Forward or Reverse?
Am I talking about driving? No. I am talking about the direction of the ceiling fan during summer and winter. Which direction should the fan be set to in each season. I always get this confused.
“During the summer you want the fan to blow air straight down, so your ceiling fan needs to run in a counter clockwise direction (as you look up at it). The warmer it is, the higher the speed should be. During the winter, your fan should run at a low speed in a clockwise direction…” {from Yahoo Answers}
Now that you have your answer, you probably want to know why. I know I do so let’s read on.
You want the fan to blow directly on you during the summer so you will feel cooler. The air hitting your skin creates a wind chill effect, which lowers the surface temperature of your skin. If you have the fan set to the proper direction, you should feel the air hitting you when you are under the fan (and it is running, of course). The more the fan is able to cool you off, the less dependence you will have on the energy-consuming air conditioner. If you do not feel the air, turn the fan off and switch the direction.
In the winter,the fan should be running on low and running in the reverse direction (air flow moving up). If you are standing under the fan, you should not feel air hitting you. If you do, turn the fan off and switch the fan’s direction.
“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.” {Yahoo Answers} If you feel warmer, you will not need to have the heat on as high, which will save money.
In the dining room, if you run the fan in a forward direction, your nice hot meal will be cold left-overs in no time. If you want to keep your hot meal, hot, the fan should be running in reverse direction.
At night, I run my fan on high and in the forward direction. I love feeling the wind blowing against me. Some people don’t like this. In that case, those people should run the fan in reverse and adjust the strength to suit their needs.
Large Rooms can be difficult to make comfortable with ceiling fans. You will need to experiment with forward and reverse, high and low in order to find the correct settings.
Using a ceiling fan on a sun porch or outside is the same as using it inside in usage, but there is one additional benefit. Sometimes the air flow can ward off flying insects.
So what your saying is that in the summer if you blow hot air off the ceiling down on you, you will feel cooler?
That’s funny. The speed of the fan is a factor and it overcomes the temp of the air with the wind-chill factor. If you run the fan on low, the effect will be as you suggested.