Question about ceiling fans

[Louis Brandt]

Hello,

My wife and I have both central air conditioning and ceiling fans, and we've always set our ceiling fans on high speed during the summer, but I'd like to know how others set their fans.

For those of you who have both central air conditioning and ceiling fans, do you set your ceiling fans on high speed or low speed during the summer, and why?

Louis

[Rich Engelhardt]

Our AC guy told us to ditch the ceiling fans in the Summer.
He says all they do is pull the hot air from the ceiling down & make the AC run more.

[Steven DeMars]

I think your A/C guy needs to do a little reading beyond the sports page.

Perhaps a few HVAC related articles would help.:rolleyes:

But don't feel bad, I had an HVAC guy tell me one time that you are better off running your central A/C with about 30% less freon than manufacturer's spec called for. He said the unit would not have to work as hard. You know pushing 2 tons instead of 3 tons.:confused:

Ceiling fans have been proven to make a room feel at least 4 degrees cooler than without any moving air. Similar to the actual temperature versus the "HEAT INDEX". (human-perceived equivalent temperature)

Perhaps he needs to spend a few nights in Louisiana in the summer time.

We also run both, and I can assure you there is a definite value in running a ceiling fan. Many nights I have to get up and turn it off.

As to the question posed by the OP, yes, a slow or medium speed will do an excellent job.

Steve


Our AC guy told us to ditch the ceiling fans in the Summer.
He says all they do is pull the hot air from the ceiling down & make the AC run more.

[Louis Brandt]

As to the question posed by the OP, yes, a slow or medium speed will do an excellent job.

Steve

But if a slow or medium speed will do an excellent job, wouldn't the highest speed do the best job? That's really my question.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

But don't feel bad, I had an HVAC guy tell me one time that you are better off running your central A/C with about 30% less freon than manufacturer's spec called for. He said the unit would not have to work as hard. You know pushing 2 tons instead of 3 tons.:confused:


He actually believed that there are tons of Freon in an HVAC system?

[James Rambo]

In the summer set the thermostat 2 to 4 degree warmer, put the ceiling fans to pull (colder) air from the floor to the ceiling with low to medium speed.

In the winter have the fans pull the (hotter) air from the ceiling to the floor. (hot air rises)

[Neal Clayton]

get real ceiling fans and you no longer need the forced air, just a marble floor under the fan ;).

here's mine...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gr5-gZN29E (turn the sound up so you can hear it, sounds like an aircraft turbine!)

keeps the ground floor of the house at 75 in the summer regardless of how hot it is outside, less the kitchen. downside is you don't even wanna walk by this room in the winter or you catch a shiver, heh.

people who saw the video and know about old ceiling fans seem to think it's made by a company/man named diehl, who made ceiling fans from ~1890 to the 1930s.

apparently ceiling fans are just like tools, older is better with those too.

[Jim Rimmer]

I run mine on medium. I don't know that high would be better. You just need some air movement. Do you want to blow papers of the table? But I also run my A/C around 76 - 78.

What James said is right on if you have reversible fans.

[Louis Brandt]

I run mine on medium. I don't know that high would be better. You just need some air movement. Do you want to blow papers of the table? But I also run my A/C around 76 - 78.

What James said is right on if you have reversible fans.

Yes, we know about reversing the direction in the winter. And like you, we run our A/C about the same 76-78 in the summer. But we've always run our ceiling fans at their highest speeds, and I just wanted to know whether anyone knew of any reason why that might actually be less efficient than running at a lower speed.

[Von Bickley]

I use my ceiling fans on medium year round. Mostly in the summer, but sometimes in the winter to.

[Steven DeMars]

Because it's noisey . . .


But if a slow or medium speed will do an excellent job, wouldn't the highest speed do the best job? That's really my question.

[Steven DeMars]

He actually believed that there are tons of Freon in an HVAC system?

You have to remember, I live in the south. The requirement to get a HVAC license is to work as a technician for for 5 years and then past a written test. Notice I said work, that includes humping new units into the attic and laying out flexible duct. Problem is a licensed tech/company owner can have a 100 x-burger workers working for him under his license. No training required. The licensed person does not have to be present when the work is performed.

