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It seemed to me the ceiling fan is making louder noise(of cutting through the air) when the day is a bit damp/humid, especially after a rainy day/hour. Is this a valid observation? Can the increased humidity be able to make a noticeable difference in air-cutting noise?

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A little long for a comment and I think this is correct. Ceiling fans make more noise when they are unbalanced. Any rapidly spinning object like that depends on balance. There's even a tip that ceiling fans can make more noise and wobble if they aren't kept clean. See here.

Water vapor in the air can condense on a spinning fan. Once you have water on the fan blades, even if just a little bit and even with the rapid rotation works to remove the water, you have some imbalance. A slight weight imbalance = more noise. You're probably not hearing acoustics from the air, but vibration from the fan.

If there's any dust on the fan, that probably holds water better than a clean fan.

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As the humidity of the air increases, its density decreases, so the fan blades will have an easier time passing through the air. I doubt the fan blades move muchy faster, because they are synched to the motor, but perhaps the decrease in force to pass through the air leads to a louder fan. What have you observed?

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    $\begingroup$ This reads more like a comment than an answer. $\endgroup$
    – Kyle Kanos
    Jun 15, 2015 at 22:09
  • $\begingroup$ First, I think that for the fan blades it will be harder to pass through air of higher density. Thus increasing air density should slow the fan down. Second, the humidity is probably not increasing the density significantly. $\endgroup$
    – freecharly
    Dec 9, 2016 at 4:22

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