If A Ceiling Fan Blows in the Forest, Does Anyone Feel It?

Confession time: I always thought that an overhead ceiling fan cooled the room. I’ve often left the fans running in the upstairs bedrooms on hot summer days, falsely thinking I was keeping the rooms cooled. What a waste – I’ve just learned that fans cool people, not rooms. The EnergyStar web site explains it. It also clarifies the fan direction conundrum: counterclockwise in the summer, clockwise in the winter.

Fan Club

Yesterday, my Pop removed an old light fixture in the kitchen and replaced it with a sleek new ceiling fan that we found on eBay. Along with doing a magnificent job of cooling us off when we’re in the kitchen, the light fixture uses a single 100w halogen bulb instead of the three 40w incandescent bulbs the old fixture used. Halogen bulbs are more efficient than standard incandescent bulbs and can last three to four times as long. You can read an excellent comparison of energy-efficient lightbulbs here.

Before:                                                                       After: