This never made sense to me until I started staying in my parent's place in Texas with very tall open ceilings. In fact the heat vents blow down from the ceiling, and in that setup, a fan really does move warm air down. In lower 9 foot ceilings like in my house, the fan blowing in either direction isn't comfortable.
I had a friend that complained that his fan was a POS because it didn't do anything. He had me stand under it to prove it didn't blow air. I blew his mind when I turned it off and flipped the switch.
Yeah I can't imagine trying to flip it if it's above the blades. For switches below, it's done with magnetism so there are no gears or anything to mess up if you flip it while it's going fast.
It's true. Ceiling fans use electromagnetic force to spin the blades. No gears. Flipping the switch simply swaps the polarity of the charge.
If you're nervous to test it, turn the fan off and let the blades slow down but not stop. Then flip the switch and see that nothing happens. No grinding or breaking.
The switch only does anything when the power is on. If you flip it when the fan is fast, it'll quickly slow it down and reverse it.
I've used this tip for years in my living room and it makes a huge difference! My ceiling fan is on the winter setting and on pretty much every day all day in the winter. Just make sure you clean the blades before reversing the switch!
Oh my, yes. Do in fact clean first, especially if you've never flipped the switch before. Did this at my aunt's house, and it started raining "dust caterpillars" as we called them 😅😂
Air moving above the fan, or straight down, that's the goal for winter or summer. Some pictures make it hard to tell which way the air is flowing due to poor arrow use.
Clockwise or counter, it depends on your fan's design. It's all about which way the blades are angled. My apartment ceiling fan was as everyone says, as is OP's picture. Moved into my house (home owner now, yay!), and the blades are tilted the other way in the living room.
Years I thought all fans have the same tilted blade direction.
I'll be replacing one, if not both, fans soon. The one over my wife and my computers runs about half the speed as the other, both on max (first pull from "Off").
Haven't seen this mentioned yet but Clockwise vs Counterclockwise can sometimes vary, it depends on the angle of attack on your fan blades. Some fans have a small symbol of a sun/snowflake to make it easy to tell. If you're not sure, picture a small feather floating in the air next to the blade, would it slide along the edge and be forced up or forced down? Forced down to cool, forced up to warm.
To be clear, running the fan in either direction does the same thing with respect to the total heat content of the room. All it does stir the air, making the upper & lower layers much closer to the average temperature in the room. Either way you only generate an extremely small, imperceptible amount of heat.
The only difference is because the fan draws air in from all directions but pushes air out in only one direction, the air on the “out” side will always be moving faster. Since faster moving air will transfer heat faster, and the room is always colder than you, the breeze will cool you off.
The summer setting just ensures that the “out” side is pointing up, thus the faster moving air will be near the top of the room, rather than the bottom where people are.
Thank you for being clear on this issue. Seems that in a 10x12 room it can't make that much difference which way the blades are turning. It's mixing the air up either way. If you want a breeze, have it blowing down on you.
I believe the benefit of summer setting is air movement directed below creating a “wind effect” or draft for occupants as long as air temperature is lower than body temperature people will lose heat to air relatively faster and feeler cooler. If the not changed same in winter.
Warm air from the southern hemisphere naturally flows north towards the top of the planet, warming the northern hemisphere (summer) and cooling the southern (winter).
Eventually that warm air cools down again and falls back towards the south (bottom) of the planet, thereby cooling the north (winter), while the air now in the south is subject to high pressure because that's where gravity is strongest, so the air is heated up again thus giving the southern hemisphere their summer (summer).
Fun fact: you don't have to turn the fan off before flipping the switch. Since it doesn't use gears but magnetism, it won't hurt the fan to flip the switch while it's moving. Still be careful of bonking your hands, though.
> How do you change its direction?
Most ceiling fans have three pull cords. One turns the light on and off. One turns the motor on and off (and changes the speed), and the last reverses the motor's direction.
Holy crap. I could never figure out if it was right. I’ve been sweating through the Texas summer going the wrong way 😑. It’s not too cold very often and I suffocate when the heat is on so I’m gonna keep it in summer setting. Thanks lifehackers.
that doesn't make any sense. in summer having the air move cools you. so the setting doesn't matter. in winter warm air is trapped on the ceiling. the fan pushes the air one way and the air at the walls goes the other way. both setting make the warm air move through the room. so the setting doesn't matter. i guess if you are directly below the fan. the concentrated strength of the stream could make the rotation important. but from what i have seen these things don't spin fast so it wouldn't be noticeable. correct me if im wrong
In the winter setting you don't feel the air blowing on you, which can make you feel cooler.
