Does keeping the 'fan' on in your ac
- Thread starter Ramathorn
- Start date
Sounds like fiction to me.
the logic he used is fiction. it doesn't take much to turn the fan on.
some people like to leave the fan on all day because the thinking is that the fan will keep the temp down enough to not use the A/C much. the A/C uses far more electricity than just the fan.
however, i have never seen much proof, either way, on whether that works. my guess is that the answer would vary greatly depending on the house.
some people like to leave the fan on all day because the thinking is that the fan will keep the temp down enough to not use the A/C much. the A/C uses far more electricity than just the fan.
however, i have never seen much proof, either way, on whether that works. my guess is that the answer would vary greatly depending on the house.
I had a problem once where a fan relay got stuck on for my A/C unit. The compressor was cycling on/off as it should, but the fan ran constantly for a couple of weeks. When I got my electric bill for that month, it was quite a bit higher than normal. Yeah, the A/C was still running as usual, but in my case I dont think that the fan was all that energy efficient. As someone mentioned above a programmable A/C controller is probably the best things that you can do to make your unit more energy efficient.
accuratehorn
10,000+ Posts
There is a capacitor that is engaged to turn on the compressor, and this takes a lot of electricity, but I don't think it takes too much to turn the fan on. The programmable thermostat is the way to go, and Austin Energy was giving them away free to its customers, and they will give advice on the most economical settings (of course if you are in Austin).
if you do leave the fan on, change your filters even more regularly than you already do.
The fan will circulate air through the filter and through the house. people with pets sometimes run their fan to help with pet dander. the effectiveness of this depends on the fan, the filter and the ducts.
the 3m AC filters are really good. a bit more expensive, but really good.
I just turn up the AC to about 82 when I leave for work. my wife will turn it down when she gets home to start cooling the house.
our upstairs unit has a programmable thermostat. it's a cool little device.
The fan will circulate air through the filter and through the house. people with pets sometimes run their fan to help with pet dander. the effectiveness of this depends on the fan, the filter and the ducts.
the 3m AC filters are really good. a bit more expensive, but really good.
I just turn up the AC to about 82 when I leave for work. my wife will turn it down when she gets home to start cooling the house.
our upstairs unit has a programmable thermostat. it's a cool little device.
We turn our A/C all the way off when we get up (6:30am) and don't turn it back on until noon.
When we go to bed around 10pm, we turn the fan to ON because we like the "white noise" it generates....plus it seems cooler. We run the ceiling fans most of the time too. Our thermostat is set at 77 during A/C weather.
When we go to bed around 10pm, we turn the fan to ON because we like the "white noise" it generates....plus it seems cooler. We run the ceiling fans most of the time too. Our thermostat is set at 77 during A/C weather.
A typical fan motor uses about 700 to 1200 watts to run, depending on the size of the air handler. It's basically a space heater and if it runs more than necessary it will unnecessarily heat up the house. Also, running it all the time will adversely affect the efficiency of the AC unit which controls the fan motor to optimize efficiency of the system. Some programmable thermostats can be set up to cycle the fan periodically to help equalize temperatures and/or improve air quality, but it should only be set up to run a small percentage of the time, maybe 10%.
One concept many people don't realize is that any heat that gets generated in a house during cooling season has to be removed by the AC. A typical AC unit may run with a coefficient of performance of about 3. That means for every 300W you use indoors, the AC will have to use another 100W to remove the heat. In the case of a 900W fan motor, the AC will have to use 300W to offset the additional 900W of heat for a total of 1200W used to have the fan running. That will come to about $0.14 an hour or about $100 a month.
The same holds true for a ceiling fan. If you're not in the room to feel the cooling effects of the moving air, you're just heating up the room and increasing your AC bill by having the ceiling fan running.
This is also a good reason to get rid of as many incandescent lights as you can and replace them with more efficient bulbs like compact fluorescents because it will reduce your AC bill, too.
One concept many people don't realize is that any heat that gets generated in a house during cooling season has to be removed by the AC. A typical AC unit may run with a coefficient of performance of about 3. That means for every 300W you use indoors, the AC will have to use another 100W to remove the heat. In the case of a 900W fan motor, the AC will have to use 300W to offset the additional 900W of heat for a total of 1200W used to have the fan running. That will come to about $0.14 an hour or about $100 a month.
The same holds true for a ceiling fan. If you're not in the room to feel the cooling effects of the moving air, you're just heating up the room and increasing your AC bill by having the ceiling fan running.
This is also a good reason to get rid of as many incandescent lights as you can and replace them with more efficient bulbs like compact fluorescents because it will reduce your AC bill, too.
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