Reversible Ceiling Fans – 5 Good Reasons why you Shouldn’t Overlook this Essential Function

Reversible ceiling fans – is it really that important that your ceiling fan be reversible? The simple answer is yes, and we will give 5 good reasons why!

Before that, let’s take a quick look at what it actually means when we say a ceiling fan is reversible.

What are reversible ceiling fans?

Unlike other forms of cooling or heating you may have in your home, ceiling fans are not designed to lower or raise the temperature of a room. Instead, they circulate the air within a room, in such a way as to make you feel cooler in summer, and warmer in winter.

During the warmer months of the year, your ceiling fan blades work to generate a breeze, which is pushed down toward you, creating a “wind chill” effect on the skin causing you to feel cooler. This wind chill factor is created by the anti-clockwise turn of the blades pushing air directly down toward you.

During the winter months, most ceiling fans are designed so that the direction of blade spin can be reversed. Instead of pushing air directly down toward you, the blades will spin clockwise to pull warm air down from the ceiling, and push it down the walls of your room. So, rather than having air directly hitting you, your ceiling fan will redistribute warm air from the ceiling to provide an overall feeling of warmth in the room.

What are the benefits of being able to reverse the blade spin of your ceiling fan to meet the needs of the season?

1. Year Round Comfort

The main benefit to installing reversible ceiling fans, is being able to use your ceiling fan all year round, and thereby, maintain a comfortable living environment.  In summer, you will feel cooler as the blades turn to provide that wind chill factor on your skin; and in winter, will feel warmer as the blades turn redistribute that warm air throughout your home.

2. Energy Savings

One of the main advantages to using ceiling fans in general is reduced energy savings.  Ceiling fans are extremely energy efficient compared to other forms of heating and cooling, such as your air conditioner, so on those not so hot or cold days, wherever you can, using your ceiling fan instead of other more energy consuming appliances, will help save on those energy bills. 

Reversible ceiling fans may also help to reduce your overall energy use when used in conjunction with your air conditioner. By redistributing the air more effectively, ceiling fans may allow you to reduce the temperature or fan speed of your air conditioner. 

3. Cost Savings

Besides the energy cost savings as outlined above, reversible ceiling fans are also relatively inexpensive to purchase, install and maintain, compared to other forms of heating and cooling.

By using ceiling fans in conjunction with say, your air conditioner, it will also save you on more costly maintenance and repairs of your air conditioner, by extending maintenance periods and the overall lifespan through reduced use.

The other element of cost saving that is often overlooked, is the ability of ceiling fans to improve air circulation around your home in general, to help circulate natural airflow from open windows or doors, and thereby, help save you maintenance costs in areas of your home that might not get as much natural airflow.

4. Reduced Energy Footprint

As an environmentally friendly option themselves, as well as their role in helping reduce your reliance on other high energy consuming heating and cooling methods, reversible ceiling fans can help to significantly reduce your overall energy footprint.

This is particularly so in the winter months where it seems to take a lot more energy to warm a room than to cool it.

5. Quiet Operation

This might seem a simple point, but in the cooler months of the year, where we are spending the majority of our time indoors, ceiling fans can help us in reducing the background noise of say, our air conditioner. Whisper quiet themselves, ceiling fans will contribute almost no noise, and, by allowing you to reduce the speed or level at which your air conditioner operates, they will help reduce the overall noise level within a space.

Ceiling fans have long been Australia’s staple addition for helping cool our homes, but many of the benefits we get from ceiling fans during the summer months, we can have all year round.  Speak to the ceiling fan experts at Rovert Lighting & Electrical to see how you can enjoy the benefits of reversible ceiling fans all year round!