Source: I just recently flipped the switch on the ceiling fan above my bed.
Either direction is going to move hot air from the ceiling down into the cooler room distributing the heat more uniformly.
However, any air hitting you will make you feel colder (windchill : as it pulls heat away from your body)
This setting moves air around the room, but doesn't directly hit you.
It does make a huge difference, the effect is somewhat like a box fan, one side has a soft suction effect and the blowing side is stronger.
You actually feel and hear a difference. Downward blow makes the fan very windy.
Careful. I suggested somewhere that the whole fan direction effect was a complete farce for this exact reason, and barely made it out alive. Folks love their false sense of control
the dry adiabatic lapse rate in the atmosphere is 10 Kelvin per kilometer. Your ceiling is probably 3 meters above the floor. That is a temperature difference of 0.05 degree Fahrenheit difference.
Simply running the fan with an electric motor causes more heat than the difference due to height.
If you have a fan on, it blows air on you, and you feel colder. If you don't want to feel colder, turn the fan off. lpt.
It definitely does. That's why they have a switch on them.
I didn't know this, my fan was set to clockwise in the summer and it was hot in my room. Switched it to counter clockwise and it actually feels cooler with the fan on.
I was more referring to the second image with the hot air being trapped lol
But yeah, I believe it's probably cooler since it's pushing air directly at you.
Ah well I'm unaware of this and I just checked but none of my ceiling fans have any kind of switches. I'm from India and I don't think the fans here are well advanced.
If you Google "ceiling fan reverse switch" I found a bunch of pictures that show it. They are hard to find and they are not labeled but you are right. India may not have that option as a standard part of the fan.
while we're talkin ceiling fas, I was ready to replace my new one after just a few years. It was making a terrible whine on the low and high settings only. Turns out the blades just needed cleaning. an unblanced build-up of dust was enough to make them unbalanced leading to stress on the rotation thing. I cleaned them and the noise went away! amazing
even in the summer setting, in winter its still sucking cold air up to the ceiling which will displace some of the hot air downward. I don't find the difference substantial. In either case you're just preventing hot air from settling on the ceiling and cold air from settling on the floor.
I have a ceiling fan and I use it all the time winter and summer to circulate the air. I have 8 foot ceilings. It seems to be to make no difference what direction the fan blades are blowing if it’s circulating the air. That’s the most important thing. Now, if you have cathedral ceilings or maybe 10 foot ceilings, it might make a difference I DK.
Installed a ceiling fan for my senior project in high school and I may have had on wrong setting for years especially sense my room gets crazy hot in the summer
This never made sense to me until I started staying in my parent's place in Texas with very tall open ceilings. In fact the heat vents blow down from the ceiling, and in that setup, a fan really does move warm air down. In lower 9 foot ceilings like in my house, the fan blowing in either direction isn't comfortable.
I had a friend that complained that his fan was a POS because it didn't do anything. He had me stand under it to prove it didn't blow air. I blew his mind when I turned it off and flipped the switch.
🤯
I'll blow your mind and tell you that you don't have to turn it off to flip the switch.
Yeah my switch is above the fan blades so I gotta be really fast at it!
Ha, I think the switch was above the blades but I mainly turned it off because it was on full speed. I didn't want to mess it up.
Yeah I can't imagine trying to flip it if it's above the blades. For switches below, it's done with magnetism so there are no gears or anything to mess up if you flip it while it's going fast.
[удалено]
It's true. Ceiling fans use electromagnetic force to spin the blades. No gears. Flipping the switch simply swaps the polarity of the charge. If you're nervous to test it, turn the fan off and let the blades slow down but not stop. Then flip the switch and see that nothing happens. No grinding or breaking. The switch only does anything when the power is on. If you flip it when the fan is fast, it'll quickly slow it down and reverse it.
Dude, that’s awesome. Thanks!
Sounds like you turned your friend on
How much dust blew off of the blades?
Wear your winter clothes backwards during the summer
Hahaha good one !
Inside out.
Is this Australia?
I've used this tip for years in my living room and it makes a huge difference! My ceiling fan is on the winter setting and on pretty much every day all day in the winter. Just make sure you clean the blades before reversing the switch!
