My husband and I argue about this constantly. Should a ceiling fan blow up or down in the summer?

To feel cooler in the summer it should be blowing the air down.

different solutions right here talk approximately conserving the warmth air close to the ceiling for the duration of warm climate. that may not what you may desire to do. the nice and cozy air will variety and ever increasingly greater thick layer with the fan pulling the air upward. through fact the warmth air layer thickens and descends in the direction of the floor, your residing area will experience warmer and warmer. the nice and cozy air desires to be moved remote from the ceiling and circulated so as that the less warm air could be pulled upward for the period of the air circulate and its slow warming. to do this, the fan desires to blow downward, no longer upward as some who've responded right here have misinformed you. this might greater or much less equalize the temperature for the period of the top of the room being fanned and the end result would be cooler air in the finished room. Set your fan to blow downward.

You can use all the rules of heat rising and so on, but in the summer time I want to feel cool air from my ceiling fan and the only way I'm going to run mine is blowing down.

There always seems to be conflicting responses received to this question, so it is not surprising that you have this disagreement with your husband. Although the correct answer depends on the application and location of the ceiling fan, the majority of the time (I'd say about 90%) the answer is that your fan needs to spin in a counterclockwise direction (blowing air down) during the summer and a clockwise direction (drawing air up) during the winter. The directions is considered the direction of blade rotation while looking UP at the fan.

Here are the details along with some exceptions:

The function of ceiling fans during the summer is to cool you off, not to redistribute the air from your air conditioning. Ceiling fans cool you off by creating a wind chill effect. The wind chill effect is created by air blowing directly onto your skin, which increases the evaporation of sweat...which is what makes you feel cooler.

When your ceiling fan is blowing the air downwards, the most intense airflow is located in a column of air that is directly beneath the fan and within about 2 to 3 feet of the blade span. As you get further than 2 or 3 feet away from the outer edge of the fan blades, the intensity of the airflow decreases dramatically. So, if your ceiling fan is located directly above (or within 2 or 3 feet) the area where you are spending your time, you will in fact get the most benefit from operating your fan in the counterclockwise direction, which blows the air downward.

However, if your ceiling fan is NOT located close to the area where you are spending your time, the general rule of ceiling fan direction may not apply to you and you may want to try operating your fan in a clockwise direction, which is generally considered winter mode, but on high speed. When operating in a clockwise direction, a ceiling fan will draw air from directly beneath the fan up towards the ceiling, and then push it out towards the walls and down. In some cases, I have found this to be more effective than forcing the air downwards. To be an effective alternative, this will require a ceiling fan that is more powerful and capable of moving more air than your average ceiling fan. With a lesser ceiling fan, the airflow may become too be weak by the time it reaches you.

Keep in mind that when operating in either direction, a ceiling fan is still going to mix up (destratisfy) the air between the floor and ceiling, so comments that refer to drawing cool air up towards the ceiling or moving hot air down from the ceiling are not pertinent.

So, why would you want to operate a ceiling fan in the oposite direction during the winter if the air is destratisifed in either direction? Well, it boils down to the wind-chill effect. During the winter you want to mix up the air, but you do not want to feel the breeze. So operating the fan in a clockwise direction will minimize the wind-chill effect because it is not creating that intense column of air directly beneath the fan that cools you off. Also, to minimize the wind-chill effect during the winter, you want to run the fan at a lower speed.

Lastly, if you do not feel much difference in your comfort level with your fan operating in either direction, then it is most likely that you have a ceiling fan that simply does not move much air. There are HUGE differences in the performance of ceiling fans, and if you refer to the resources below, you can actually compare fans by the amount of CFM they produce (Cubic Feet per Minute of Airflow). Furthermore, if you have a high ceiling and you do not have your fan on a long enough pole, then you are likely not to feel enough airflow even if you have a good quality fan. For optimal performance, the blades of a ceiling fan should be about 7 to 8 feet from the floor.

There are even more exceptions discussed in the article I have linked below

This is almost a trick question. It can depend on weather a/c or ? but hot air rises ... I would say as long as the air is moving you will feel cooler. For me I don't like air blowing right on me. at least in a house. So I would say up. What most manufactures call the winter setting

Toilet paper should be over

Evaporation is the key. When you put out the washing, the day does not have to be sunny, it will dry on a windy day just as well. The heat in the wind evaporates the water from the washing leaving it cold. The same thing happens when you are perspiring, or for women 'glowing', when you sit in front of a fan.

"Convection is heat loss through the movement of air around your body. Without wind, convective heat loss practically stops when you're not moving, and it stops when the air temperature reaches approximately 92 degrees F".

"That leaves evaporation, the vaporization of sweat from your skin, the primary source of heat loss for the human. As your skin heats up, pores dilate and sweat floods out. Evaporation of the sweat cools your skin, heat is drawn from your blood near the surface of your body, and the cooler blood circulates to keep your insides maintained at an acceptable temperature".

Tell your husband to have the fan blowing down, just as if you were sitting in front of it for the air flow, that way the more concentrated air flow will give that little extra cooling.

Excerpts above from;

http://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=3&v...

GL>

http://www.howstuffworks.com/

With or without air conditioning? Cold air falls. With air conditioning, you can move the cooler air up and let it fall...a type of circulation.

Without air conditioning, you can blow the air down onto you. Since the air is all about the same temperature, the importance is moving air over you. Treat it like any other fan.

I could be wrong.

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/5-ways-to-lower-...

Treat it like a fan in summer. Down

Circulator in winter. Up

http://home.howstuffworks.com/ceiling-fan4.htm

simple rule to remember: hot air rises, cold air sinks. always run your fan to disagree with the air. in the summer, you want to draw cold air off the floor. it doesnt want to come off the floor and mix with heat, so make it.

in the winter you want to push hot air down from the ceiling. it wants to stay at the ceiling, so make it go down.

sure, it will circulate either way, but its most effective to move the air where it doesnt want to go. resulting in a constant temp, floor to ceiling.

It should circulate the air but you should feel thr air blowing downward to some degree.

up in summer and down in winter. cold air stays low and hot air raises