If you’re looking for an easy way to save energy and give your A/C a break this summer and fall, look no further than ceiling fans. A ceiling fan operating in a room makes it feel cooler, allowing you to turn down (or off) the air conditioning.
It’s important to recognize, however, that a ceiling fan operating in a room won’t actually lower the temperature. Rather, it creates a cooling effect for anyone in the path of the airflow created by the fan. This works on the same principle as the wind-chill effect during cold weather, where a stiff breeze can make 40 degrees Fahrenheit feel like 32. During warm weather, when air moves across a person’s skin, heat from a person’s body is more readily transferred to the air. That loss of heat translates into a cooling effect.
The main benefit of ceiling fan use during the cooling season is energy savings. Since the moving air makes the temperature in a room feel three or four degrees cooler, you can raise the temperature setting on the thermostat by the same amount. This means your A/C will run less often, saving energy and reducing electric bills. It also means less stress on air conditioning equipment. During mild weather, you can turn off the A/C altogether, allowing ceiling fans and natural ventilation (open windows and doors) to keep the house comfortable.
Maximize your energy savings by turning off ceiling fans in empty rooms. Since the fan provides a cooling “effect,” if nobody’s in a room, there’s nobody to feel the effect.
Ceiling fans also can help increase comfort and energy savings during the winter. While the fan blade rotation should be set to counterclockwise in the summertime (the switch is usually located on the fan housing), switch the setting to clockwise during the heating season. This blows air upward where it displaces warm air that collects near the ceiling and pushes it down into the room where people can feel it.
For more information on improving cooling efficiency in your Dayton-area home, please contact us at Ace Hardware Home Services.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Dayton, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
Credit/Copyright Attribution: “eak_kk/Pixabay”
