Set your ceiling fan clockwise during winter to push warm air away from the ceiling and back towards the floor.Your fan should spin counter-clockwise during the summer months to help move air through the AC system.turn the fan off when you leave because you’re wasting electricity when no one is in the rooms to feel cooled-or warmed, depending on the season.īe diligent to make sure your ceiling fan is working for you, and you could save 15% to 40% on your summer air conditioning costs and reduce next winter’s heating bills, too.But you must give them good instructions: Let’s recap …Ĭeiling fans are good at following orders. To use the ceiling fan in Reverse, set it on Slow speed to make sure you are pulling the warm air down from the ceiling and into the room, but not creating a draft. This is the direction you want for winter. If you do not feel air blowing down on you, that means it’s blowing upward. Now switch the fan to go the other direction. Set it on High speed for the greatest cooling impact. Do you feel the air blowing down on you? Then that is your “Forward” direction and the setting you want for summer. Set the fan to High so it is spinning at its top speed and stand under it. Here’s a super easy way to remember which way to set a ceiling fan for the season. There are no universal laws regulating ceiling fan manufacturers! The solutionĪre you all mixed up now? Not to worry. Is Forward spinning clockwise or counterclockwise? There is no definitive answer because it depends on your specific fan, where it was manufactured, and the angle at which the blades are set. And you want to set it on a slow speed to make sure you are not creating a draft. You want to set the fan to “Reverse” so that it blows air upward to the ceiling, forcing the hot air trapped up there to come down to warm the occupants of the room. Sweating reduces body heat through evaporative cooling.ĭuring the winter you do not want the fan to blow directly on you, which would increase your wind chill factor and make you feel even cooler than what the thermostat is set to. Your body is always trying to maintain an even body temperature. Most people know sweating is a process your body uses to cool down. Set on Forward, the fan blows air downward onto the occupants of the room making them feel cooler by increasing the evaporative cooling on our skin. In fact, once you know a simple trick and way to test how your ceiling fan is designed, ceiling fan direction will cease being a mystery.įirst, look to see if there is a switch marked “Forward” and “Reverse.” If so, and you are sure the blades are angled properly, you want the fan to spin Forward during the summer and Reverse in the winter. The direction your ceiling fan should spin in the summer and in the winter depends on the type of fan you have and at which angle the fan blades have been set by the manufacturer (or you, if you have altered them). Knowing how to use fans to circulate the hot air in winter is equally important because you will be able to increase your body’s heat index or how warm you feel, while creating less actual heat and keeping the heating bills down. Knowing how to use fans in summer to send a rush of air downward, cooling your skin and making it feel up to eight degrees cooler than it is, lowers the chill factor. A ceiling fan that is set properly can make you feel as if the temperature is either cooler or warmer. Ditto for making you feel warmer in the winter. Ceiling fans cannot cool the room! But they can certainly make you feel as if that is the case. You may be familiar with the terms “wind chill” and “heat index.” These terms indicate what the temperature feels like, not what it is in reality on the thermometer.Ĭeiling fans cannot reduce the temperature inside your home in the summer. To make this easy, first, we need to understand the principle behind moving air. But why?! Who makes up these rules? Does anyone know for certain? Some thanked me for printing the correct answer to the burning question, while others told me I was wrong and it should spin in the opposite direction. Or was that clockwise? To be honest, it totally slipped my mind as soon as I shared it with my readers.īut I do recall the barrage of responses I received. Years ago, a reader sent in her handy tip, passed along from her husband, a heating and air conditioning specialist: In the winter, make your ceiling fans spin counterclockwise.
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