Your Fan Should Be Spinning Anticlockwise During The Summer

We Brits are so predictable - we wait all year for summer, and when we finally get a little bit of sunshine, we immediately start complaining it's too hot.

With a projected heatwave just weeks away, prepare to hear a tonne of us moaning about the weather...again.

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But if you're one those people who plead guilty for boring on about the often oppressive heat, then we have a simple trick to keep you cool when you're hot under the collar.

If you're lucky enough to own a ceiling fan, make sure it's turning anti-clockwise - and you can be significantly cooler.

Why does the fan direction matter so much? Here comes the science part.

According to the fan experts at Delmar Fans, blades rotating anti-clockwise pushes cool air down to the floor. The cool air evaporates perspiration and creates a wind chill effect, which will make you feel cooler and more refreshed.

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This can make you feel up to eight degrees cooler in some settings.

Be warned, however - a ceiling fan can make the room feel hotter too.

If the fans are rotating in a clockwise direction at a low speed, this gentle updraft pushes warm air (that would otherwise naturally rise) down along the walls and back the floor. This makes a room feel warmer.

Most fans are reversible, so check which way your fan is spinning before you switch it on and hope for the best.

In other tips to cool you down, doctors have advised against taking a cold shower - as much as it appeals.

Appearing on Good Morning Britain, Dr Sarah Jarvis explained: "We don't necessarily want to have a really cold shower.

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"If you have a cool shower and then allow the water to evaporate off your skin, so you don't open the doors to the shower and just stand there as the water evaporates, that will definitely help cool you down."

It's believed taking a cold shower in hot weather is actually counter productive. This is because when our body is subjected to extreme cold, it tries to regulate our core temperature.

One of the ways it does this is by controlling blood flow to the skin. When it is reduced, heat is retained within the body, meaning although initially a cold shower might make you feel cooler for a short period, you'll actually feel hotter than you did before after a few minutes.

Things to all bear in mind as the UK begins to get steamy.

Topics: Weather, UK News, Life News, Life

Kimberley Bond

Kim is a journalist at Tyla, and has previously worked at the Evening Standard, Radio Times as well as several national newspapers. A showbiz obsessive and a television fanatic, Kim is particularly interested in celebrity gossip, A-list events and the latest releases on either the big or small screen. Contact her at [email protected]

@0xKimberley