# Ceiling Fan Direction



## charly (Dec 18, 2010)

I always had my ceiling fan blowing the heat down in the winter. I was now told to reverse the fan as to pull the cold air from floor level up to the ceiling, where it will be mixed with the warm air and blown back down along the exterior walls of your room. Which direction works best?


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## fbelec (Dec 18, 2010)

in my exp. most fans in a room smaller than 15 foot square and a 10 foot and above ceiling room the fans that are made today make it feel like you have a draft. they don't turn slow enough so it can feel cold. unless the fan is in the room with the stove. but then you got to be careful not to mess up the air flow circulation so as not to make the rooms far from the stove cooler. this also depends on your house and stove location. in my house, ranch with the stove at one end and bedrooms at the other, if i turn on my fan in the kitchen where the stove is located the bedrooms get colder.


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## charly (Dec 18, 2010)

fbelec said:
			
		

> in my exp. most fans in a room smaller than 15 foot square and a 10 foot and above ceiling room the fans that are made today make it feel like you have a draft. they don't turn slow enough so it can feel cold. unless the fan is in the room with the stove. but then you got to be careful not to mess up the air flow circulation so as not to make the rooms far from the stove cooler. this also depends on your house and stove location. in my house, ranch with the stove at one end and bedrooms at the other, if i turn on my fan in the kitchen where the stove is located the bedrooms get colder.


                       My fan is about five feet from my wood stove in a room 15x 25, 8 ft ceiling. Door ways at each end of the room the go to the rest of my house. So I was told by pulling air to the ceiling, I'm drawing cold air from the far rooms and heating it up and blowing the warmed air back down to the floors along the walls. Cold air being denser is easier to move than warm air. So I'm wondering how much warm air you can actually drive straight down verses pulling denser cool air up and mixing it with the warm air at the ceiling. So do we push or pull with a ceiling fan?


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## Beetle-Kill (Dec 18, 2010)

I don't have ceiling fan yet, so no personal experience. But, "Oldspark" just posted about the change his fan made to the heat distribution on his PE Summit. Others chimed in, and what I gathered from that thread was= pulling up or blowing down will depend on you particular air patterns. You'll just have to experiment a bit. Good luck.


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## fbelec (Dec 18, 2010)

Beetle-Kill said:
			
		

> I don't have ceiling fan yet, so no personal experience. But, "Oldspark" just posted about the change his fan made to the heat distribution on his PE Summit. Others chimed in, and what I gathered from that thread was= pulling up or blowing down will depend on you particular air patterns. You'll just have to experiment a bit. Good luck.



definitely depends on set up. but i would say in gen if you have a 7.5 foot ceiling like mine and you don't have a ceiling fan, if it were me i wouldn't put one up for the heat. for the summer different story.


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## Beetle-Kill (Dec 18, 2010)

fbelec- Why not?  What is your ceiling configuration, as far as air flow goes? I'm dealing with door arch heights of 6'6", central load bearing beams at 7', and ceiling heights of approx. 8'. I have smooth airflow obstructions all over the place. The only natural heat progression is from the stove up the stairway to the above garage bedrooms. I was thinking a ceiling fan would help, pushing down with a standing pusher fan to direct the warm air to the cold spots. Those being the front room, approx. 26' away in a straight line.


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## soupy1957 (Dec 18, 2010)

Our wood stove is in our Raised Ranch Living Room, and we have a ceiling fan in the Kitchen.  We have found that we don't use the ceiling fan in the winter, unless the house is OVER heated by the wood stove.  Then we use the fan to circulate things.

-Soupy1957


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## loon (Dec 18, 2010)

i have ours going backwards year round, it is up in the kitchen and seems if i have it going the normal way it just sends the heat  straight down.
there are 3 fans always running in the house,one behind the stove the ceiling fan and one sending air down to the bedrooms..



its about 20ft from the stove here..









loon


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## charly (Dec 18, 2010)

Thanks for the feedback ;-)


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## homebrewz (Dec 18, 2010)

Experiment with a thermometer and ceiling fan direction and speed. Run it each way for a half hour or so and see which produces the most heat in the desired location.


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## charly (Dec 18, 2010)

homebrewz said:
			
		

> Experiment with a thermometer and ceiling fan direction and speed. Run it each way for a half hour or so and see which produces the most heat in the desired location.


    I'll have to try that, thanks.


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## fbelec (Dec 20, 2010)

homebrewz said:
			
		

> Experiment with a thermometer and ceiling fan direction and speed. Run it each way for a half hour or so and see which produces the most heat in the desired location.




