Sleep in comfort all year round with a ceiling fan.
Ceiling fans are a much better option for staying cool in summer, than rushing off to the big box store and buying a cheap room air conditioner. Ceiling fans cost less up front, and far less to operate, and they can keep you just as cool most of the time.
Of course a ceiling fan doesn't actually cool your room, but the air they keep moving helps you feel cooler. Any moisture on your skin is blown away, and this evaporation cools you down. And you can run a ceiling fan on about the same energy as an incandescent light bulb - a tenth or less what an air conditioning unit uses.
Another benefit of ceiling fans is that you can use them in the winter as well as the summer - to keep hot air circulating throughout your living space, instead of always clumping around the ceilings (remember, heat rises). Try doing that with an air conditioner!
In hot weather, humans sweat. Much of the cooling action from any fan comes from the evaporation of moisture on human skin - as the water evaporates, it takes heat away with it, cooling you down. Ceiling fans can cause some increased ventilation with the outdoors if you have wide open windows (i.e. no screens), but even the partial barrier of a screen will reduce the air cooling effect of the fan to near zero. If there isn't water to evaporate, turn the fan off.
Leaving an air conditioner running in a room you'll come back to later doesn't make that much sense either - but at least it cools the room down so you'll be able to enjoy the cool air when you get back.
In winter, rising hot air means that the temperature difference between the floor and ceiling of a room can be substantial, especially where the heat source is projected upwards from a floor forced air register or originates higher up (for instance, a kitchen stove used for cooking, or a fireplace that vents heated air out the top).
If you have cathedral ceilings, the distance from floor to ceiling can be as much as twenty feet (that's the peak height of the ceiling in my parents' country home). Of course, no one ever hangs out up at the peak, so there's no point in letting the heat all rise to the ceiling and stick there. A ceiling fan in the winter can draw air from below up to the ceiling, which in turn pushes the hot air at the ceiling down the sides of the room and back to the floor, where it can start rising once again.
A ceiling fan at the top of a stairwell is also not a bad idea. You can use it to send hot air back down from the bedroom floor to the living room floor of a two storey house. Or, if you heat with a living room fireplace insert as I sometimes do, a ceiling fan can be used to increase air circulation between the two floors, and draw the hot downstairs air up more quickly. Which direction should ceiling fans turn?
Here's one of the main reasons ceiling fans are so energy efficient - even the largest home ceiling fans use only about as much energy as an incandescent 100 watt light bulb. A typical, ENERGY STAR rated small room air conditioner at 5200 BTU with an EER rating of 11 consumes about 470 watts while running. A high-powered ceiling fan at full speed is thus five times more efficient than the lowest capacity room air conditioner. Most people need about 15 minutes of full-speed airflow from their ceiling fan when they settle into a bedroom for the night, after which they can switch the fan to half speed and use just one tenth or less what the air conditioner uses.
You can buy ceiling fans in a variety of sizes, from mini-ceiling fans with a blade diameter around 2.5 feet, all the way up to 4.5 feet (54 inches) or more. The size of ceiling mount fan you choose will depend on your room size, and, for very large rooms, on the number of fans you decide to install. For a typical small to medium bedroom I would recommend a 36" to 42" fan; for rooms over 150 square feet, a 42" or larger fan. For very large rooms up to 400 square feet, try a 50" to 56" fan.
Ceiling fans are intended to be installed on ceilings that are at least 8 feet high. Installing a ceiling fan on a lower ceiling, or above a raised area (for instance, a bunk bed) is dangerous because of the risk of injury to people from the rotating blades. Even a ceiling fan beside a bunk bed can pose a hazard, especially if it is turning in the dark and a child climbs the bunk bed ladder and reaches out towards it. So make sure you have enough room between the blades and where people can reach upward.
Ceiling fans should also be positioned so that there is at least a foot and a half of space between the tips of the blades and any wall.
Standard ceiling fans come with a spacer rod that is 3 to 5 inches long. This spacer connects the ceiling bracket to the fan itself. Most spacer rods are 1/2" or 3/4" although you can buy longer ones if you need them to bring the fan closer to the room occupants in a tall-ceilinged room.
For very tight vertical spaces, where you can't even afford a 3" spacer rod, you can buy a flush mount fan specifically designed for a low profile. These fans are also called "Hugger" fans. Note that they are not as energy efficient or as effective as standard mount fans, because the proximity of the blades to the ceiling means they require more energy to move the same amount of air around (or use the same amount of energy to move less air around).
Where you are adding on a light unit to an existing fan, the lamp may protrude too far down with a standard ceiling fan, which is another good reason to look for a hugger or low profile fan.
The fan motor is one of the key components of all ceiling fans, and buying a unit with a high quality motor will ensure you higher efficiency, longer life, and quieter operation. Buying an ENERGY STAR qualified ceiling mount fan can save you more than the price of many such fans over a ten year period - $15 a year or more. ENERGY STAR rated ceiling fans are required to meet a number of efficiency criteria, including a minimum of three fan speeds, more airflow per watt of electricity used, and a 30+ year warranty on the motor.
Most fan blades are calibrated and balanced prior to shipment, but if the fan does seem wobbly after you install it, you can try realigning all parts and tightening all connections. Hold a yardstick vertically to the ceiling from the tip of each blade, to ensure all blades are at the same distance from the ceiling; you may be able to get a blade readjusted to the right distance by gently bending a misaligned blade holder back into place.
Assuming the blades are properly aligned and all connections have been checked, you can often obtain a balancing kit - clips and weights for the blades - which can be used to find the underweight or overweight blade and balance the fan as required. These kits usually come with the fan unit or are shipped free of charge, on request, from the manufacturer.
Once your fan is properly installed, you should get years of quiet, hassle free cooling from it every summer, and it should help keep the heat where you want it in the winter. All in all, ceiling fans are a great way to keep the indoor temperature where you want it without spending a fortune on air conditioning or heating.
Robin Green is the owner of Green-Energy-Efficient-Homes.com, a website dedicated to helping people save energy on heating, cooling, lighting, and other energy uses in their homes. For more information on staying cool with ceiling fans see his page Ceiling mount fans.
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