qualify as an EGC was a real pain and it was easier to pull in a conductor of the wire type...but then I got to thinking that although my fans/luminaires would be bonded to the EGC my wire mold might not be. So I guess the guy telling me that wasn't properly-assembling it, only bonding to the devices.
 
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Max Headroom

Senior Member
Location
Claremont CA 91711
Occupation
General Building Contractor/Electrical Contractor
letgomywago said:
I always pulled a green in wiremold it's just to hard to make everything bite good. It's the only metal wiring method I feel this way about.
Click to expand...
I'm planning on pulling one also but aren't there some sort of straps or small fittings necessary to make it compliant as an EGC, if I pull in the wire do I still need to install those bonding items?
 
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