As a boy, I have little recollection of ceiling fans being seen. They seem to have become a fad later. However, commercial businesses back then I believe employed them, bowling alleys, restaurants, and the like, to disperse the always-present cigarette smoke. Around 1972, living in Vegas, we frequented a Polynesian bar and restaurant at the Stardust called "Aku Aku". Aku Aku had ceiling fans I marveled at! They consisted of palm fronds affixed to long axles which hung horizontally well below the ceiling. These axles rotated back and forth, swishing the fronds to create air movement below! Most novel idea, appropriate to the other Polynesian slant. No fans with blades. We were enthralled, as young adults tend to be, by the vastly different atmosphere Vegas presented from that of Chicago. I hated going back home when on vacation: we moved to Vegas in May, 1972. Frank
I love ceiling fans. For over 35 years, I lived in a small (600 ft²) home that was built in 1945. One of the first things I did was to install a ceiling fan in the living room. It really helped, only having a floor furnace for heat and one big window A/C unit for cooling. They make a big difference in preventing the cooled/heated air from stratifying. Remember: In the summertime you want it blowing down for the breeze effect (max speed without the wind cooling your food or blowing papers around.) In the wintertime you want it blowing up at minimum speed to push the hot air up across the ceiling, down the walls, and across the floor, so it can fill the room and rise again. I've never seen Polynesian fans in person. I recall seeing ceiling fans in retail spaces, all being driven by a long belt & pulley system with a remote motor somewhere.
When I was a kid we had an attic fan. That was such good sleeping with the windows open and that big ole' fan pulling in the summer air. I love ceiling fans and we have 9 in our house, including one in the master bath, one on the patio, and one in the garage. Most of them are never turned off; just reversed when the seasons change.
We have 5 in our 4 bedroom 2800 sq. ft. home. They can be set for different speeds and directions of rotation. During summer months they are set to blow. At other times they suck. Hal
We had one in our upstairs living room when we bought the house but we had an electrical problem with it and replaced it with a regular light since had already had a heat pump installed in that room.
I'm not sure I get ceiling fans. With it off, warm air rises to the ceiling and cooler air is towards the floor. Turn on the fan and ceiling and floor air mix raising the floor air temperature to a mid point between what was the ceiling's and floor's temps.
Ceiling fans don't cool the room, they cool bodies. Leaving them on also helps with air circulation, which in turn aids in preventing mildew.
I've had ceiling fans for decades. Seven in our current home. I had four in each of my rent houses. In Colorado, I'm not sure what I'll do, once we move there. I suspect I'll put them in, because I'm so used to them.
I don't care much for them. My house has high ceilings. It's better not to run a ceiling fan in the summer. At least until the warm air saturates down to the floor level. Then I turn on AC. In the winter a fan can bring down warmer air from the ceiling, but the movement of the air tends to create a cooling effect which cancels it out. Maybe a really slow fan that barely moves is best. I had one fan that was like an airplane propeller, on high speed. Papers would fly off the furniture in the corners of the room and the curtains would wave. It was a novelty. I kind of miss it.
In one condo I installed a fan over the bed with a wall switch next to the headboard where I could reach it without getting up. Somehow I got moved to the other side of the bed.