Most effective ceiling fans?

I'm switching out some ceiling fans. I'm trying to do some research into effectiveness of different types but I can't find any good information out there. Any insights?

I'd say it depends on what you classify as effective.

I do not like ceiling fans that move a lot of air, I tend to use as slow as I can get, pointing upward, to break heat stratification.

If I want direct blow on me, I tend to use stand fans, as they can be aimed better.

What are your parameters of what you consider effective?

:D

To better answer this question, can you clarify the size of the room it is needed in.

Things that I would care about:
Airflow (2000cfm to 8000cfm)
Reverse Rotation for Winter Use
Size (44inch to 72inch)
Wattage (DC motor can give you 250cfm per watt)
Noise
Wifi Enables
Light Included
Low Profile

This would be my top recommendation: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DT38HOQ or https://www.hunterfan.com/products/ceiling-fans-60-inch-hollister-with-led-light-1001104c?_pos=1&_fid=a3f049919&_ss=c&nosto_source=cmp&nosto=1568433285

I would put "noise" as mentioned by S Benji at the very top of my list. That said, it's a known sensitivity with me.

I would also agree the Pearl Sutton's comment about the need for ceiling fans to have a very slow cycle so they mix the air without creating annoying currents.

My first house had a ceiling fan above the stairs in the hall, so it was great that it had an integral light fixture that had all the wiring, but was screwed on - which meant it was easy to remove the light it came with and replace it with a fixture that met my esthetics. I like fixtures that are pleasant, but not glary or invasive. If I want artwork, I make it myself!

I appreciate the responses. As I figured, this topic is more complex than I understood.

I am in the humid subtropics (south east FL), so the ability to rotate the fan direction for cold weather doesn't matter. The room in question - the living room - is 250 sqft - 18 x 14. The ceiling fan is in the center. It's great when on the play mat in the middle of the room, but does nothing when sitting on the couches along the perimeter. A fan that moved air around a larger portion or the entirety of the room is principally what we want. Or we can add a second fan over the couches. We can go to home depot and get any old fan, but I figure there are some design characteristics that move air better. We aren't looking to get blasted. Just keeping the air moving over our skin.

We are in a similar situation with the master bedroom. The fan in the middle is great when you are in the bed, but doesn't help my daughter in her crib nearby.

Mike Benjamin wrote: It's great when on the play mat in the middle of the room, but does nothing when sitting on the couches along the perimeter. A fan that moved air around a larger portion or the entirety of the room is principally what we want.

Try something for an hour or so: Turn your current fan to blow upward and see what it feels like.
Upward blow circulates differently than downward blow does, as far as I can tell. Put it on your usual setting, just reverse it, see if it makes any difference. Might be a very interesting data point for you. (Or not! Bad data point is still useful though!)

Fans are way more interesting than most people notice. Air flow is fascinating to me. I have fans set really weird in this rental I'm in, and it's cutting our A/C bill WAY lower than the neighbors with similar houses and similar heat pump systems.

I experimented last year. Using our ceiling fan dropped the electric bill by $50 a month. It didn’t matter how I crunched the numbers….comparing  one month to the next …and comparing a month of one year to the same month of the previous and following years.
There is a 4 degree difference in where we set the thermostat.

John F Dean wrote:I experimented last year. Using our ceiling fan dropped the electric bill by $50 a month...
There is a 4 degree difference in where we set the thermostat.

So how did you set up the fan? Blowing up to bounce the air off the ceiling or down? What sort of speeds did you try and did that make any difference?

I expect what Pearl Sutton said is correct - experimenting with different settings in one's specific situation is key. Where furniture is positioned could make a difference. If the furniture isn't nailed down, experimenting with different arrangements may give interesting data.

The short answer is that moving air tends to cool humans better than stagnant air. There's something to be said about having fans at different heights in a room, but the ceiling is a convenient spot because there's nothing to get in it's way!

