Reverse Your Fans!

Dept. of tips. This email came in from a reader. It is a little known fact that ceiling fans have two directions on them, besides multiple speeds. Usually they are on the setting for pushing the air down, but during the winter they can be reversed to pull up the colder air from the floor and move the hot down.

"Clockwise direction: winter setting
Counter-clockwise: summer setting

I often forget to do this until I'm miserable, but just had my lightbulb moment and did it a week or so early. (Hey, I'm in Texas.)"

Here's the text from Frugalforlife.blogspot.com:

In hot weather, operate the fan in the normal, counter-clockwise direction. This creates a cooling "wind chill" effect to make you feel up to 8 degrees cooler. The room thermostat setting can then be raised, resulting in reduced air-conditioning energy consumption of 40 percent or more.

(Thanks, Anne!)

Re-edited from a post originally published on 05.23.05

Comments (16)

Hate ceiling fans. They stir up dust, dry the sinuses, skin and eyes and do nothing to actually cool the room. Invest first in window or attic fans, to draw cool air into the home from outside.

Sunspot42 must not live in a big city apartment!

No attic to put a fan in!!! Plus putting intake fans in the windows does nothing but suck in more dust / exhaust and makes my allergies worse!

I'll stick with my ceiling fan, and clean often, thanks!

As an insider I can assure you that Minka is not known in the industry for quality, but for fashion....They all come from China anyway...

Actually, fans *do* cool the room by 4 to 6 degrees. I don't know about heating in winter, but I would guess there would be a similar effect. If used in conjunction with air conditioners you can set the air conditioner at a higher setting - not that I wil ever get to experiment with this, since we can't install them in our apartment.

nycflatcats,
I think you mean that they make the room feel cooler by a few degrees. They are not removing heat from the room, but a breeze feels cooler than no breeze, so you can raise the thermostat and save some $. Since they don't actually cool the room, they just cool the humans, they should be turned off when you are not using the room.

Plus putting intake fans in the windows does nothing but suck in more dust / exhaust and makes my allergies worse!

You can buy 3M filter media in sheets, which can be cut to fit most window fans. It'll prevent virtually any dust or exhaust particles from entering your home. Some window air conditioners offer similar filtration, along with fan-only ventilation modes. Which brings up another huge advantage to window and attic fans - they can help remove indoor air pollutants.

Sunspot42 must not live in a big city apartment! No attic to put a fan in!!!

Not everyone reading this blog lives in an apartment, which is why I mentioned attic fans. They're a preferred solution, as they're more powerful, cheaper to operate and involve fewer security issues than window fans.

Actually, fans *do* cool the room by 4 to 6 degrees.

How could fans possibly cool a room without drawing in cool outside air? If anything, fans will ADD heat to a room, since the motors aren't perfectly efficient.

Fans can make a room feel cooler to us, by drawing cooler air up off the floor, by blowing air over our bodies and by promoting evaporation. They have a lot of drawbacks though, not the least of which is the need to keep them running continuously in order to experience their benefits.

The most bang for your buck will generally come from window or attic fans. Ceiling fans should typically only be employed after these solutions have been implemented.

I have two lovely Minka Aires (Concept II) that I got from Lumens and Light (in CA) with free shipping and a bonus retro looking chrome table fan gift for spending over $400. They are stylish and cool and are controlled with a remote that has 3 levels, a dimmer and a reverse option... I LOVE them except for one MAJOR problem: both the fans and the lights turn themselves off and on by themselves! Totally freaked me out at first, but then I started tying it into when my downstairs neighbors would come in (she is a door slammer so it was hard to miss her comings and goings). I can see from the street level through her window that she has a ceiling fan too (possibly 2) so I can only assume both of our fans are on the same settings...Now I need to hire a handyman to take the fans down and try different remote channels to reset them. I really hope it works because its very frustrating and I truly love my fans. Has this happened to anyone else?

we don't live in a city apartment but we love our minka aire concept I and II fans in the kitchen/dining area, living room and bedroom. we got the concept I for our bedroom because the ceiling was fairly high. they are essential for warmer summer days since 2 of those rooms are south-facing.

we bought them online from Farreys.

ceiling fans do cool you down considerably and it has helped our radiant heating work more efficiently in the winter.

Don't laugh, but I bought mine at Walmart three years ago for only $40, and am totally happy with it. It was easy to assemble and install, is in an art deco style, which looks nice with my decor, and is nice and quiet. As a renter, and with limited funds, if and when I move, I can just leave it behind for the next tenant. If I remember correctly, the brand name is "Aloha Breeze". Not high end, but it serves it's purpose well.

As a kid in Miami, I grew up without A/C.

I finally got a ceiling fan in my room.

Was the temperature any different? Who's to say.

Was it more bearable *with* the fan than without? Hell yes.

Did none of you ever learn the 2nd law of thermodynamics?

There you go ago again, flaunting your knowledge, but not sharing any of it.

My college roommate always ran a fan in our room for white noise. She's trained her kids to sleep with them. For some reason she perfers desk fans facing the wall (or with a t-shirt to block flow) to a ceiling fan. Of course she sets the thermostat rediculously low. It is rare that my thermostat is below 78F. I love the noisy cheap ceiling fan in my room as I lived with her for so long I've got to have white noise now, too.

I was lucky at the walls were wired for separate switches for lights and fan.

The previous poster is right, fans are a pain to install, but if all you need to do is change the remote setting, get a step ladder and a helper to hold stuff. Way cheaper.

I just bought the Minka Artemis with the clear blade. Have not install it yet. Will let you guys know if this is actually worth it.

I think SomeSteph may have meant the 1st law:

"The increase in the internal energy of a thermodynamic system is equal to the amount of heat energy added to the system minus the work done by the system on the surroundings."

In our case, the fan isn't removing any heat from the room, just moving the air around. But, the moving air cools the skin. Therefore, you can have the same comfort at a higher air temperature with a fan going.

"Lisa, get in here! In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!" -Homer Simpson

I'm with Terry: I swear by Hunter fans. I'm a Realtor, and see all sorts of fans in all sorts of homes. Take it from what I've heard from other Realtors and building inspectors for years: the Hunter fans are better than Casablancas - at a fraction of the price.

By the way, I always use my fans when the central air is on, because it circulates the air more evenly.