+1. that is the tell all.
 if you have a short ceiling, and i'm not talking the room with the stove. if you have a short ceiling put your hand up at the ceiling then at your waist. 5 degrees is not going to make a difference running a ceiling fan. a small pusher on the floor blowing towards the stove yes. get on a ladder and stand up as far as you can. with a short ceiling it's not much difference. 10 foot or more big difference from standing on the floor to the top of the ladder


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## tiber (Dec 20, 2010)

It's always easier to push cold air than to pull hot air. Basically when you're trying to move around hot air the "tornado" created by the ceiling fan is much narrower because it's harder for the fan to push stuff around. 

But, the reason for the reversed direction is because the heat put out by the stove isn't all coming from the stove. The walls, etc warm up. So think of it this way, if you blew the air down, not only would you feel a draft under the fan (not pleasant) but you would be pulling hot air through the fan from all directions. If you pull the cold air up, not only does it not feel like a draft but the cold air is moving along the ceilings and walls and taking heat from them.

Or do like I did last night - my father was over and wanted to play with the woodstove and he put in a pile of seasoned softwood (I typically try to mix it up, seasoned and unseasoned, soft and hardwood) and lit it off. Of course it goes thermonuclear and had the living room up to 86F in no time flat, so I ended up taking a box fan and pointing it at the stove. The ceiling fan will mix the air up in the room it's in, but to actually circulate it through the entire house you have to move the air laterally.


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## Archie (Dec 21, 2010)

Xclimber, the rule is blowing down in the summer and blowing up toward the ceiling in the winter. But do whatever makes you more comfortable.


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## charly (Dec 21, 2010)

Archie said:
			
		

> Xclimber, the rule is blowing down in the summer and blowing up toward the ceiling in the winter. But do whatever makes you more comfortable.


            Archie, that's the way I've got the ceiling fan going. Have doorways at both ends of the room the stove is in. In one doorway back into another room , I have a small tornado fan on low moving the air around our farm house towards the stove room, It's working sweet. I even turned the blower off on my stove. Have a digital thermometer  out in our kitchen and can actually watch the temps climb out there . Up towards the ceiling.


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## charly (Dec 22, 2010)

Tonights the first night I've ran my Quadrafire 5700 without the blower , I'm leaving it off. Wow it's much nicer in my house, quiet and actually warmer, and my wood load is going alot further. I might be selling the stove blower. No more noise and perfectly warm. I think the fan was actually cooling things even though it felt hot right by the stove, while blowing the heat out. What a difference. I'd say at this point don't waste your money on a blower. Ceiling fan reversed is doing a great job and quiet.


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## Archie (Dec 22, 2010)

Excellent.  Sometimes, there's method to the madness.


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## charly (Dec 22, 2010)

Archie said:
			
		

> Excellent.  Sometimes, there's method to the madness.


     ;-)


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## mayhem (Dec 22, 2010)

If you have a simple rectangular room, running the ceiling fan up in the winter adn down in the summer is often the way to go.  Blowing air down will move wam air toward the floor, BUT it will also be moving air across your skin more rapidly, which despite the fact that its warm air, will tend to make you feel cooler because thats how our skin is made to work.  In my case I have a huge room (28wx25l with a 26 foot peaked ceiling...fully half the internal air volume of my house) where the stove is and a pair of 52" ceiling fans.  I blow the one near the stove down to wash air across the stove and help move it down the hallway to the back rooms on the first floor, the front ceiling fan blows up which helps create a high pressure area of warm air at the upper section of the back wall of the great room, the high pressure warm air then pushes into the master bedroom on the second floor.

The best suggestion is to use the thermometer and run the fans in both directions and determine wiht way works the best for you.


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## charly (Dec 22, 2010)

mayhem said:
			
		

> If you have a simple rectangular room, running the ceiling fan up in the winter adn down in the summer is often the way to go.  Blowing air down will move wam air toward the floor, BUT it will also be moving air across your skin more rapidly, which despite the fact that its warm air, will tend to make you feel cooler because thats how our skin is made to work.  In my case I have a huge room (28wx25l with a 26 foot peaked ceiling...fully half the internal air volume of my house) where the stove is and a pair of 52" ceiling fans.  I blow the one near the stove down to wash air across the stove and help move it down the hallway to the back rooms on the first floor, the front ceiling fan blows up which helps create a high pressure area of warm air at the upper section of the back wall of the great room, the high pressure warm air then pushes into the master bedroom on the second floor.
> 
> The best suggestion is to use the thermometer and run the fans in both directions and determine wiht way works the best for you.


 Up seems to be working perfect for me. The stove room doesn't seem over heated and at the same time the far end of the house is getting heated. Is working well.


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