ceiling fan direction

[bucketmouth64]

what is the proper direction for ceiling fans for the summer/winter. Clockwise for forcing air down, counter bringing air up.

[CAMAN]

In winter you want to pull the air up, forcing the warm air along the ceiling down the walls and into the living area, causing a more natural even flow of air. Leave the fan speed low.

In summer you want to blow down at a faster speed causing the air to evaporate the sweat on your body making you feel cooler.

[sdpikehntr]

Well put caman! Dito!

[rainylakefisher]

I have to disagree. Cold air sinks and warm air rises. I run my fans to pull up air in summer and blow down in winter to counter the laws of physics and even out the air temp throughout the house.

[LightningBG]

I have to disagree. Cold air sinks and warm air rises. I run my fans to pull up air in summer and blow down in winter to counter the laws of physics and even out the air temp throughout the house.

Camans right. the air will circulate in either direction. up and around or down and around. But do you really want to be getting blown directly in the winter when its already cooler?

[bucketmouth64]

Is clockwise forcing air down and counter going up?

[Ed Carlson]

I had a hunch, and with a quick Google search, it confirmed my suspicions. This topic has the potential to be one of the most contested and argued topics ever known to man, right up there with Death, Tax's, Atomic theory, Quantum Physics, Sports, UFO'S, and Religion.

But none the less, here is some potentially useful theory on the topic that may prove helpful.

Ceiling Fan Direction

These recommendations depend actually on the height and size of the room; the season; and the activity taking place in the room.

The basic fact of nature is that warm air rises to the top and cold air settles on the bottom. Air settles in layers from warm at the top to cold at the bottom, if left alone at equilibrium.

Ceiling fan recommendations:

In the winter:

Set the fan to run counterclockwise (reverse; this looks clockwise as you are looking up). This will redirect the warm air from the ceiling and down the walls and into the living space where the people actually are. In a house, you would run the fan at a low speed so that you don't actually cool the warm air that you are moving downward. If you have a high ceiling, or are trying to heat a hall or a church, you may want to increase the fan speed so that the warm air will reach the living space as long as the fan speed does not create an unwanted downdraft at the people below.

In the summer:

In a room of normal height (8 - 10 ft), you should operate your fan so that it turns clockwise (this looks counterclockwise as you are looking up), causing a more directed downdraft, especially with the fan running slightly faster. This causes a wind-chill effect because the skin evaporates slight amounts of water from the sweat glands and thereby provides cooling through the skin's surface. However, the air is only moved but not cooled! You may find that you can turn your thermostat down a degree or two and save more money on energy costs. The air blowing down won't actually cool the room though, so you should turn the fan off when there are no people (or animals) in the room.

In a high hall or church, vaulted ceilings:

It may be best NOT to run the fans at all in summer. This lowers the demand for cooling since the hot layer on top is an excellent insulation between the cool air near the floor (and the people) and the hot roof and outside.

A large, tall manufacturing hall would typically have different goals. There one would have a floor full of heat producing machinery plus the people operating it, working hard and welcoming a bit of a breeze. Then it would make sense to run the fans at fairly high speed to create a certain and directed downdraft. And with the shifts going throughout the days of the week, the fans should be running all the time and maybe in all seasons.

Finally, fans typically use 80-100 watts. When used properly, ceiling fans can really help to optimize the comfort level of the people and save energy and money.

Another user contributes this:

The important point from the previous answer is that fans are for cooling people. Advanced Energy says: "The most optimistic estimates I've seen on energy savings from ceiling fans peg the air conditioning savings at about 15%, assuming people do raise the thermostat setting and only run the fans when people are in the room, and taking into account the cost of energy used by the fan itself."

[BobT]

Quote:

run the fan at a low speed so that you don't actually cool the warm air that you are moving downward.

This is one statement I can't seem to get through to my wife. A fan DOES NOT cool the room by cooling the air. A fan only moves the air.

The reason this topic is so often argued is because too many people have false preconceived ideas about ceiling fans in the home and fans in general. You won't find many arguments in the professional fields.

For an average home you want to blow the air down to create a draft so your body can use the "wind chill" effect of the moving air across your skin. As the air moves across your skin and the moisture on your skin (sweat) evaporates, the energy released lowers your skin temperature. That is why we sweat. It is a body's air conditioner. This is pure physics 101.

In fact, that is how an air conditioner works. It compresses the refrigerant and when that pressure is rapidly released the compressed liquid refrigerant boils or evaporates into a gas at a rapid rate releasing the heat energy. This very same release of energy is why water is unable to be heated higher than its boiling point. When it boils the rapid evaporation releases the heat energy and cools it, preventing the liquid from getting any hotter. The next time you get near your air compressor, you can test this with the air nozzle. Notice how much cooler the air feels as it escapes from the compressor. It's not cool because it is moving, it is cool because it is decompressing very rapidly.

In the winter, you reverse the fan to move the warmer ceiling air across the ceiling and down the walls to counter the radiating coolness from the walls and balance the air column without creating a noticeable "wind chill" effect on your body. That's also why you only want to run the fan slow. Running it too fast will give you a chill and you'll turn up your heating system.

Because a fan DOES NOT cool the air, there is no advantage to leaving them on when nobody is in the room. In fact, it is a huge waste of energy. Turn them off as you would turn off your lights.

[Tom7227]

Ed Carlson - actually you forgot gun control, abortion and capital punishment. You can fill a lot of dead air on a talk radio station just by saying those words.

[SFC]

Hope they have a ceiling fan at the station. Good post Ed, confirms what Caman said, do we need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows or a compass?

[not_nuf_time]

Are you kidding me, most hotly debated arguement, come on...haven't you ever been in a discussion of toilet paper unrolled from the top or bottom with your wife?

By the way, I prefer fan blowing down year round.

[Whoaru99]

I think in both the cases, freon boiling/evaporating and of water boiling/evaporating, it's actually that the process to change the liquid into the gas requires a higher level of energy input to make the change, thus absorbing heat/energy, not releasing it.

The heat absorbed is released when the vapor is condensed back to liquid form.

Also, water can be heated above 212 if the boiling is supressed by pressurization. In some cases, water can be super heated above the boiling point in a microwave and it can be dangerous. Water in the cup does not appear to be boiling, but as soon as something is placed into the liquid or it's moved sufficiently to create just one tiny bubble to start the process, it can violently erupt into boiling quite unexpectedly potentially causing bad burns.

[Ed Carlson]

Are you kidding me, most hotly debated arguement, come on...haven't you ever been in a discussion of toilet paper unrolled from the top or bottom with your wife?

By the way, I prefer fan blowing down year round.

True....some battles are best left un-fought, as to live to fight another day.