When your air con is on is it better to have your ceiling fan draw the air up or down?

Question

When your air con is on is it better to have your ceiling fan draw the air up or down?

Answer 1

Just leave it off.  If you have the air con on you want cold air down where you live.  Thermodynamics tells us warmer air rises.  Fan off = cold air stays low, warm air rises up; you want the warm air up.  Fan on = supposedly drawing up warm air, but probably drawing up cold air too.  You're spending a lot of $ on that cold air.  Don't mess with it.

Edit:  Hmm.  Thank you g239b.  Interesting.  What throws me off though is ceiling fans sold with reversible blades for redirecting air.  A gimmick perhaps?  Seems like I've seen smoke pulled up, but maybe not.  Certainly what you say is true also.

Answer 2

Heat rises and cool air settles.

With the air conditioning on, the cool air will tend to settle and the cooler it gets, the hot rises closer to the ceiling.

A fan mixes the air.  If you make it blow towards the ceiling, you will tend to pull the cold air up.  If you make the fan blow towards the floor, you will force the hot air towards the floor.  When you consider that the ceiling is a little warmer on days when you need the air conditioning, it would be nice to cool that ceiling faster.  So, if the cool air goes up, you may actually cool the ceiling faster than if the hot air is pulled away.

In any case, your ceiling fan is mixing air, and you'll like that.

Answer 3

Blow down for cool up for heat

Answer 4

against the popular perception, ceiling fans do not draw air either up or down. They help ventilate air and moving air creates a "chill factor" that makes you feel cooler.

So, it is best to turn on your ceiling fan when your AC is on if you want to feel cooler  without adjusting your static air temp on your thermostat.

Answer 5

have it  blow down to circulate to cool air and up to bring up the warm air