Pearl Sutton wrote:

Fans are way more interesting than most people notice. Air flow is fascinating to me. I have fans set really weird in this rental I'm in, and it's cutting our A/C bill WAY lower than the neighbors with similar houses and similar heat pump systems.

How did you develop your expansive fan-related knowledge? Any resources for someone like me?

Mike Benjamin wrote:

Pearl Sutton wrote:

Fans are way more interesting than most people notice. Air flow is fascinating to me. I have fans set really weird in this rental I'm in, and it's cutting our A/C bill WAY lower than the neighbors with similar houses and similar heat pump systems.

How did you develop your expansive fan-related knowledge? Any resources for someone like me?

A lot of trial and error, living in a very hot climate with no A/C worth mentioning, looking at wind tunnel results, and learning how to move pretty much only the air I want moved at one time.

I don't go for blasting air indiscriminately, like most fans do, I move high air or low air where I want it to go, and I use focused fans for specific areas. Keeping the circulation moving how I need it is a lot of it.

So, no, I don't know how to tell you to look it up. I have never found anyone teaching this kind of information. Seeing air flow and wind tunnel visuals might help a lot. Turbulence and straight line movement are both effective at cooling the human body, but they have very different results in how the whole house, as a system, cools. I'm fascinated by the system of how it all works.

A random example from this rental in Missouri is an 8 inch fan I have hanging from the ceiling in the hallway, set to it's low setting, and left on 24/7. It moves high air and excess heat from the bedrooms to the body of the house, and cooler low air replaces the hot air. The bedrooms are closed up well during the day, so little heat comes in their windows, and the air in the bedrooms is never stagnant, due to that fan. So the bedrooms are cooler at night, when we get there to sleep.

This place has SERIOUSLY bad air flow patterns, there is nothing high I can open, all windows open at the same height, and stagnation is a major issue here, causing hot and cool spots in the house, with the worst area being where the thermostat sensor is located in the hall. The 8 inch fan in the hall breaks a lot of that stagnation at the east end of the house, and that keeps the thermostat from reacting to the stagnant air temperature in the hall (which never relates to anyplace else in the house) and kicking on the heat or A/C.

And that's what one little fan is doing, the rest of them do equally odd things, specific to the crappy design/construction of this rental. The upshot of it all is the neighbor's A/C's run 18+ hours a day, ours runs about 2 and it's quite comfortable in here. These heat pump systems were layered in on top of old, badly done, construction, and they are very ineffective. There HAS to be a better way to make stuff work than this. There really does.


So your ceiling fan, in my eyes, would depend on what exactly you are trying to do, what the rest of the house is contributing to it all, and what other factors (like A/C or not, windows, etc) are doing to the house as a whole system.

I really vote to try running the fan in reverse mode, see what it does. It changes the air flow pattern in the room, and it might tell you whether you need a bigger fan, or to change the flow a different way. Unfortunately, most of the fans you can buy will not tell you blade pitch, so, as far as I know, the only way to figure out the pitch of a blade is to look at them in the store.  My phone has a circular level on it, putting it on a blade of a display fan tells you the angle. Too steep, and the fan motor works way too hard, adding motor heat to your room. Too level and the fan isn't effective.

I just looked up "ceiling fan air flow pattern" and some of those videos might make more sense that I can by typing  

Hi Jay,

Low upward flow ….not enough air motion to move papers.   But, I do know the difference if I am sitting in the room.  

The house is a ranch, so it is not designed for good air flow like, say, a 4 square is. The south and west is well protected by trees. There is an effective covered front porch.   So, it is shaded from the sun.  It is difficult to see the house on Google maps due to the tree coverage.

As I am sure Pearl experiences, humidity is the key issue. ….more than the heat.

I too have played with these for a long time.
I have used feathers and streamers taped to ceiling and walls to watch air flow.
I have found sorting out all sources of heat, windows, draughts, equipment insulation is a good start,
it reduces the additional cooling effect needed.

This all made me think about words to explain air flow, and I started a new thread on it:
Low budget air flow visualization

:D