Ceiling fan or floor air circulator: the comparison for a living space

An air circulator concentrates its flow in a short tube and projects it in a straight line: at 3 to 5 m you still feel the breeze. That is its strength, and its limit: the jet is narrow. Placed in a corner and aimed at the sofa, it cools the sofa; the armchair beside it stays in still air. To cover a room you must aim it at the ceiling and let the air bounce, which loses most of its point.

A ceiling fan works the other way: a wide column of air, pushed from the centre to the floor, spreading and rising along the walls. The whole room gets 0.3 to 0.8 m/s of air movement, even, with no hot spot or jet. For a room where you sit or lie down, that evenness is what counts.

To project air far, a circulator spins a short propeller fast: 45 to 60 dB depending on speed, conversation level. The maker knows it and offers a quiet speed, at which the jet only carries a metre. The circulator is effective or quiet, not both.

The ceiling fan moves a lot of air slowly, with large blades and a motor at a few hundred rpm: 30 to 34 dB for the Boréal 107. A whisper, compatible with a whole night. In a bedroom the question does not even arise; in a living room, a film under a 50 dB circulator is watched with the volume remote in hand.

The circulator sits on the floor or a piece of furniture, with its cable to the socket. It takes a corner, moves around, is stored in September. The ceiling fan takes zero m², replaces the ceiling light, and stays in place all year. It provides light, dimmable in three colour temperatures, which no circulator will do.

In winter a circulator can push a stove's warm air to another room, which is a real use. A reversible ceiling fan, for its part, evens out the room it is fitted in: 1 to 2 °C less on the thermostat, no draught, at 5 W. Two different winter uses, but only the second happens silently, while you stay in the room.

A good air circulator costs 80 to 150 euros. A compact ceiling fan with LED and remote 150 to 200 euros, 157 euros for the Boréal 107. At purchase the circulator is a little cheaper; in use it draws 40 to 60 W against 5 to 10 W, and its high-speed turbine lives less long than a copper motor turning slowly.

The circulator wins in three precise cases: pushing cool air from a ventilated room to a closed one, drying a room after works or a leak, ventilating a workshop or garage with no ceiling light point. For a living space where you sit, sleep and look at the ceiling every day, the ceiling fan wins on every criterion except purchase price, and catches up in two summers.