Check Ceiling Fans – Daily Financial Challenge


check ceiling fan - save moneyWe’ll round out this week with another financial challenge to get your house prepared for the summer heat. If you have ceiling fans in your house, we’re going to make sure that all your ceiling fans are set and blowing the correct direction.

Using fans in conjunction with your air conditioner can save you a tremendous amount in energy costs. A fan can make the temperature in a room seem as much as 10 degrees cooler which means that you don’t have to work your air conditioner as hard (if you don’t have any ceiling fans, consider purchasing some – they can be found starting at about $25 at most home improvement stores and will usually pay for themselves in a single summer).

Most ceiling fans are reversible. This means they can blow air up or down. For the summer, you want to make sure that your fans are blowing the air down. This is important because if your fan is blowing air upward, it can actually heat up the room instead of cooling it because warm air that collects near the ceiling is bounced back down towards the living area.

The first step is to test your fans and make sure they are all blowing downward. To test, turn on your fan and stand directly under it looking up. In most cases, a counter-clockwise rotation will blow the air down while a clockwise rotation will lift the air up.

If you still are unsure, turn the fan on full-speed while standing directly below it. If you can feel a strong breeze hitting you, then the air is blowing down. If you can’t feel anything, then it is blowing upward and you’ll need to change the rotation direction.

Most fans have a switch to change the fan’s direction. The direction switch is usually found on the side of the fan between the light and the fan blades. Make sure the fan is turned completely off and not spinning before you flip the switch or you can damage the motor.

Using your fans this summer in conjunction with your air conditioner you can save as much as $50 off your energy bill.


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May 5th, 2006
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Nick
Posted on:
May 5, 2006 at 7:59 am

We used our ceiling fan for the first time last night, and it helped keep our bedroom nice and cool all night long. I’m resisting hitting that A/C button for as long as I can!

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Laura
Posted on:
May 5, 2006 at 8:58 am

Should you leave the fans running all the time or only when you’re in the room?

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
Melissa
Posted on:
May 5, 2006 at 5:02 pm

I checked my fans and 2 of them were still set for “winter”. No wonder! Thanks for reminding me to switch them back!

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
pfadvice
Posted on:
May 6, 2006 at 11:30 pm

Should you leave the fans running all the time or only when you’re in the room?

If you have the air conditioner on, then it’s worthwhile having the fans on.

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
Punny Money
Posted on:
May 9, 2006 at 9:11 pm

[...] I also would like to give a little extra lovin’ to one of my favorite personal finance posts of the Festival”a simple reminder from Personal Finance Advice to check your ceiling fan. Make sure it’s spinning the right way or you might stand there wondering why the room is getting hotter when it should be getting cooler. It’s a ridiculously easy thing to do, but I’m sure there are at least a few people in America who will go the whole summer with their fan blowing up instead of blowing down. [...]

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
Hugh Buckhaults
Posted on:
May 7, 2007 at 7:29 pm

My bedroom ceiling fan is now running backwards(pulling air up). It has no reverse switch and the blades can’t change pitch. The power company did change the transformer to my house last winter but as an electrician of 30 years, changing phases on a single phase motor should not affect directions! Any ideas on how I might change blade direction? Hot in Texas!!