[Greenbuilding] Ceiling Fans at Night?

[Ron Cascio]

Ceiling fans work the same on the human body in both summer and winter; 
convective cooling. It is my belief that a ceiling fan is useful in winter 
only when there is a large degree of temperature stratification in high 
ceiling areas and the fan is able to push that hot air (which wants to stay 
up there) down to a lower level at a very low velocity, low enough as to not 
cause convective cooling to the occupants of that area.

In short, I think it is a hard thing to accomplish.

Ron


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Corwyn" <corwyn at midcoast.com>
To: "Environmentally-preferable design, construction, building elements" 
<greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2011 4:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Ceiling Fans at Night?


> On 1/5/2011 3:10 PM, Frank Cetera wrote:
>> To my understanding, and the research I have done, ceiling fans are
>> valuable in circulating warm heated air in the home in winter,
>> especially from the ceiling to the lower living areas in rooms.  My
>> questions pertains to night time use of the fans.
>>
>> Even if a programmable is used and the thermostat is reduced to 55 at
>> night, would it still be valuable to keep the ceiling fans running at
>> night to move the warm air from the ceiling to the living/thermostat
>> layer, and thus prevent the furnace from turning on during the night?
>> Or should turning the thermostat down to 55 pervent it from coming on at
>> all so the fans question is mute?
>
> I often want to just answer questions like this with "you need more
> insulation".
>
> I would say that ceiling fans are only useful when you are in the room.
>  If your furnace comes on before you want it to, turn down the
> thermostat (regardless of temperature).
>
> Proper insulation levels would remove both the need for a fan, and the
> need for a set-back thermostat.
>
> Thank You Kindly,
>
> Corwyn
>
> -- 
> Topher Belknap
> Green Fret Consulting
> Kermit didn't know the half of it...
> http://www.greenfret.com/
> topher at greenfret.com
> (207) 882-7652
>
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