Ceiling fan direction and settings by season

A ceiling fan makes you feel cooler with a breeze, the way wind chill does, but it doesn't lower the room's temperature. In winter, the same fan run slowly the other way pushes the warm air near the ceiling down into the room. Switch each fan's direction twice a year.

What you need

• The fan's remote, wall control or owner's manual, to find the direction setting
• A sturdy step stool, if the switch is on the fan itself

Steps

1. 1

   Turn the fan off

   Let the blades come to a full stop before you change anything.

   1 min

2. 2

   Find the direction setting

   On many fans it's a small switch on the motor housing. On others it's a button on the remote or the wall control. The owner's manual says which.

   2 min

3. 3

   Set it for summer

   Set the fan to turn counterclockwise.

   1 min

4. 4

   Set it for winter

   Set the fan to turn clockwise and run it on low. The slow updraft pushes warm air from the ceiling down to where people sit.

   1 min

5. 5

   Raise the thermostat

   In summer, raising the thermostat two degrees while the fan runs can cut air conditioning costs by up to 14 percent.

   1 min

6. 6

   Stand under it

   Turn the fan back on. In summer you should feel a cool breeze directly under it. If you don't, it's still set for winter.

   1 min

Using it all year

Turn the fan off when you leave the room. It cools the people in the room, so running it in an empty room only uses power.

A fan that wobbles

Fan blades are balanced before they ship. If a fan wobbles once it's up, first check that every connection is lined up and tight.

A fan that still wobbles, or a new fan going up, is a job for an electrician, who can check the blades and balance them. A ceiling fan can weigh up to 50 pounds, and it has to hang from a metal box marked for use with ceiling fans, anchored to a ceiling joist or a mounting bracket between joists. Swapping a light fixture for a fan usually means replacing the box too. Thermostat settings that cut the bill covers the other half of the savings.