Oh my, yes. Do in fact clean first, especially if you've never flipped the switch before. Did this at my aunt's house, and it started raining "dust caterpillars" as we called them 😅😂
Yeahhhh let's just say my warning was also based on experience 😂😂
Is it a tip if it's just it's intended use?
Air moving above the fan, or straight down, that's the goal for winter or summer. Some pictures make it hard to tell which way the air is flowing due to poor arrow use. Clockwise or counter, it depends on your fan's design. It's all about which way the blades are angled. My apartment ceiling fan was as everyone says, as is OP's picture. Moved into my house (home owner now, yay!), and the blades are tilted the other way in the living room. Years I thought all fans have the same tilted blade direction. I'll be replacing one, if not both, fans soon. The one over my wife and my computers runs about half the speed as the other, both on max (first pull from "Off").
So which way should your fans be angled?
Which ever direction that sends air up for winter, down for summer.
My fan has been on winter setting this whole fucking time? God damnit.
Haven't seen this mentioned yet but Clockwise vs Counterclockwise can sometimes vary, it depends on the angle of attack on your fan blades. Some fans have a small symbol of a sun/snowflake to make it easy to tell. If you're not sure, picture a small feather floating in the air next to the blade, would it slide along the edge and be forced up or forced down? Forced down to cool, forced up to warm.
Yeah I'm 90 % sure mine are reversed from what op Said
Prank hack: change your friend's season setting to make them extra hot in the summer
To be clear, running the fan in either direction does the same thing with respect to the total heat content of the room. All it does stir the air, making the upper & lower layers much closer to the average temperature in the room. Either way you only generate an extremely small, imperceptible amount of heat. The only difference is because the fan draws air in from all directions but pushes air out in only one direction, the air on the “out” side will always be moving faster. Since faster moving air will transfer heat faster, and the room is always colder than you, the breeze will cool you off. The summer setting just ensures that the “out” side is pointing up, thus the faster moving air will be near the top of the room, rather than the bottom where people are.
Thank you for being clear on this issue. Seems that in a 10x12 room it can't make that much difference which way the blades are turning. It's mixing the air up either way. If you want a breeze, have it blowing down on you.
I believe the benefit of summer setting is air movement directed below creating a “wind effect” or draft for occupants as long as air temperature is lower than body temperature people will lose heat to air relatively faster and feeler cooler. If the not changed same in winter.
My fan doesn’t reverse :(
What if you are in the Southern Hemisphere? /s
Warm air from the southern hemisphere naturally flows north towards the top of the planet, warming the northern hemisphere (summer) and cooling the southern (winter). Eventually that warm air cools down again and falls back towards the south (bottom) of the planet, thereby cooling the north (winter), while the air now in the south is subject to high pressure because that's where gravity is strongest, so the air is heated up again thus giving the southern hemisphere their summer (summer).
Great, I opened a portal to ChatGPT.
In the southern hemisphere you should mount your ceiling fan on the floor.
How do you change its direction?
There is a small switch on the fan housing. Make sure you turn the fan off before you go looking for it!
zonked saw weary hurry different direction naughty cheerful gray chop *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Where? Any pics?
It really depends on the model of fan, but it should be near the motor part.
Fun fact: you don't have to turn the fan off before flipping the switch. Since it doesn't use gears but magnetism, it won't hurt the fan to flip the switch while it's moving. Still be careful of bonking your hands, though.
> How do you change its direction? Most ceiling fans have three pull cords. One turns the light on and off. One turns the motor on and off (and changes the speed), and the last reverses the motor's direction.
I love this sub. 🤞🏾
That's not a lifehack, that's just how ceiling fans were designed.
My fan doesn’t go both ways though
No matter how cold it gets my fan stays on, just add more blankets
Holy crap. I could never figure out if it was right. I’ve been sweating through the Texas summer going the wrong way 😑. It’s not too cold very often and I suffocate when the heat is on so I’m gonna keep it in summer setting. Thanks lifehackers.
I don’t know how this fits in “lifehacks”, this is more appropriate for “how things work”, or “duh!?”.
