Which way to blow my ceiling fan in a split level house

2 years ago

I know that that rule of thumb for a ceiling fan is counterclockwise in the summer, clockwise in the winter. But this is an odd situation.

I'm in a split level home, roughly 700 sq.ft per level. The heat pump is in the basement, which is the coolest part of the house. But I've converted 2 of the 3 upstairs bedrooms to home offices, and that tends to be the hottest part of the house! But we spend 8-12 hours in these offices, then 8-9 hours in the upstairs bedroom.

In my upstairs office and the bedroom, I have the ceiling fans blowing counterclockwise. But my girlfriend's office doesn't have a ceiling fan, the attic access is in the way so she doesn't have anything but a single vent :-(

How should I set the ceiling fan in the living room to make the upstairs cooler? Am I right in thinking that, if I blow the living room ceiling fan counterclockwise, then it would suck cold air from the upstairs and make them hotter?

Here's the living room from the upstairs. The ceiling fan is roughly even with the top of the banister. And please ignore the towel and gate, I'm dealing with an elderly dog :-(

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Comments (3)

HU-867564120
2 years ago
I think it is unrealistic to expect that a ceiling fan in one room will help your cooling issues in the rest of the house.

Some thoughts:

- Close down the lower level registers.

- Increase the blower speed.

- Increase the attic insulation.

- Install sun blinds.

- Move the attic access so your girlfriend can have a ceiling fan.

- Lower the thermostat setting.

- Switch offices so you swelter and your girlfriend has a ceiling fan.
Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
Original Author
2 years ago
I think it is unrealistic to expect that a ceiling fan in one room will help your cooling issues in the rest of the house.

@HU-867564120, this is true, I was just hoping that a minor change here wouldn't make it worse, ya know? Right now the outside temperature is in the high 70s and it feels hotter than that in our offices, even though the thermostat is at 74.

And when it gets to the high 90s the electric bill is insane!

Close down the lower level registers.

Well, that leads me to a different question... since most of the air intake comes from the basement, is it better for the basement to be colder and suck in colder air so that it doesn't have to cool the air as much?

Increase the blower speed.

I don't think that I can, my only options are On, Off, and Auto :-(

Increase the attic insulation.

Definitely not a bad plan! It's pretty thick right now, but considering all of the work I've done on the house over the years I suspect that it's the cheapest insulation they could find. When I have some money, I would love to take it all out and replace it with a higher R insulation.

Install sun blinds.

That got complicated, too... we both have plants in our windows, and we don't really want to trade the plants for temperature.

Move the attic access so your girlfriend can have a ceiling fan.

When I get enough money, that's definitely not a bad plan, either!

In my dream world I would convert the upstairs to have 2 large bedrooms and a walk-in closet instead of 3 small ones, finish the attic to use it for storage or a loft, then install a permanent stairway and door. Right now it has a rickety hatch that's kind of in the way.

But... ya know... money :-(

Lower the thermostat setting.

Last Summer our electric bill hit $400! We were trying to be more conscientious this year, but I'm starting to think we don't have much of a choice :-(

Switch offices so you swelter and your girlfriend has a ceiling fan.

Haha, I promise that I'm not evil!! She chose that room on purpose; mine has 2 windows (one East facing and one South), and her office has one (South facing). She gets up earlier than I do and the sun in the East facing window glares on the computer screen in the mornings.

The basement has a movie theater, game room / bar, gym, and laundry room. I'm half tempted to rip out the gym and game room and change them to 2 offices, then we could just relocate twice a year to where it's the most comfortable. It would take a little money, and it would kinda suck to lose the gym and game room, but it's definitely something that's on the table.
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wwu123
2 years ago
The reason you run it blowing downwards in the summer is that the air moves fastest leaving the blades, so if you're typically near the center of the room, the fast air creates an evaporative effect on your skin, further cooling you off. But it's not changing the temperature of the air, just circulating it in the room. But "circulate" is the key word, the pressure in the room evens out so equal amount of air is moving back up around the greater area of the sides of the room, so more slowly. Conversely in winter you don't want that faster air blowing directly on your skin, so you blow the opposite way, and the room mixes with only slower air coming down the sides of the room and back to center.

My understanding is thus running it in either direction will mix a roughly equal amount of air between the floor and ceiling levels of the room, ignoring the evaporative cooling effect on skin. So to your question, neither direction will bring up air from the basement, you're just mixing the floor and ceiling air in the room itself, as the air is returning in the opposite direction along the walls slowly enough you don't feel it.

Your intent of "pulling" the cooler air upwards from the basement would only work, and probably minimally, is if there was a return air path constructed from the ceiling above the fan straight down into the basement, and some way of forcing the air through that instead of its path of least resistance down the sides of the living room back to the floor.
Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC thanked wwu123

Which way to blow my ceiling fan in a split level house

Comments (3)

HU-867564120

Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
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Which way to blow my ceiling fan in a split level house

Comments (3)

HU-867564120

Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NCOriginal Author

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Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
Original Author