Have you ever heard the thing about reversing the direction of your ceiling fan? You are supposed to run it counterclockwise in warm weather to facilitate cooling.
I was having an email conversation with APB about air conditioning and fans, and she mentioned this. Unfortunately, it doesn't work, at least not in our apartment. We have one ceiling fan, in the kitchen. I use a stand fan next to the AC unit in the room adjoining the kitchen to try to move some of the cooler air into the kitchen.
I tried running the ceiling fan along with it, but it made the kitchen warmer. And out of curiosity, I switched the fan back to clockwise and tried it again. It also caused the kitchen to get warmer, but not as quickly as when it was going counterclockwise. If the room was larger, or if the opening between the rooms was wider, I think the results might be different.
Here's something I just learned: a ceiling fan doesn't cool the room, it only creates a cool breeze that you feel on your skin. It doesn't draw air into a room. So it only makes sense to keep a ceiling fan running when you're in the room. The air you feel should be cooler if its running clockwise. We leave ours on when it's hot for the cats...
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