I think I have gotten that guy a couple of times. Offered one a FLUKE one day to trouble shoot since he had none. He told me they had a "cheat sheet" that told them what to replace based on "what it was or wasn't doing". He said he did not need the FLUKE, nor could he operate one.

Same guy told me I just need to close off rooms I was not in at the time. I think I confused him when I told him I could only be in "one room at a time".

Also told me that I should "squirt" the condenser unit with a hose a couple times a day to "help it out".

My across the street neighbor's new condenser quick working after a couple of months. They told him his warranty was void because birds had been sitting above it crapping in it.

Another Carrier Dealer came out checked it out and determined it was just a faulty capacitor. When the neighbor told him what the last guy said he spewed Coke out of his nose laughing.

Had another guy check my freon with a stick gauge & told me everything was alright.

Living here in Louisiana you spend a lot of time talking to A/C people.

Steve:)

[Jim Finn]

I am a former HVAC Contractor/Service man and I run my ceiling fan along with my AC only in the bedroom at night. Just do what you like it matters little if you run fans or not. One thing I suggest is never to run your ceiling fan drawing the air upwards. Always pushing the air down. Running it with the airflow up will cause a dirty ring to form on the ceiling eventualy.

[Chris Harry]

I run my fans on low at night. Since the setback t-stat lets the temp rise overnight (I dont need it to be nice and cool while Im unconscious :) ), the ceiling fan is the little bit that we need to fall asleep comfortably and fall back asleep if we wake in the middle of the night.

[Matt Meiser]

When we have the ac on we use the one in our bedroom on high because I sleep better with a blanket on me. In our living room and dining room usually medium.

[Dan Hintz]

The max speed your fan should be run at is the minimum speed at which it can churn all air in the room in a reasonable time period... obviously what that speed is will be open to debate and personal taste. Unless you're in a huge room, putting the fan on max speed is doing little more than running on medium, and in many situations may be doing little more than running it on slow

If you can comfortably watch the spinning blades for 1 minute without getting a headache trying to keep up with a single blade, the fan is probably too slow to move enough air ;)

[Neal Clayton]

The max speed your fan should be run at is the minimum speed at which it can churn all air in the room in a reasonable time period... obviously what that speed is will be open to debate and personal taste. Unless you're in a huge room, putting the fan on max speed is doing little more than running on medium, and in many situations may be doing little more than running it on slow

If you can comfortably watch the spinning blades for 1 minute without getting a headache trying to keep up with a single blade, the fan is probably too slow to move enough air ;)

that may be the case in maryland but it's not in new orleans ;).

when you have 12 foot ceilings all rooms are huge, no matter how much floor space there is.

and a ceiling fan blowing hard on a room with a tile floor can help cool other rooms adjacent to it, as well, as long as the door openings are large enough (which is why we had french doors and/or huge pocket doors in the south before forced air, too).

another failure of the one-size-fits-all suburban house....different regions with different climates need different architectural design to have function as well as form. but that's a whole other thread.

[Dan Hintz]

Neal,

Don't confuse air overturn with evaporative cooling of sweat... a fast fan works best when you're cooling your body by sweating your b@lls off ;)

[Paul Ryan]

We have ceiling fans in every room on the main floor. During the day they are all running just to keep the air moving. At night just the fan in our bedroom and kid's stay on. Both are set on medium. Occasionally I ramp up the one in our bedroom to high and reverse it to draw in the cool air from outside when the ac is off. Our fans run almost constantly in the summer no matter if the ac is on or off. In the spring and autum they are used quite a bit as well. But hardly every used in the winter.

[Bill Huber]

Now speaking of fans, have you see the Big Ass Fans, they are something.
http://www.bigassfans.com/industrial

To answer the question I run my fans on medium, on high there is to make noise and I really don't see that it helps that much.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Running it with the airflow up will cause a dirty ring to form on the ceiling eventualy.

