Apparently, Ceiling Fans Have A Dual Purpose Switch But Not Everyone Knows That Interview With Author
You may have been using your ceiling fans wrong, dear Pandas. A lot of people were stunned to realize that plenty of ceiling fans actually have dual-purpose switches after Anthony Bertoncin shared this useful little insight on TikTok.
“I finally realized that my ceiling fan has been making my room a sauna for six years,” the 20-year-old influencer from Kansas City, Missouri, said in his viral video. He told his audience of 1.5 million people how he always has his fan on because it’s hot. After a FaceTime call with a friend, he learned about the existence of the fan switch and realized that he had been making his room unbearably hot by himself. He flipped the switch and voilà—his room was noticeably cooler.
Anthony told Bored Panda that the majority of the people who didn’t know about the dual-purpose switches on ceiling fans happened to be on the younger side of Millennials and Generation Z. “My dad claims this was common knowledge 20 years ago but he didn’t show me this little trick, did he?! Apparently, this trick is explained in every owner’s manual when you buy a ceiling fan but personally, I can’t tell you a single time one of my friends has bought a ceiling fan. Maybe they can add this as a lesson when they reform the education system!” Scroll down for the rest of our interview with him.
More info: TikTok | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube
Influencer Anthony shared this surprising detail about ceiling fans having dual-purpose switches with his 1.5 million followers
@bertoncinOne. Little. Switch. 🤦♂️🤦♂️ ##foryou ##riseandshine ##layerup ##tellmeajoke♬ original sound – bertoncin
Anthony said that he’s surprised that his video has bounced back in popularity once again. “When I initially posted the video in late 2019, it got a good amount of traction (a few hundred thousand views) but then halted. During that time, over 3,500 people saved and used my sound in their videos, showing them discovering the little trick. Recently one of those videos blew up and got over 14.5 million views! Because of that video going viral with my sound, it drove a bunch of traffic back to my video which resulted in another spike of virality!”
We also wanted to know what other ‘obvious’ things Anthony realized since posting his ceiling fan video. “Around the same time, I also found out New Zealand wasn’t in Europe. After 15 years of schooling, I just made that realization.”
Anthony’s video from October 2019 got more than 547.7k likes on TikTok and was viewed by more than 2.2 million people. Though the video might be old, it’s still popular as Summer’s upon us and people really need to cool down. Some TikTokers are thanking the influencer for sharing this cool information. While others were surprised that so many people weren’t aware of the switch in the first place.
Here’s how the ceiling fan switches work
So the way that the switch works is that it toggles the direction in which the ceiling fan rotates. As it spins counterclockwise, it cools the air; while it warms the air by spinning clockwise if you’re feeling a bit chilly.
The logic is simple: when the fan blades move in a counterclockwise direction, they push the air down and this creates a breeze. The faster the fan spins, the cooler you’ll feel.
“This cooling effect doesn’t change the temperature of the air, it only makes you feel cooler. That is why you should turn the fan off when the room is empty. Otherwise, heat from the motor will actually increase the temperature in the room,” Today’s Homeowner explains how ceiling fans work.
However, when the fan rotates clockwise, it pushes the hot air upward. If it’s Winter, you’ll want to keep the fan rotating slowly, otherwise, it’ll create a strong draft and cool you down just like in Summer.
Did you know about fans having dual-purpose switches, dear Pandas? Or have you been using your ceiling fans wrong? Let us know in the comments below!
Some people already knew about the switch…
Image credits: 3BelowZero
…while others were shocked to learn about it
Image credits: GameswithGrayce
Image credits: gabbsterxoxo
Here’s how some other internet users reacted to the info
I think this article sums up the majority of "influencers" quite nicely
And their followers. Combined IQ of room temperature when the ceiling fan is in summer position.
Parmeisan, smart-having or showing a quick-witted intelligence. Intelligence-the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.
Hey, that's not an IQ thing; it's whether or not anybody ever told you. Ya, I knew that at 8, doesn't make me any smarter than anybody else.
Brains made of rocks.
No argument there.
RTFM
Wow so much shaming down here... Sorry guys, I didn't know this either! It's not necessarely common knowledge.
right? i only lived 3 months in the US but i didn't know this nor did anybody explain this to me... and we had those fans in the house i lived in
Francis, Im quite sure even wherever you’re from, hot air goes up and cold air comes down..
Just so. I checked my ceiling fan. Can't even find such a switch. Nor a "rotate direction", or even a "warm/cool" option on the remote. Also, those who intuitively knew of this warming option: please explain in more detail why "pushing hot air upwards" would make it warmer in the room (assuming your bed is at "normal" height, and not close to the ceiling). Doesn't make sense with basic university thermodynamics.
Yeah, Boring Panda did a horrible job of explaining this. Fans don't change air temperature; they circulate it, which generally makes the whole room around the same temperature. The airflow is essentially in a "taurus" shape, like going around a donut from the middle out and back again. Without a fan, the warmer air in a room rises to the ceiling, which is usually well above where people reside (if it is not, please don't get a fan!) When you circulate the air, the lower part of the room naturally gets "warmer" just because it gets mixed with that warmer air up near the ceiling. Thus, fans which circulate air will *always* increase the temperature of the part of the room where people and other gravity-bound objects tend to reside. At the same time, the breeze cools. So, if the air is blowing down from the fan with force, you get cooled even though it is warmer air.
Tom Dibble, a "taurus" shape? Sounds like a lot of bull to me. ;-) I think you mean "torus."
@Electric Ed, The explanation is wrong, that's why it's confusing. See my other post.
