Which direction should my ceiling fans rotate in summer? They are on the top floor.?
Question:My ceiling fans are on the top floor of my 2 floor townhome. With the central air on, the first floor gets cooled first, and since the thermostat is on that floor, the first floor stays coolest. The second floor, where the bedrooms are, tend to be warmer. Should I set the fans to rotate upwards to pull the cool air upstairs, or should they rotate downwards to create a "wind chill" effect?
Answers:
Quite frankly, if your ceiling fans upstairs are in the bedrooms, they will do little to affect moving the air from downstairs to upstairs or visa-versa. You can turn them up on high speed in either direction just to try and get the air moving more in your house, which may help slightly. However, the best way to help draw the room air from downstairs to upstairs is to have a fan in the stairway leading upstairs and most likely operate it in reverse on a high speed. This will draw a column of air from below and force it up and out towards the upstairs. The rest of this answer is copied from a previous posting I made to FindHomeAnswerss regarding this question.
After being in the ceiling fan business for over 20 years, I've answered this question thousands of times…in several ways. The technical answer from the fan manufacturers is: During the summer the fan should run counter clockwise (as you look up at it). During the winter, clockwise at a low speed. However, most people get confused with this answer…and can’t remember the next day, which is correct. Plus, it is not 100% correct.
So, here are some alternative answers:
During the summer, you want the air blowing directly on you so you will feel cooler from the wind chill effect (which is how fans cool you off). So stand under the fan and turn it up on high speed. If you "Do Not" feel the air very well, then turn the fan off and flick the reverse toggle switch. Turn it back on high speed. If you feel more air, you have it in the right position. So whichever position you feel the most air movement when standing directly under the fan is the correct position for summer. If you do not feel much air in either direction, then your fan has a very weak motor with a relatively flat pitch to the blade. Fans like this won't do much good for you in either direction during the summer. If this is this case, you may wish to consider visiting a specialty fan dealer online to get a more powerful fan than the ones they sell at the home centers.
During the winter, it is the opposite. You do not want to feel the air movement from the fan blowing directly on you since this will make you feel cooler from the wind chill effect. So, again...stand under the fan and turn it up on high speed. Whichever mode you feel the least amount of air is the correct mode for winter. However, you want to operate the fan at a low speed during the winter, otherwise, even in the correct mode, you will still get some wind chill effect, which you do not want.
To set the matter straight about how fans work during the winter and summer:
During winter (in the correct mode as described above), the fan will slowly draw the cooler air from floor level directly below the fan upwards to the ceiling where it mixes with the warmer air. The air is then kicked out across the ceiling towards the walls as it comes down. This circulates the air giving you the least amount of direct air movement, which minimizes the wind chill effect.
During the summer, you want the maximum wind chill effect, so the main column of air that rushes straight down from the fan is what you will feel the most. However, if your fan is not directly over the area where you want to feel coolest, say your room is rather large with a fan in the middle and your couch closer to an outer wall, you might find yourself more comfortable if you run the fan at a high speed in the wrong direction because the wind chill effect will be more prominent further away from the fan closer to the walls.
One customer told me how he determined the best direction to operate his fans. He turned on a bubble machine in his home and watched where the bubbles went. To this day, I think this is the most ingenious answer I’ve heard to the question.
they should pull air up in the summer and push air down in the winter
In the winter, ceiling fans are used to bring down the rising heat from the ceiling by the direction of the blades. The blades turning in the same direction as the high side of the blade accomplish this. In the summer, you want to blades to pull up the cooler air and disperse it around the room. Blades turning in the same direction as the lower side of the blade.
I vote for counter-clockwise! But...are the air vents near the ceiling or floor? You want to create a breeze and blow the cool air down from the ceiling. Best to try both and see which is cooler for your configuration.
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