In loving memory of Kenis D. Keathley 6/4/81 - 3/27/22 Loving father, husband, brother, friend and firewood hoarder Rest in peace, Dexterday

which way should the ceiling fan spin?

Discussion in 'Everything Else (off topic)' started by jetjr, Feb 15, 2015.

  1. jetjr

    jetjr

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    Sitting here on the 9° day I got to wondering which would be the proper way for my fan to spin. Little background info. The stove is on the far left side of the house below the bedrooms. The ceiling fan is in the foyer and is were most of my heat comes up. With the fan off and the stove cranking it spins clockwise. Which direction would be best to get the most air movement In you guy's opinion?
     
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  2. ansehnlich1

    ansehnlich1

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    Hands down, DOWN!

    Now, a real DOWNER is gonna be the guy who's down, comes in here, and says UP, cuz he needs a little UPPER, ya know?

    But I still say down, 2 thumbs up on down!
     
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  3. jetjr

    jetjr

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    Thanks man I needed a laugh too.
     
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  4. ansehnlich1

    ansehnlich1

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    I solved the issue with 2 fans, one up, one down :)

    Otherwise, I'd be bamboozled with it all, but down makes sense to me.......

    Trust me, this is FHC, this thread could go on page after page with this analysis, soooooo throw another log on the fire :)
     
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  5. rottiman

    rottiman

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    In my opinion, pushing heat downward works better than pushing the cool air upward. The key thing to remember is that the faster you get the warm air moving, the quicker it cools down. I run my fan downward as slow as it will go. I find that I get better results stirring the air as opposed to blowing the air if you get my drift.....................
     
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  6. Butcher

    Butcher

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    This. Unless of coarse you were to move south of the equator then I think, well, hmmm, maybe that just has to do with which way the water spins in the terlit????
     
  7. jetjr

    jetjr

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    That's what's great bout this place. A simple up or down can turn into a great debate.
     
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  8. Butcher

    Butcher

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    You could always mount a ceiling fan on a side wall. But then it would no longer be a ceiling fan would it.:whistle:
     
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  9. jetjr

    jetjr

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    Works on bugs bunny.
     
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  10. concretegrazer

    concretegrazer

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    Blowing up is the only way I use mine. Seriously, it won't spin the other way anymore.:doh:
     
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  11. Backwoods Savage

    Backwoods Savage Moderator

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    The correct way to run a ceiling fan is to plow up in winter and down in summer.

    Why up in winter? The coolest part of the house is the floor and walls. Now thinking about the walls, nature tells us that cool air moves down and warm moves up. So if we're trying to blow the air down we're doing it backwards. Remember always that cool air moves much better than warm. That is why when using a floor fan, one wants to blow the cool air into the hot stove room rather than trying to blow the warm air into the cooler air.

    Having the fan suck the air up it then has to circulate so it flows down along the walls, thereby working with nature. It's just a case of rowing with the flow.
     
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  12. Greenstick

    Greenstick

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    It should spin around. Had to tape pennies on one once to balance it because it had a flight pattern like a drunk humming bird. Thought it was going to come out of the ceiling it was so all over.:bug:
     
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  13. jetjr

    jetjr

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    Here's what I was pondering, man its been a long cold day. The fan hangs about 3 feet from the ceiling. So after reading this and ansehnlich1 answer I'm still confuzzled. Shouldn't I try to push the cold air down to make it push the warm air up or since this is the only open space to allow warm up its better to pull it up?
     
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  14. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    tell me about that? I turn the humidifier fan up (too noisy during waking hours) to blow the hot air from the ceiling. Am I defeating the purpose?
     
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  15. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    I remember that from a user manual at our previous home. I always used down in summer for the breeze, but in winter I have used both, but mostly up.
     
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  16. jetjr

    jetjr

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    Yea I read that but was not sure if fan height, stove placement and such mattered.
     
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  17. UncleJoe

    UncleJoe

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    Yep. That's the way I always do it. Warm air naturally rises. I get a much better circulation by not fighting the natural order of things.


    .
     
  18. BrianK

    BrianK

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    We have a ceiling fan in the middle of our living room, which is our stove room. If I want to keep the heat on the first floor, I run it so the air blows up. That lifts the cold air off the floor and beta.jpg circulates the hot air and keeps all of it from going up the stairwell to the second floor. If I want the heat upstairs, I turn the fan off, as the heat simply rises, hits the ceiling and quickly spills up the stairwell. In this photo from Christmas 2013 (with our Beta IS) I'm standing on the stairs and the heat crosses the ceiling and flows heavily upstairs without the fan running.
     
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  19. jetjr

    jetjr

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    The heat definitely rises well enough up the steps to turn the fan, I just want to kinda move it out of the corner some.
     
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  20. basod

    basod

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    Counter clockwise (up if wired correctly).
    Adding to the principles Backwoods Savage noted above.
    Air moving downwards (clockwise rotation in the summer) speeds the air you feel directly on your skin, increasing evaporation rate of your sweat (or glisten for you ladies) causing a cooling effect.
    Air in the house during the winter is already dryer than normal especially with a woodstove, there is no reason to increase the evaporation rate of your sweat, it'll only make you feel cooler (good when you've overheated the house on the anxious shoulder season burns in October:eek:)