almost zero emissions - part 2

Ok for part 2 of the almost zero emissions series, a cheap way to cool down your house and surprisingly to also keep the living spaces warmer.

Ceiling fans, yep that's right ceiling fans, the kind that come with a light-bulb fixture on them, so you can use as overhead lamp In a room.

Basically It goes like this, in terms of energy efficiency ceiling fans simple, elegant yet quite powerful, almost all current household models are light and come with light-bulb fixtures so they can be placed smack in the center of your ceiling thus creating an even flow of air in the room they're in.

Well everyone knows how a fan works so there's really no need to explain that part.

But ceiling fans can also help keep your living spaces warm and thats not so intuitive so a little explaining is in order:

basicly most modern household models come with two modes of functioning, a fast rotation mode that either sucks cool air from the ground and flows it around the room, or that simply blow air like a regular fan and create a passable cooling effect (please refer to your local weather channel and personal temperature preferences regarding this statement ;) )

most importantly they also come with a second mode of funtioning, a very slow and constant rotations (just a couple rotations per minute) running in reverse pushing the hot air from the top of the room, downwards where its usefull, if you look around your house you in most cases you find a considerable space between yourself an the ceiling and also between the tallest doorstop and the ceiling, in the winter when you heat up your house (central heating, space heating, whatever you use), following the laws of physics, namely convection, the heat is going to rise to the top and stay trapped between the tallest doorstop/open window and the ceiling and folowing the same laws since co2 is heavier than air, so will the oxygen, now depending on your house you could be looking at a moderate to huge waste of energy heating up a section of the room you can never be in (unless your keen on using stilts or ladders ).

A ceiling fan in the low rotation mode is a simple way to slowly flow that oxygen rich hot air back to ground level where you can enjoy it and complementing your heating system and allowing you to make the most out of your heating bills and the energy put into it.

just take a look at your ceiling using the doorstop and closed window height as reference points, remember that since hot air flows upwards that part of the room is bound to be the hottest, and you be the judge how much energy are you using to heat up an empty space? and how much do you think its costing you? (remember that ceiling fans are simple electric appliances that consume very little electricity in regular mode, and almost none in the slow rpm heat preservation mode)

I hope you found this information useful