It’s a fact — running your ceiling fans all year long can boost the comfort level in your home, but only if the fan blades are rotating in the right direction. Ceiling fans have a small switch on the housing that controls what direction the blades spin. Before you hit the switch to change blade direction, make sure your ceiling fan is shut off to avoid injuring your hand.
Here’s a helpful primer on how to use ceiling fans effectively when you’re cooling and heating your home.
Correct Summer Ceiling Fan Direction
When they’re moving forward, ceiling fan blades create a wind chill effect that speeds up the evaporation of moisture from your skin, so you feel cooler even though the ambient room temperature hasn’t dropped. To check whether the blades are rotating in the right direction, stand under the fan and look up. The blades should be spinning counter clockwise, and you should feel a cool, downward breeze.
Proper Winter Ceiling Fan Direction
The air you heat naturally moves up towards the ceiling, where you can’t fully benefit from its warmth. Putting your ceiling fan blades in reverse can help push heated air back down into your living space. To ensure they’re in reverse, look up at your fan. The blades should be moving clockwise, and you should feel minimal air movement.
Advantages of Running Your Ceiling Fans
In addition to making you feel more comfortable, operating your ceiling fan all year offers some other key benefits:
- Running your fans in the appropriate direction for the season allows you to adjust your thermostat setting up or down a few degrees. This lets you reduce energy consumption and keep your cooling and heating bills under control without any loss of comfort.
- Using your ceiling fans year-round helps reduce the work load on your air conditioner and furnace, which can prolong your equipment’s useful lifespan.
Changing ceiling fan direction according to the seasons is just one way to improve comfort and energy savings in your Twin Cities area home. To learn more, contact Marsh Heating & Air Conditioning today.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about ceiling fans and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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