People are just now discovering a common feature on their ceiling fans and it’s blowing their minds
Read the manual. That’s all you have to do.
When we get a new piece of equipment – whether it’s something exciting like a tech device or something mundane like a home appliance – very few of us take the time to go through the paperwork that comes in the box.
But knowledge is power.
And we don’t mean you have to read the legal disclaimers – everyone skips those. We mean the instructions on how to operate and make the most of your new purchase. What can we say? We just assume we know how to use most of these things.
Now, installing a ceiling fan can be difficult, especially if it involves a light and you have an older home. You can’t be blamed for needing some help with that one.
But if you think your ceiling fan can only act as a light and a cooling device because it has two chain pulls, you’re likely missing a key feature.
There’s a little button on the fan itself (or sometimes on the remote, if you have a fancy fan) that you can switch “up” to make the blades rotate in reverse.
While most of us let our fan blades collect dust in the winter and early spring, a ceiling fan can actually be a relatively low-cost way to get some warm air circulating throughout your home as well.
By switching that button to make the blades move in reverse, the fan creates what’s called an updraft. And that’s what you want when you need some warmth.
We all know that warm air rises. So in this case the fan will push the warm air back down into the room.
It’s not the same as a heater, but it can help out a lot, especially if you also have a heater running and you feel like all of your warm air is escaping (this is a problem when people don’t have properly ventilated attics).
This little extra help will aid in reducing energy costs – and to top it off, having an operational fan most of the year will prevent you from having to do that sneeze-inducing deep clean in the late spring to get all the dust off. (That is unless you make the mistake of turning it on without doing that and splay dust all over your home.)
The button isn’t hidden away, it’s right there near the light and is almost always a little up-down switch. We just tend not to pay attention to these minor details and we don’t look in the manual to see what else our fans can do.
Think of all the heat you could have saved had you used this trick!
The switch is on nearly all fans – even the older models.
Some of the funnier moments of reckoning come when people realize they accidentally started off on the wrong setting!
One TikTok user, @bertoncin, who has made the “fan hack” go viral, recently discovered that the reason his ceiling fan wasn’t all that effective is that he had it spinning the wrong way! He was blowing warm air back down on himself for years instead of having it set to the cooling setting.
“I already knew that I was a complete moron but today, I finally realized that my ceiling fan has been making my room a sauna for six years.”
Oof. That’s embarrassing and uncomfortable (and a waste of money and energy!)
It was even worse because he tried to use the switch while the fan is running. DON’T DO THAT. Turn it off first. (We can’t believe we have to say that.)
So, as they say in the auto world, RTFM. (Read the “frickin'” manual.)
If none of this is news to you, you’ll probably still want to scroll down below to see the Tik Toker’s video.
At the very least he knows how to make fun of himself (though be warned there is some profanity in the video so it’s NSFW unless you have headphones and a boss that doesn’t mind you watching videos).
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
@bertoncinOne. Little. Switch. 🤦♂️🤦♂️ ##foryou ##riseandshine ##layerup ##tellmeajoke♬ original sound – bertoncin