When you're making the transition from heating to cooling your home this year, a related task that's well worth tackling is changing your ceiling fan direction. Once the blades are going in the right direction, you can use your ceiling fans strategically to boost your comfort, help you save energy and make your HVAC equipment last longer too.
Ceiling Fan Direction Simplified
Ceiling fan blades are purposefully designed to spin either forward or backward, and the direction of the spin is controlled via a small button found on the fan housing. This simple button adjustment allows you to change the blade rotation on a seasonal basis: in the summer, you want the blades spinning forward, in a counter-clockwise direction, so they create a cooling breeze. This “wind chill” helps perspiration evaporate and makes the body feel more comfortable.Making the change on all your ceiling fans isn't a difficult or time-consuming chore. Once the blades are set to spin counter-clockwise, you can:
Save energy without sacrificing comfort by dialing up your usual thermostat temperature setting a few degrees. Doing so can help you lower your energy bills for the entire cooling season.
Help lighten your heat pump or air conditioner's workload. By reducing strain and wear on your cooling equipment, there's less chance that it will break down at the height of the cooling season, and it will likely last longer as well.
Important Details to Know About Ceiling Fan Use
In our climate, ceiling fans can't completely replace air conditioning when the weather heats up, because they can't change the actual air temperature. What ceiling fans do is move air very effectively, and it's the cooling sensation created by air movement that lets you feel more comfortable. Understanding this makes it easy to see why it's only beneficial to run the ceiling fan in an occupied room. To avoid wasting any energy by having fans running unnecessarily, just make sure you switch the fan off whenever you exit a room.
To learn more ways to make your Broken Arrow home more comfortable this summer, contact us at Air Assurance.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273.