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I never lived in a house with a ceiling fan until I was 28 years old. At that point, being a ceiling fan rookie I didn’t know much about how they worked and all the features they typically had. After having my ceiling fans for a few months I thought I had it all down. I thought I was a pro. You just pull the longer chain for the light and the shorter chain for the fan to select one of its three speeds, pretty simple.
(On a side note, a friend of mine, after seeing me struggle to remember which chain did what, gave me a great mnemonic I still use to help me remember… Light and Long both start with “L”, so the Long chain is for the Light. Hope that is helpful to someone else too. If the chain to your light isn’t longer, add to it or cut a couple inches off the fan chain.)
I thought I was a pro until one day I was sitting in my front room with my ceiling fan pro friend Michael. I happened to notice a little black up and down switch on the side of my ceiling fan body just above the light kit. I know I had noticed this little switch on ceiling fans my whole life but never gave any thought to what it might be or what it might do. I think I assumed it was a kill switch type of thing that would cause the fan to not work if it was switched off…but I couldn’t make any sense of the value of such a switch.
Since I had a ceiling fan pro there in the room with me, I asked him, “What is that little black switch on the side of the fan?”
The answer completely surprised me, it was something I never would have imagined.
He matter of factly said, “That’s the direction switch”.
The what??? It didn’t register right away.
He continued, “The direction switch, if you have it switched down the blades rotate counterclockwise, if you have it switched up they rotate clockwise.”
I immediately asked, “Why would it matter what direction the fan rotates?”
He floored me again with his response, he said, “One direction is for summer use and the other direction is for winter use.”
WHAT??? I had no idea that my fans could do this and I also had no idea there were different rotation directions for different seasons.
He went on to explain the whole thing to me and taught me all about why this directional feature is worthwhile. Let me try to teach you what he taught me.
What Direction for Summer and What Direction for Winter?
First of all let’s go over how to use your fan in summer and how to use it in winter.
There isn’t a completely universal standard for this stuff so pay attention to the principles behind what I say to make sure you figure out how to work your fan properly. Some fans have switches that go up and down, others have switches that go left and right.
For summer operation your directional switch will most likely need to be either down, or to the left. This will cause your fan to rotate counterclockwise, or spin to the left.
For winter operation your directional switch will most likely need to be either up, or to the right. This will cause your fan to rotate clockwise, or spin to the right.
The easiest way to make sure your fan is moving in the direction you want it to is by standing directly under it and turn it on. If you can feel the breeze blowing down on you then you are in summer mode. If you don’t feel much breeze on you at all, then you are in winter mode.
Why Have Summer and Winter Mode?
When Michael first told me about this feature I was puzzled. I wondered, “Why would you need a ceiling fan when it was cold? To me, I always thought of ceiling fans as something that cools you down, it didn’t make sense that a ceiling fan would be useful in the winter. After Michael explained it to me, it made perfect sense though.
If you are in summer mode then the fan pulls the air from the room from the top of the fan and blows it down to the ground directly below the fan. It pulls the air in the room Up and then pushes it down. It pulls air from the outer walls and pushes it into the middle of the room.
If you are in winter mode, it does the opposite. It pulls the air from the center of the room down below the fan and pushes it up above the fan to the ceiling and then out to the walls in every direction. By doing this it pulls air away from the people below the fan and distributes it up into the hotter air at the ceiling and then pushes that warmer air out to the walls. Doing this eventually warms the entire room more than if no fan was being used.
Why Does the Direction of the Fan Matter?
It all comes down to the pitch of the fan blades. When you are in summer mode the front of the fan blade moving counterclockwise is pitched up. This causes the fan blade to pull the air from above the fan and push it down below it.
When you are in winter mode the front of the fan blade moving clockwise is pitched down so the fan has the opposite effect. It pulls the air from below the fan and throws it up and out, away from the people in the room.
When Should I Use Summer and Winter Direction on My Fan?
The easy answer is to use summer mode when it is warm and you want to cool down, and use winter mode when it is chili and you want it to warm up a bit. I think most people are like me and don’t even know there are different directions and uses for ceiling fans. Most people keep their fan on summer mode all year and just don’t use it during the colder months. If this is what you are doing you are not getting the full use out of your ceiling fan. I live in the metro Phoenix area so we don’t get much of a winter, but we do get a few cooler months so I’ll switch my fans to winter mode for maybe three months out of the year. I have grown accustomed to having my ceiling fan going while I sleep so winter mode comes in very handy on cold nights. I still get the quiet hum and air circulation benefits of the fan without the cooler feeling. I will turn the speed of the fan down to a lower speed because at the highest speed the air will bounce off the walls too much and can create a little draft on cold nights.
You should go right now and play with the direction switch on your ceiling fan. It is pretty amazing when you discover this hidden feature every fan has. Go enjoy your fan all summer and winter with the ceiling fan direction switch!