How we rank
Every number on this site comes from one public list, cleaned and grouped by the rules on this page. Nothing is estimated, and the list's own figures are never changed.
How to read a page
Each brand, span and feature page opens with the facts that set it apart from its peers, then a chart, then the tables behind them. A fan's rank is always within its own group: the same blade span and the same mount type. “3 of 238” means third highest CFM/W of the 238 fans in that group on the certified list. “vs median” is the fan's gap to the median of the same group.
Source
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ENERGY STAR Certified Ceiling Fans (data.energystar.gov, dataset 2te3-nmxp), US market, retrieved October 27, 2026. The list covers fans certified to the Version 4.0 ENERGY STAR program requirements for ceiling fans. EPA publishes it in the public domain (“Unless otherwise specified, all data produced by the U.S EPA is by default in the public domain and is not subject to domestic copyright protection under 17 U.S.C. § 105.”). Only certified fans are on it, so “highest” and “lowest” always mean “of the certified listings on this site”. This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by EPA or ENERGY STAR, and the ENERGY STAR name appears only as the name of the list.
CFM/W
CFM/W is the efficiency figure EPA publishes: airflow in cubic feet per minute per watt, as measured in the ENERGY STAR test across the fan's speeds. The list does not publish the airflow figure itself. For standard and hugger fans the figure is weighted over low speed, high speed and standby; for HSSD fans (low-mount high-speed small-diameter) over high speed and standby only. HSSD fans are therefore never ranked against standard or hugger fans, and no page derives an airflow number from the figure.
Listings
The list has 1,458 rows, and 33 of them are left out: one row sold only in Canada, one with an implausible high-speed reading, and 31 standard or hugger fans with no low-speed watts, which the weighting needs. The remaining 1,425 rows collapse to 712 fan listings: rows of the same certifying company with identical type, location, blade span, CFM/W, all three wattages and light output are one fan sold in several finishes or under several names.
Fan names are cleaned for reading: blade sizes, “Ceiling Fan” and finish wildcards are taken out of the listed model
name, all-capital words are set in title case, and where two listings of one brand would share a name, the span, the
mount, the light kit or a model number is added. Where the cleaned name differs from the list, the listed string is shown
as “listed as”. In model numbers, * stands for finish codes.
Blade spans and mount types
Spans are grouped: under 42 in (19 to 41), 42 in (42 to 43), 44 in (44 to 46), 48 to 50 in (47 to 51), 52 in (52 to 53), 54 to 58 in, 60 in (59 to 61), 62 to 66 in (62 to 67), 68 to 72 in (68 to 73) and 84 in (74 and up). Spans with 20 or more listings have a page. Mount types follow the list: standard (on a downrod), hugger (flush to the ceiling) and HSSD.
Size-adjusted index
A brand's raw median CFM/W mostly reflects which sizes it sells, because larger fans score higher. The index removes that: for each of the brand's standard and hugger listings, take its percentage gap to the median of its own group (span and mount, groups of ten or more), then report the median of those gaps. An index of +23% means a typical listing of the brand sits 23% above fans of the same size and type. It is shown for brands with five or more rated listings; the 16 brands with ten or more listings are “profiled brands”.
Ranks, ties and comparisons
Rank 1 is the highest CFM/W. Fans with equal values share a rank. A lead fact is only stated when a value is in the top or bottom of a peer group large enough to mean something (top 5 of 30 or more, top 3 of 10 to 29), and brand medians are compared only among brands with three or more standard models at the same span.
Brands sold under several names
When the same certified fans appear under more than one brand name, they are counted once and shown under the name with the most listings, with the other names given as “also sold as”.
kWh arithmetic in the fan table
kWh a year = (watts on high × hours on high + watts on low × hours on low + standby watts × the remaining hours of the day) × 365 ÷ 1,000. HSSD fans have no low-speed reading, so only hours on high count for them. The result is arithmetic from the listed watts and your hours, not a measurement, and the site shows no prices.