Stylish Spins: The Complete Ceiling Fan Design Guide

Benefits Of Ceiling Fans Ceiling fans are more than just a basic amenity for residential applications. Increasingly, ceiling fans are found in applications varying from industrial and warehouse applications to offices and high-end hospitality settings, and everything in between. The extensive use of ceiling fans in residential applications (over 80% of single family homes in the United States have at least one ceiling fan), as demonstrated in Figure 3 below, indicates their effectiveness in supporting thermal comfort, and occupant demand for controllable air movement.

In addition to the thermal comfort benefits of increased air speeds, ceiling fans can also improve air distribution, working in concert with the HVAC system to provide the desired thermal conditions more consistently throughout a space. When correctly designed and operated, ceiling fans support the HVAC system to minimize temperature gradients within a space, providing more consistent temperature and air quality conditions throughout a space. This improved air distribution can be effective for both heating and cooling scenarios. For example, ASHRAE Standard 62.1 – Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality lists a ventilation effectiveness of 0.8 for ceiling-supplied warm air systems (due to stratification of the warm air near the ceiling), but adding ceiling fans in this scenario brings the ventilation effectiveness back to 1.0, or fully mixed condition, reducing the amount of outside air required.

Improved Air Distribution

By increasing air movement and improving air distribution in a space, ceiling fans also improve air quality. The increased air movement prevents the sensation of stale or stuffy air, and can help dissipate odors. One recent study has also documented a measurable air quality improvement from ceiling fans by dissipating CO2 and other exhaled pollutants that would otherwise gather near occupants in still air conditions. Large-scale studies of occupant survey data indicate that occupants would prefer more air movement than they have, especially in conditions where occupants report feeling warm, as illustrated in Figure 4.

Improved Air Quality