Cool your home in a heatwave by using your fan with correct method

Everyone across the UK is battling to manage the sweltering temperatures, with many attempting various methods to remain cool, including adding extra ice to beverages, draping wet towels over their shoulders, and even retiring to bed wearing damp socks. But if you’ve been relying on a fan throughout the heatwave, were you aware that you’ve most likely been utilising it entirely incorrectly?

A frustrated, overheated mother has confessed that she’s been operating a fan wrongly throughout her entire life, and is keen to share the correct approach to maximising its effectiveness, in accordance with the principles of “physics”.

Charlotte, who shares content on Instagram as @charlotte_family_life, posted: “POV: apparently physics says pointing a fan OUT of the window cools your home down…” together with footage of herself testing the technique.

She explained that it’s designed to “pull hot air out of your home,” consequently enabling the air inside your property to become cooler than it otherwise would have been.

“I thought it sounded completely backwards because surely you’d want the fan blowing cool air IN?” she questioned, which is what most individuals presumably assume.

Additionally, there’s nothing quite comparable to experiencing that, perhaps somewhat disappointing, breeze upon you when your tower fan is configured to oscillate.

Nevertheless, Charlotte stated that she believed it was proving effective, commenting: “The living room feels noticeably cooler than it did an hour ago”.

“Has anyone else tried this, or is it just a heatwave-induced placebo effect?” she joked at the end of her caption, because, let’s be honest, everyone is feeling a little bit delirious right now.

Does directing a fan outside of the window actually work?

According to Physics Stack Exchange, it does function, but only if the air outside is cooler than the air inside. Because fans don’t actually reduce air temperatures, the direction you position them determines how effectively they cool your space.

Which? explains that expelling hot air outwards creates a vacuum that automatically draws fresh, cool air inside through other open windows in the house.

However, it requires optimal placement. The fan should be positioned about two feet (0.6 metres) away from the open window rather than pressing it directly against the screen.

This enables it to draw more of the room’s trapped heat along with it.

In the comments, someone said: “Been doing this for a while now and while it’s certainly no AC, it at least makes my room bearable to be in lol. But in those scorching days I just take a cold a** bath”.

Another added: “Yes, this works, I’ve done it before, works great cuz it essentially takes all the hot air in the room and shoves it outside while the other fans take the air from outside and shoves that inside.

“Thing is that only really works if outside is cooler than inside, even if just by a few degrees. Also, the entire window needs to be sealed, other than around the fan. So like a sheet or smth to cover all the open gaps. But it’s better than nothing”.