One of the domestic tasks many of us forget when we say goodbye to summer and welcome in winter is to switch the operating mode on our ceiling fans.
Did you know that your fan rotates clockwise and counter-clockwise?
The counterclockwise direction is for summer, as it circulates cool air and pushes warm air to the ceiling to ease the heat at ground level.
The winter setting, of course, is clockwise. It does the opposite, pushing down warmer air that naturally rises to the ceiling to give you additional heat during the cool days of fall and winter.
Ensuring your fans are set correctly can reduce your annual heating and cooling bills by around 10%, so this is a small job worth doing.
Here’s how to change the settings on your ceiling fans.
Remote check
If you have a remote control for your fans, you should check whether it will allow you to change the direction of rotation with the touch of a button. If it does, you’re golden. If not, you’ve got a little more work to do.
Note rotation
Turn on your fan and note the direction in which it’s rotating. Once you’ve changed the setting, you want to check the fan is moving in the opposite direction.
Safety first
The switch will be near or on the fan stem that attaches to the ceiling. You will need a ladder to reach most fans, just make sure you lock it into its correct position for stability and ensure the surface is flat and stable.
Be well-balanced
Grabbing a chair and stretching for the switch is a super-bad idea. Falling is bad enough, but you’ll likely bring down the fan with you – and that’s definitely not what we want!
Make the switch
Most switches are simple sliders or toggles. At either end, the manufacturer should have marked “summer” and “winter” so you know its setting. Don’t just slide or toggle the switch. Check the fan hasn’t been working on the winter setting during summer.
Wipe down
It’s not a bad idea to wipe the blades of each fan down to clean off the summer dust and dirt. Remove any furniture that could get a dusting as you complete this task.