Ceiling Fans in the Summer vs. Winter (Reversing Blade Direction & Fan Speeds)
If you’ve installed ceiling fans in your house, congratulations! This small upgrade can reduce your energy bills while at the same time adding value to your home. Fans can pay for themselves in a few short years, and their cost is also recovered in the sale of your home, making them an excellent overall investment.
When used properly, fans can save money in both the Summer and the Winter (and the other 2 seasons as well), although the savings will be substantially less in cooler months in most installations. On most fans, you can control two things: the direction the fan blades spin, and the speed at which they spin. While most of us change the speed of our ceiling fans on a regular basis to achieve the right feel for a room, we rarely think of reversing the direction of the fan blades on a seasonal basis.
Ceiling Fans in the Summer
In the Summer, ceiling fans make the air around you feel cooler in two ways: (1) the fan pulls cooler air up from the floor into the middle and top of the room, actually reducing the temperature of the air in these spaces; and, (2) the fan moves more air over your skin, making you feel cooler than if you were sitting in a room with relatively stagnent air. The result: you can run less air conditioning because the cooler air is more evenly distributed and has a maximum cooling effect on your body.
During the Summer, you should run the fan at medium to high speeds for maximum circulation. You should also run the fan in the direction that causes the blades to force air up towards the ceiling (usually counter-clockwise), since cooler air will naturally fall to the floor.
In shorter rooms, the direction of the fan blades is less relevant because the fan running in either direction will circulate the air throughout the room evenly.
Ceiling Fans in the Winter
In the Winter, ceiling fans can save you money by pushing hot air from the ceiling down into the room, allowing you to turn your thermostat down a bit. The savings are not quite as pronounced because the moving air still causes more air to circulate past your skin, which tends to make you feel colder. In shorter rooms, running a ceiling fan could be energy inefficient because the benefits of pushing the warmer air down into the room are outweighed by the wind chill effect.
Owners will gain maximum benefit from ceiling fans in the Winter in tall rooms (9′ or higher) where hot air collects in the top of the room. In this situation, ceiling fan direction should be set to force air down into the room (usually clockwise), and the fan speed should be set to low (to reduce wind chill effect as much as possible).
More Information
Todd writes two good articles on ceiling fans, one about how to replace a light fixture with a fan, and the second on ceiling fan speed controls. Both good reads if you’ve been thinking about this topic, lately.
What do you think? Have you installed ceiling fans in your home? Are you reversing their directions on a seasonal basis?
Comments & Conversation on this Article...
11 Responses to Ceiling Fans in the Summer vs. Winter (Reversing Blade Direction & Fan Speeds)
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August 11th, 2008 7:16 pm
This is great info! Joey and I have installed a few fans, but I never once thought about how the direction it spins affects temperature. Can’t wait to try this in the winter.
August 11th, 2008 9:49 pm
Fred,
I can attest that ceiling fans do help circulate the air and make it feel cooler. Since we replaced almost all our windows last year, we’ve been able to keep the thermostat on 72 degrees with the ceiling fans running. We just had to replace one a few months in our breakfast room. It’s much better than the one that was there. I think we need to replace 2 upstairs as well.
Hey a thought for some….our neighbors use ceiling fans on their back porch during the summer. The porch has a roof and they have 2 ceiling fans out there that helps circulate the air. They don’t have central air so they look for a nice breeze wherever they can find it.
August 12th, 2008 6:27 pm
Liz: If you’ve got tall ceilings, fans can definitely help. As I said in the post, in the Winter its definitely a toss up: you have the added wind chill effect competing with keeping the hot air in the center of the room.
Lisa: Welcome back! Outdoor and semi-outdoor ceiling fans can really add to the usability of a space, particularly during the dog days of Summer. Good tip!
August 16th, 2008 11:49 pm
Wow…interesting. I always thought it was the opposite way. We have them pushing air down right now (summer) so I feel that direct cold air. I thought you pushed the air up in the winter and the hot air would be dispursed. That way I don’t feel the air blowing directly on me in the winter, making it hot.
I just did a quick goo.gle search and am finding most sites say the counter-clockwise for summer (direct down) and clockwise for winter (push air up and out). Well, as I keep checking, I am finding official reports for both way.
So, for us, we do direct down in the summer (counter-clockwise) at high speeds so we feel cool below the fan. In the winter, we go the other way.
It appears you can do either and someone agrees
August 17th, 2008 10:17 am
Mary – The other site you forwarded by email makes a lot of sense in regular homes (that the wind chill effect is the only relevant measure, and thus, down in the summer, up in the winter). So its possible I’ve learned this wrong my whole life – and this post should say just the opposite!
On the other hand, I think I learned this in the context of a large church building where I grew up, where the fans were much higher and pushing down the hot air from the ceiling was the overarching concern. Not sure that running them in reverse would achieve that. Either way, looks like there’s a lot of people with opinions on the subject, most of which are opposite this one!
August 17th, 2008 4:48 pm
Fred – Most sites agree that you run the opposite for large ceilings, which would make sense for church buildings. You might want to switch them in your own house though
Good stuff Fred, as always…making me consider ways to make my house more energy efficent!
December 7th, 2008 7:30 pm
would you have a picture how I should make my ceiling fans run in the winter vs. summer to take advantage of….my fans are reversible…
Thanks
Don
Homebld@aol.com
June 17th, 2009 5:44 pm
We have 11ft ceilings and the ceiling fan is great in the summer. I need to replace it with a newer model that has a reverse speed for winter.
October 21st, 2009 10:28 pm
Wonderful article-spoke right to my question, clearly and concisely!
April 6th, 2010 12:31 pm
I can’t seem to figure out how to change the direction of my fan blades. There is no switch. It’s a Hampton Bay, not sure what model number.
Any suggestions.
Thanks
April 22nd, 2010 3:20 pm
What is the difference between 2-3 blade ceiling fans versus the standard 5 blades?