HOW CEILING FANS WORK

First, a confession: Fans don’t cool air; they just move it around.

When it’s warm, the blades of a counterclockwise-turning ceiling fan push air downward. Like a breeze on a summer day, this moving air makes you feel cooler by evaporating the moisture on your skin. This wind-chill effect can cause an 80-degree room to feel more like it’s 72 degrees. For this reason, there is no need to run a ceiling fan when no one is in the room.

Something else: Most people don’t think to turn on a ceiling fan when it’s cold inside, but this can actually warm up a room. Modern Fans have reversible motors, which means blades can easily change direction (clockwise) and push air up toward the ceiling. This redistributes the warm air that would otherwise be trapped near the ceiling and evens out the temperature in the room. More...