Do ceiling fans in rooms with high ceilings save energy? If so, how do I select the right size?
Ceiling fans can save energy during the summer, but they have a marginal benefit. In summer, ceiling fans evaporate moisture from your skin, which cools your body. This can enable you to skip air conditioning at times, or set the thermostat a little higher. The electricity to run a fan is less than what’s needed to run an air-conditioner. However, fans will not cool your body if they don’t blow on you. Leaving a ceiling fan on in an unoccupied room is simply wasting electricity. In the winter, ceiling fans (even in the “up” position) are unlikely to reduce your heating costs and the movement of air currents can cool our bodies slightly. Also, the way air settles in layers in a room (stratification) is often overstated. Research has shown the temperature difference between the ceiling and six feet off the floor to be only a couple degrees. Movement of people and convection currents from your furnace will likely reduce that in most homes even more. Finally, sizing of ceiling fans for coo
