Which way is better to set your ceiling fans to turn clock wise or counterclockwise during the summer months

Question

Which way is better to set your ceiling fans to turn clock wise or counterclockwise during the summer months

Answer 1

Fan manufacturers claim they should be blowing downward during the summer. I, personally, disagree since heat rises and cool air stays low. If the fan is blowing down, it is bringing the hot air down with it. I would think you would want to be drawing the cooler air upwards.

Answer 2

If you are looking up at your ceiling fan and the blades are turning counter clockwise, you will feel the air blowing downward from the fan (I just looked at mine).  This is how you want your fans to blow in the summer so that they will suck the cool air from the a/c vents downward toward the middle of the rooms.

In the winter, some people switch their fans to "clockwise" in order to force the heat down from the ceilings (heat rises) and not be subjected to the wind from the fan blades.  (Think of the clockwise motion as an exhaust-type of movement.)  It blows upward toward the ceiling and disburses the heat back downward.

The preferences vary, depending on how people feel, and how hot or cool their rooms are.  Also understand that, in some buidings, the vents are on the floor and not the ceiling.  That might ultimately change your decision.

Answer 3

I have read it all now, the fan in the summer time should blow down it creates a wind chill factor, like when you stand in front of a  floor fan you feel cooler. The fan in the winter time is reversed to push the heat off the ceiling and makes the room feel warmer, you do not want it blowing on you in the winter because drafts make you feel colder. Switch down in the summer and up in the winter!

Answer 4

The reality is either way will create a more inuform distribution of air (temperature) in the room.  I make no difference what-so-ever if you suck the air down from the top and blow it down or vice-vera, after a few seconds the air in the room is very homogeneous.  If anyone tells you otherwise, they are incorrect, fact of physics.  

Most people agree in the summer you want the air blowing down, just because it blows on you and dries your skin, evaporation makes you feel cooler, can't remember if it's CW or CCW.  In the end it is totally subjective

Answer 5

Well, better is something you will have to decide for your self.  Some say up some say down.

Here is my theory.

If you have an air conditioned space then have the air blow down so the AC can remove the heat and even out the temperature of the space.  For what it’s worth an air conditioner actually removes heat.

If you do not have AC then open the windows and set it the way you like it.  I would guess that with a high ceiling, up would work better for moving the air around and making you feel better.  Down would pull hot air and make you feel like getting AC.

If the ceiling is very high (like in a church) and the fan is slow the air is most likely drifting back up around the fan and just recalculating ceiling hot air.

I think ceiling fan theory would make a good Myth Busters episode.

Answer 6

Summer counterclockwise wise, so that will push air outward and distribute the air in the room.  In the winter clockwise so that it will draw all of the cold air from the floor into the ceiling.,

Answer 7

In the summer, it's best for the fan to draw air up.  This helps to disburse the cool air that is sitting near the floor.  In the winter, the fan should blow the warm air near the ceiling down.  Hope this helps.