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Dulley's Money-Saving Tip #1047

How to use your ceiling fan in the winter

(related column topic links - 493)

People often ask whether to use a ceiling paddle fan in the winter and, if so, should it rotate clockwise or counterclockwise. First, in rooms with a significant source of heat - living room with a fireplace, kitchen, etc. - you should run the ceiling fan the winter too.

It should be never be run on high speed in the winter and most often on low speed. The purpose of running the fan on low is to force the warm air upward to the ceiling, out along the ceiling and down the walls. This keeps all the warm air from stagnating at the ceiling and gets it down where you are. You want a low speed so as not to create a chilly draft.

In the winter the air should flow up, not down as in the summer. The rotation can be clockwise or counterclockwise depending on the angle of the blade pitch. Just move the switch so that it rotates the opposite direction than it rotates in the summer.