I've always been a little suspicious of the idea that ceiling fans
were helpful in winter. It seems to me that the warm air from my
heating system would mix with the cooler air anyway and that a fan
wouldn't help much, if at all. I've always suspected the idea that a
ceiling fan is useful in winter is a ploy to sell more ceiling fans,
but I could be wrong.

However, ceiling fans in hot weather can be great! I used to live w/o
AC (couldn't afford it) and the ceiling fan over my bed was so
effective that on hot summer nights with the fan running, I'd
sometimes wake up after a few hours because I was so cold.


We use our ceiling fans year round.
We reverse the motor direction during the winter.
It then circulates the warm air (remember heat rises) from the
ceiling height back down. Good way to keep the windows defogged
and in some cases, defrosted. That's the theory anyways.

Randy
http://members.aol.com/rsmeiner