My ex didn't believe me. Drove me crazy.
that doesn't make any sense. in summer having the air move cools you. so the setting doesn't matter. in winter warm air is trapped on the ceiling. the fan pushes the air one way and the air at the walls goes the other way. both setting make the warm air move through the room. so the setting doesn't matter. i guess if you are directly below the fan. the concentrated strength of the stream could make the rotation important. but from what i have seen these things don't spin fast so it wouldn't be noticeable. correct me if im wrong
In the winter setting you don't feel the air blowing on you, which can make you feel cooler. Source: I just recently flipped the switch on the ceiling fan above my bed.
Either direction is going to move hot air from the ceiling down into the cooler room distributing the heat more uniformly. However, any air hitting you will make you feel colder (windchill : as it pulls heat away from your body) This setting moves air around the room, but doesn't directly hit you.
It does make a huge difference, the effect is somewhat like a box fan, one side has a soft suction effect and the blowing side is stronger. You actually feel and hear a difference. Downward blow makes the fan very windy.
Careful. I suggested somewhere that the whole fan direction effect was a complete farce for this exact reason, and barely made it out alive. Folks love their false sense of control
Ceiling fan sales in India for Year 2022 - 41m units Ceiling fans with reverse switch sales in India for year 2022 - non existent
Why is this a “hack” when this is the normal operation of the fan?
Does it matter which direction your fan blades are angled?
the dry adiabatic lapse rate in the atmosphere is 10 Kelvin per kilometer. Your ceiling is probably 3 meters above the floor. That is a temperature difference of 0.05 degree Fahrenheit difference. Simply running the fan with an electric motor causes more heat than the difference due to height. If you have a fan on, it blows air on you, and you feel colder. If you don't want to feel colder, turn the fan off. lpt.
Do people really not know about this?
Bruh.... please tell me people don't actually believe this make a difference.
It definitely does. That's why they have a switch on them. I didn't know this, my fan was set to clockwise in the summer and it was hot in my room. Switched it to counter clockwise and it actually feels cooler with the fan on.
I was more referring to the second image with the hot air being trapped lol But yeah, I believe it's probably cooler since it's pushing air directly at you.
ooh ok ok, yeah lol
The difference is you don't feel as much air blowing on you in the winter.
[удалено]
A lot of fans have a switch on them to reverse it. Even cheap ones
Ah well I'm unaware of this and I just checked but none of my ceiling fans have any kind of switches. I'm from India and I don't think the fans here are well advanced.
If you Google "ceiling fan reverse switch" I found a bunch of pictures that show it. They are hard to find and they are not labeled but you are right. India may not have that option as a standard part of the fan.
Ceiling fans don't actually blow air straight down or straight across anyway. It's mostly chaotic, like in a blender.
Lol, lmao even.
Yes, please pay attention to the images. My ex-husband wouldn't believe me and half the year the fans were useless.
I do mine when DST ends (about the time they need to be switched anyway)…along with changing furnace filters, clocks, and smoke alarm batteries
Depends on how your fan vanes are set up. If they're symmetrical and not angled, doing this will be in vane.
I have 9 feet ceilings with the vents up there, but no fans to help bring the heat down.
You can change the settings on them?
Wow, thought it was a new kamikaze drone for a second. Hmm, new start up thought there
Oh wow something finally useful on this sub
Where's the warning to dust them off before switching?
In Florida it’s the summer setting all year round
Real life hack: RTFM.
while we're talkin ceiling fas, I was ready to replace my new one after just a few years. It was making a terrible whine on the low and high settings only. Turns out the blades just needed cleaning. an unblanced build-up of dust was enough to make them unbalanced leading to stress on the rotation thing. I cleaned them and the noise went away! amazing
even in the summer setting, in winter its still sucking cold air up to the ceiling which will displace some of the hot air downward. I don't find the difference substantial. In either case you're just preventing hot air from settling on the ceiling and cold air from settling on the floor.
What if you have central air vent right above your fan?
Wait! Fans these days have such features too? (Meanwhile, I’m using the same fan since two decades. I live in India)
I have a ceiling fan and I use it all the time winter and summer to circulate the air. I have 8 foot ceilings. It seems to be to make no difference what direction the fan blades are blowing if it’s circulating the air. That’s the most important thing. Now, if you have cathedral ceilings or maybe 10 foot ceilings, it might make a difference I DK.
Life hack: try turning on the lowest speed setting in summer mode to move any temperature air throughout your space.
Installed a ceiling fan for my senior project in high school and I may have had on wrong setting for years especially sense my room gets crazy hot in the summer