First reasonable thing I've heard yet.

Moving the air will eventually homogenize the temperature no matter which way the fan blows it. Pulling up, pushing down... it all mixes. Once mixed there is no hotter or cooler air, it's just air in motion - warmed of course by the fan's motor. We all know this.

The fan's motor generates heat. Air running through the fan
is heated, not cooled. If anything happens to the air its temperature rises.

I do not run the fans in my house. The A/C does just fine without a mix-master effect swirling around my head and through my ears.

I watch to turn off lights too, especially in the summer. They add heat as well.

My grandmother was convinced she could suck all of the hot air out of her house if she faced all of the fans out the windows. She didn't let the outside air into the house that way. She didn't get physics in HS.
.

[Louis Brandt]

When we have the ac on we use the one in our bedroom on high because I sleep better with a blanket on me. In our living room and dining room usually medium.

That sounds like you're agreeing with my original idea, that is, that running the fan on its highest speed keeps you coolest.

[Matt Meiser]

I agree that it doesn't keep the temperature of the room any different, but the fan blowing cool air on me either actually cools me or makes my body think I'm cooler. Whichever, it works.

[Louis Brandt]

I agree that it doesn't keep the temperature of the room any different, but the fan blowing cool air on me either actually cools me or makes my body think I'm cooler. Whichever, it works.

Ok, thanks. That agrees with my thinking.

[Brian Elfert]

I run my ceiling fans on the slow speed because they start shaking at higher speeds. It has been 8 years and I still haven't balanced them yet.

I would use medium speed most of the time if I could.

[Neal Clayton]

Neal,

works best when you're cooling your body by sweating your b@lls off ;)

which from walking downtown every day for a few years in the big easy (in wool suit pants!) i know plenty about, unfortunately.

funny thing is it's hotter here than it is there, this year, for whatever reason. shoulda ran further north to get away from the hurricanes ;)...

[Dan Hintz]

We keep breaking 100 here lately... mid- to high-90s most days, but we've had a spurt of 100+ the last few weeks that I don't think the electric companies counted on...

[Jeremy Milam]

Our ceiling fans and not noisy regardless of speed. Maybe something's wrong with the OP's fans if they're noisy on high?

[Stew Hagerty]

I have ceiling fans in every room except the kitchen and dining rooms (not counting the bathrooms of course). In the summer they blow downward to give you the feel of a breeze and in the winter they blow upward just to circulate the air. I have a severe respiratory problem and it helps to keep the house very cool year round. Air movement also helps me feel better. In the living room, with it's 12' ceiling, I use medium speed and run it often in the evening when we are sitting out there. If I put it on high it blows papers all over. In the bedroom it runs whenever I am in there. I usually keep it on low because it hangs directly over the bed and the gentle breeze is just right, unless I am having a particularly bad day, and then I use medium. We have always used them this way so I have no idea if it helps my energy consumption or not, I just know I feel better because of them.

[Ben Hatcher]

Fans cool the people, not the air. Generally speaking, a fan running in an unoccupied room does nothing but waste electricity and add a small amount of heat. You should run the fan at the lowest speed that allows you to feel the cooling effects.

Other than when you're sleeping, it may make some sense to run fans in unoccupied rooms so as to mix the air and eliminate those stagnant pocket of hot air you might encounter in upstairs rooms. However, that mixing means that that air will be cooled thus adding to your cooling bill. Incidentally, in a 2 story home you can achieve much of the same efffect by covering the cold air returns located near the floor on the first floor. The ac will then draw all of its air from the warm air returns located near the ceilings on the second floor. Flexible magnets work very well for this purpose. You can often buy these at sign shops. It is the material that they use to make magnetic decals businesses might put on the side of their cars to advertise.

[Louis Brandt]

Our ceiling fans and not noisy regardless of speed. Maybe something's wrong with the OP's fans if they're noisy on high?

I never said that our ceiling fans were noisy on high. I believe that someone else may have mentioned noise, but I (the OP) never said that our fans were noisy at any speed.