If a ceiling fan is on but . . .

[Heffernhyphen]

. . . nobody is under it, does it make anyone cooler?

Here's the thing, DH insists on constantly running every bloody ceiling fan so our entire house feels like a wind tunnel. I wake up in the morning (he goes to bed last) and every stinking fan is on full blast. My question is, if nobody is under the fan to feel the circulated air, why bother circulating it? We've already got central air running, do we need to every motor in the house on the meter?

[shelbean91]

there was just somethng about this in the paper. The fans cool people, not the air. So, if no one's using them, no reason to have them on. Of course, I'll never convince MY dh of this either.

[Snowdrift]

I dunno. Logically it wouldn't make a difference but I know that a house feels cooler to walk into if the fans have been on for a while.

But I don't have AC, so maybe it affects the humidity or something

[Oceanone]

my dh always says having the fan on actually makes the room hotter if no-one is in it to feel the air flow. he's a very sciency guy, so maybe there's something to it...

[UberMama]

It depends on which way the fan is going. I forget which way makes it warm and which way makes it cool (one pushes air down, the other pushes air up/outwards).

When we have the woodstove going and turn on the fan, it pushes the warm air into the bedrooms and dining room! But if it's not on, the hot air stays in the living room only.

[onemoremom]

I would swear I read somewhere that running the ceiling fans keeps the house cooler and therefore reduces ac use? But I don't remember where, it could just as well have been a suggestion to use fans *instead* of ac

We live in an older building and I keep the ceiling fans going most of the time because if I don't the place starts to smell musty-still working at removing odors from our apparently-not-too-clean previous tenant.

I'd love a good answer from someone who knows!

[spedel]

I'm an engineer, and when I was in school I did a thermodynamics problem that involved this question. The answer is that the motor makes the room ever so slightly warmer. But, it's just a teeny bit, you probably wouldn't be able to notice it.

On the other hand, the fan blowing does make you *feel* a couple of degrees cooler. (It changes out the air that has been warmed by your body with cooler air from your surroundings.) So... if you were to run the fan while you were in the room (or in two rooms if you were going back and forth between the two) then you could save some money and turn the a/c up a couple of degrees without feeling warmer.

[msjd123]

Must be a guy thing because my DH insists on keeping them all going too. In fact, he even wants to have one installed outside under our covered patio. OUTSIDE. : I keep telling him that if he wants to be cooler when he's outside, I can introduce him to the hose....

Here's some info on the direction of the fan, though: http://www.wonderquest.com/Fans.htm

[HipGal]

I love the title of this thread!

I'm glad your question was answered. I've been wondering about this one myself!