Which type of fan should I buy for hot weather?
Pedestal, tower, desk, floor and ceiling fans do measurably different jobs. Which one suits the room, the noise you can tolerate and whether you want to cool yourself or move air through the house.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 15 min
- Read
- 5 min
- Safety
- caution
Short answer
For cooling a person, air speed matters most — a pedestal or floor fan moves the most air per pound. For a bedroom, noise decides it, and a large slow fan is quieter than a small fast one at the same airflow. For exhausting hot air out of a window at night, a boxy floor or pedestal fan beats a tower. Towers buy you looks and footprint, not performance.
Fan marketing talks about coverage and speed settings; almost none of it tells you what you need. The real questions are which of the two jobs you are buying for — moving air across a person, or exchanging air between inside and outside — and how much noise you will accept while asleep. Get those two right and the category almost picks itself.
Safety
Step by step
- Decide which job you are buying for.A fan does not cool a room; it cools a person by speeding up evaporation from skin. That is one job. The second job is exchanging hot indoor air for cooler outdoor air, which does lower the room temperature but requires the fan to be in a window with another opening elsewhere. Different jobs favour different fans.
- For cooling a person, buy for air speed at a distance.A pedestal fan with a large blade diameter at a height you can aim at a bed or a sofa is the most effective and cheapest option. Desk fans are fine at close range and poor beyond a couple of metres.
- For a bedroom, buy for noise.Noise is what makes people stop using a fan. A physically large fan turning slowly moves the same air as a small one turning fast, with much less noise. Look for a quoted noise figure in decibels at the lowest useful speed, and treat any fan without one with suspicion. A fan you run on its lowest setting all night beats a powerful one you switch off at two in the morning.
- For window exhaust work, buy a shape that fits a window.A tower fan is tall, narrow and directs air forwards in a thin column — awkward to seal into an opening. A boxy floor or pedestal fan sits in or near an opening and pushes a large volume through it. If your plan is a fan in the window blowing out at night, buy the shape that suits that.
- Consider a ceiling fan for a room you will use every summer.A ceiling fan moves a large volume slowly and quietly across a whole room, which is the most comfortable form of air movement there is, and it costs very little to run. It has to be installed properly and fixed to something structural — this is not a job to improvise, and depending on the circuit work involved it may be notifiable. Get an electrician.
- Check the practical details people forget.A timer matters more than extra speeds — it lets a fan run you to sleep and stop. Remote control matters if the fan lives across the room from the bed. Oscillation is useful for a shared room and pointless for one person. Blade guards should be fine enough that a child cannot get a finger through.
- Be realistic about air purifier and cooler combinations.Bladeless fans, air purifier hybrids and evaporative coolers all cost considerably more per unit of airflow. Evaporative coolers add moisture, which works in genuinely dry heat and does very little in a humid British summer — see the portable air conditioning guide, which covers where they fit.
- Buy before the shortage.Fan stock disappears within a day or two of a heatwave forecast and prices rise. Anything bought in the middle of a hot spell is bought from what is left.
Tips
- Two cheap fans usually beat one expensive one: one exhausting hot air out of a window, one aimed at you.
- Clean the blades and guard at the start of every summer. A fan carries a season of dust and it both smells and moves less air.
- A fan on a timer that stops an hour after you fall asleep gives you the benefit when you need it without the noise all night.
- Check the fan is stable on carpet before using it near a bed — a pedestal fan on a thick carpet with a child or a pet in the house tips more easily than people expect.
Common mistakes
- Buying on maximum speed rather than noise at low speed — Nobody sleeps next to a fan on maximum. The setting that matters is the lowest one that still moves useful air, and how loud that is.
- Buying a tower fan to put in a window — The shape does not seal into an opening and the airflow pattern is wrong for bulk air exchange. Buy a box or pedestal fan for that job.
- Expecting any fan to lower the room temperature while it is sealed — A fan only reduces room temperature when it is exchanging air with somewhere cooler. Otherwise its motor adds a small amount of heat.
Alternatives
- Pedestal fan: Best airflow per pound, adjustable height, easy to aim at a bed or sofa. Takes floor space and can be knocked over. The default choice for most people.
- Tower fan: Small footprint, tidy appearance, usually good timers and remotes. Moves less air for the money and is a poor shape for window exhaust duty.
- Floor or box fan: Cheap, high volume, ideal sitting in or near an open window to exchange air at night. Not elegant and usually noisier at full speed.
- Desk fan: Cheap and effective within a metre or two, for a desk or bedside. No use for a room.
- Ceiling fan: Quietest whole-room air movement, very cheap to run, works in winter too when reversed. Needs competent installation and a structural fixing.
Questions people ask
Are bladeless fans better?
They are quieter than a cheap fan at similar airflow, safer around small children, and easier to clean. They also cost several times as much for less air movement than a good pedestal fan. Worth it for the safety and the noise if that matters to you; not for performance.
Do evaporative coolers work in the UK?
Only in genuinely dry heat. They cool by evaporating water into the air, so they add humidity — in a humid British summer they can make a room feel worse rather than better, and they need a constant water supply. The portable air conditioning guide covers where they do and do not fit.
Which way should a ceiling fan turn in summer?
Downwards, so it pushes air onto the people below and speeds evaporation from skin. The reverse setting, pulling air up and pushing it out along the ceiling, is for winter, to mix warm air down from ceiling level without a draught.