OT Which direction is your ceiling fan SUPPOSED to run?

it depends if you have air conditioning.

I run UP all seasons.... moves the air within putting myself in a wind. ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142     Skype: skypeanalog  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

again which way? for what reason? elaborate?

EXACTLY! In the summer cooler, in the winter the hot ceiling air does get a chance to slide down the cooler external wall, heating them a bit. ...I'm going to go change them all back. Experts! phewey!

Mine doesn't reverse, it always blows down. I don't think the blades can be switched.

We don't have a/c, so the only time we use the fan is when it's warm at night. Works great.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

Yup. Same here.

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Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

The idea of a direct draft downwards is to make you feel cooler due to the evaporation of your perspiration, why not make up your own mind and use whatever feels the best.

AZ housing is noted for these fans. We have eight laced throughout the house. Three speed settings, two chains, one for fan one for light, and always two switches on the walls for each fan, and a 'direction switch' on the side of the housing, requires a ladder to get to that is very intelligently mnemonic, slide up air moves UP, slide down air moves DOWN. noiseless critters, too.

THANKS, again empirical evidence opposite the 'experts'!

heat rises. If you have ac, you want to push the warm air down so it can become ac'd. If you don't have ac, you might as well leave the warm air up there were it will be less noticed.

Mine cost $40 at Home Depot and doesn't have all those fancy features;

3 speeds, no light, no direction. It is quiet. In our climate, we probably use it 5 or 10 nights per year, for the rare heat wave.

Ceiling fans are impressive. They seem to last forever.

I did tie it into the ceiling real good. Nothing wrecks your sleep like a fan falling on you.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

These fans are probably a bit more.

you just reminded me that UP air is going to turn the fan into a chopper if accidently raise up into it!

Hi, Sounds like you have an experience with falling ceiling fan on you? I have 3 of them fancy ones on top floor of the house. Very seldom use them. Today it is VERY hot(for us at least), 30.7C in my front yard.

30C temp. here is not usual. Rather -30C is usual in winter, LOL!

Wow, you seem to have a problem with authority. Of course you can use the fan anyway you wish. The recommendation has nothing to do with your house, it has to do with your skin. As others have pointed out when it is warm a slight breeze can feel good, so the fan is set to blow down so you can feel it. In the winter when it is cool you don't want to feel the breeze, so set it to up. By the time the circulation reaches you it is greatly dispersed and you don't feel the cool air so much.

My bed is right under a window and I tried adding a plastic film to seal off the draft. But that only worked so well. I tried adding some cardboard as layers of insulation behind the blind and still felt a cold draft. Turns out I was reducing the heat flow through the window, but that was not the full problem. The air by the window would still get cold, but since it got cold slowly it fell slowly still lowering temperature significantly by the time it fell on my bed. It took a 3/4 inch sheet of Styrofoam tightly fitted to the window before I could sleep in that bed. This was a cold winter here and that draft was unbearable! It only takes a very little air flow to create a very noticeable draft in the winter because the air can be rather cold. That is why you want the fan blowing up if at all in the winter. I turn mine off in the winter. I don't think it changes the electric bill noticeably one way or the other or the comfort in the room.

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Rick

days like we've been having when it starts to be a bother. This weekend

Nice sleeping weather.

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Rick

Went there, waited ...and waited ...and waited, forgot what it was all about, couldn't read the tiny little words, so gave up cursing and swearing under my breath to return here ready to lambaste your reply when upon rereading, realized what that image was! then, LOL!

Plus, the images had an unusual coordinate system for showing those spatial diagrams. Had you not shown me those images, I NEVER would have thought of using that type of presentation to potential clients for showing accuracy of our proposed position-location system in that simple manner, THANKS! See, there's a reason for everything!

The theory is to move the hot air from the ceiling down to the living space in the winter. Depending the use of the space, summer may require up or down. If air conditioned you can get away with keeping temps at least 4 degrees warmer if you keep the fan running down because the light breeze helps cool. Running the fan UP draws the cool air from the floor up to the ceiling and circulates the air across the ceiling to spill down the walls. Doesn't work as well with "architectural" ceilings.

I just put 2 70 inch fans in the office - 6 speed - running down on

4th speed -13 and 15 foot ceilings with architectural features - (former theatre)

If your room is a well insulated adiabatic system, it doesn't matter. The fan just mixes the air until the air in the room is all the same temperature. Whether you mix from the bottom or top has little effect on the final temperature.

However, if the system leaks and is therefore not adiabatic, the story is a little different. Heat will be introduced into the room through the ceiling and windows. The result with be a temperature gradient where the ceiling and window air are warmer than the air near the floor. The only temperature of importance is your head, which radiates most of the waste heat from your body. Because it is closer to the ceiling than the floor, a fan blowing downward will heat your head instead of cooling it, as you observed.

So, if you have a leaky system, blow the colder air from the floor upwards. If you have a well insulated system, it doesn't matter as all the air will eventually be the same temperature.

If you have a thermistor temp probe and meter, you could wave it around various locations in the room and see how you're doing on insulation. If you find that the ceiling air is very much warmer than room air (near the floor), it might pay to look into a ceiling exhaust fan.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Problem with authority? Maybe, but it was a LEARNED response.

Actually, I was trying to confirm whether others experienced what I had found empirically, and was in direct opposition to the 'experts' suggestion. Plus, convince Ms. Macy that I am NOT an idiot and delusional for thinking I know more than the experts on these House shows.

The recommendation has nothing to do with your

I thought that way too, directly blowing down onto me in hot weather 'sounded' better. But just confirmed that blowing down on me ended up 'feeling' a good 5 degrees hotter, than letting air come in from the sides. I now have the fan set for UP and it feels cooler in the room than with NO fan. And earlier it definitely felt hotter with the fan blowing DOWN, by several degrees above what it was like with NO fam.

At University I had a roomate who during the summer would go logging for piece meal wages to make great money. He said they roasted all day, like into the 80's, 90's, and froze at night in their cabins. Wake up in the morning to find a sheet of ice frozen over standing water in any dish! Now THAT's cold. He said the money was worth it, though.