Karin, it is literally in the literature that came with your fan. If the fan was already installed when you moved in, you should have looked up the operating instructions and features. Did you not see the switch when cleaning your fan and wonder why it was there?
I think the majority of "normals" never read an instruction manual and likely never clean their ceiling fans with the level of precision which would cause them to notice, much less wonder about, a little black switch on the side.
Yeah, but when you're cleaning the fan (you DO clean the fan, right?) you would come across the switch. That wouldn't make you a little bit curious? You wouldn't wonder what the heck it was for?
Apparently neither is spelling necessarily correctly.
I didn't know either! But to be fair I'm pretty sure my ceiling fan doesn't have the switch anyway?
Almost all fans have a reverse switch these days, but it is possible you have a really old fan which predated the reversible switch (~early 90s I believe is when this became standard). Yours might just be less obvious than some. If you find the model number on the fan, you can look up the manual and it should point out the reversing function.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Having attended high school second year phisic class would have made it mandatory to know to get to the third year.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
It's as stupid as an adult sincerely believing that the stork brings babies.
I've never lived in a house that had a ceiling fan. If I moved into a place and wasn't handed a manual for one, I wouldn't have known this either.
So if you move into a house with a common machine that has two switches, on/off and a mystery switch, you just accept that as reality? You don't ask the next local "what?", you don't flick the switch to see a difference, you don't Google? That is just weird to me. But then, I don't have any valid warranties.
Always flip the mystery switch!
We have a switch on the wall in the kitchen of our house. We assume there used to be a ceiling fan over the table but we haven't a clue as to what the switch is for now. 15 years and counting. :-)
The point is - most of us (save Anthony, of course) for whom this is news have never owned or used a fan. Or owned/used only a fan without a direction switch. Weird how elitist you owners/users of a dual-direction fan seem to feel about this? Why is that?
I think this article sums up the majority of "influencers" quite nicely
And their followers. Combined IQ of room temperature when the ceiling fan is in summer position.
Parmeisan, smart-having or showing a quick-witted intelligence. Intelligence-the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.
Hey, that's not an IQ thing; it's whether or not anybody ever told you. Ya, I knew that at 8, doesn't make me any smarter than anybody else.
Brains made of rocks.
No argument there.
RTFM
Wow so much shaming down here... Sorry guys, I didn't know this either! It's not necessarely common knowledge.
right? i only lived 3 months in the US but i didn't know this nor did anybody explain this to me... and we had those fans in the house i lived in
Francis, Im quite sure even wherever you’re from, hot air goes up and cold air comes down..
Just so. I checked my ceiling fan. Can't even find such a switch. Nor a "rotate direction", or even a "warm/cool" option on the remote. Also, those who intuitively knew of this warming option: please explain in more detail why "pushing hot air upwards" would make it warmer in the room (assuming your bed is at "normal" height, and not close to the ceiling). Doesn't make sense with basic university thermodynamics.
Yeah, Boring Panda did a horrible job of explaining this. Fans don't change air temperature; they circulate it, which generally makes the whole room around the same temperature. The airflow is essentially in a "taurus" shape, like going around a donut from the middle out and back again. Without a fan, the warmer air in a room rises to the ceiling, which is usually well above where people reside (if it is not, please don't get a fan!) When you circulate the air, the lower part of the room naturally gets "warmer" just because it gets mixed with that warmer air up near the ceiling. Thus, fans which circulate air will *always* increase the temperature of the part of the room where people and other gravity-bound objects tend to reside. At the same time, the breeze cools. So, if the air is blowing down from the fan with force, you get cooled even though it is warmer air.
Tom Dibble, a "taurus" shape? Sounds like a lot of bull to me. ;-) I think you mean "torus."
@Electric Ed, The explanation is wrong, that's why it's confusing. See my other post.
Karin, it is literally in the literature that came with your fan. If the fan was already installed when you moved in, you should have looked up the operating instructions and features. Did you not see the switch when cleaning your fan and wonder why it was there?
I think the majority of "normals" never read an instruction manual and likely never clean their ceiling fans with the level of precision which would cause them to notice, much less wonder about, a little black switch on the side.
Yeah, but when you're cleaning the fan (you DO clean the fan, right?) you would come across the switch. That wouldn't make you a little bit curious? You wouldn't wonder what the heck it was for?
Apparently neither is spelling necessarily correctly.
I didn't know either! But to be fair I'm pretty sure my ceiling fan doesn't have the switch anyway?
Almost all fans have a reverse switch these days, but it is possible you have a really old fan which predated the reversible switch (~early 90s I believe is when this became standard). Yours might just be less obvious than some. If you find the model number on the fan, you can look up the manual and it should point out the reversing function.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Having attended high school second year phisic class would have made it mandatory to know to get to the third year.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
It's as stupid as an adult sincerely believing that the stork brings babies.
I've never lived in a house that had a ceiling fan. If I moved into a place and wasn't handed a manual for one, I wouldn't have known this either.
So if you move into a house with a common machine that has two switches, on/off and a mystery switch, you just accept that as reality? You don't ask the next local "what?", you don't flick the switch to see a difference, you don't Google? That is just weird to me. But then, I don't have any valid warranties.
Always flip the mystery switch!
We have a switch on the wall in the kitchen of our house. We assume there used to be a ceiling fan over the table but we haven't a clue as to what the switch is for now. 15 years and counting. :-)
The point is - most of us (save Anthony, of course) for whom this is news have never owned or used a fan. Or owned/used only a fan without a direction switch. Weird how elitist you owners/users of a dual-direction fan seem to feel about this? Why is that?