How Ceiling Fans Can Help Out In A Humid Room

High humidity in your home can be very uncomfortable in the summer months. And besides that, indoor humidity can lead to mold growth, as excess moisture provides the ideal environment for all sorts of microscopic organisms to breed.

For this reason, your home should be kept below 60% humidity level, ideally 30 to 50%. Understanding how ceiling fans can help out in a humid room can definitely be a game-changer in your household.

How can a ceiling fan help with humidity?

Note that ceiling fans don’t actually remove humidity from a room. Instead, they keep you feeling more comfortable, as they’re the best way to circulate air around the room.

What actually removes excess moisture in the air from the home is the air conditioner (or a dehumidifier). However, the cost of running them can sometimes be much higher.

This makes ceiling fans the best option since they use about the same amount of electricity it talks to power a 100-watt light bulb. Using ceiling fans can definitely save money on your utility bill.

Let’s take a look at how the fan is designed to keep you comfortable in high humidity.

Fan rotation

Most modern ceiling fans have a switch that allows you to control the direction the blades will rotate. So when the levels of humidity are high, you can achieve the wind-chill effect by simply turning the blades in a counterclockwise rotation.

So when you stand directly below the fan, you will feel the cool breeze if the fan is set correctly and at the right rotation and speed.

Although the air will continue circulating throughout the room, the strongest wind chill comes from the downdraft that’s caused by the fan.

The design

The blades of the fan have been set at an angle that makes them have the ability to push air more effectively as they also rotate. The fan has settings that can be adjusted to make it either rotate faster or slower.

During summer or warm days when the level of humidity is high, your fan should run at a medium or high speed. It is the only way the device can achieve the best cooling effect.

The size of the fan will also determine how cool the room will be when you run it. It works as follows:

• 12 feet or less walls should use a 36-inch diameter fan to stay coo
• 12-15 feet long walls should use 42-inch fan
• 15-18 feet long walls should use a 52-inch fan

Wind chill effect

The actual temperature of the room does not change on humid days. However, breeze ceilings fans can stir the warm air in the room and change the temperature.

Since our skin is the reason why sometimes the level of moisture raise in a room, the breeze creates a wind chill effect that evaporates moisture from the skin.

So home owners who have ceiling fans will agree to the fact that the device makes them feel cooler. The air movement in the room alone is better enough to make the room feel four degrees or cooler.

That said, it is important to note that ceiling fans cannot be entirely ruled out as the best devices to reduce levels of humidity.

When used as guided above, they can actually keep hot humid air out and cool the air in the room.

Final thoughts

Now that you understand how ceiling fans can help out in a humid room, you see how helpful they can be. If you live in a hot and humid climate where your home gets stuffy, ceiling fans are a must.

While they don’t actually remove humidity, they circulate air to make things more comfortable. Used as a supplement to an air conditioning system and a dehumidifier and/or exhaust fans, ceiling fans can keep you feeling breezy and save you money.

Learn more about ceiling fans

Ready to purchase a ceiling fan to cool your humid room? We’ve rounded up the best ceiling fans on the market right now to help you choose.

If you’ll be installing it yourself, check out our guide to how to install a ceiling fan. Before buying a ceiling fan, make sure you do your search.

For instance, are ceiling fans safe for babies? Can ceiling fans cause sinus problems? Can ceiling fans reduce radon levels in your home? And finally, you may be curious if ceiling fans are out of style.