The fall enthusiasts are already counting the days to their favorite season, but that doesn’t mean summer is over. There are plenty of hot days left in the year, and if you want to get through them in relative comfort, you need to broaden your arsenal. Perhaps the greatest weapon of all time is the ceiling fan, yet debates have raged for decades as to whether or not you should run the fan with your AC. Well, that debate is being settled once and for all.
That’s the short answer, but the whole truth is a little more complicated. Let’s start with the important caveats. The ceiling fan does not increase the potency of your air conditioner. It doesn’t help it cool your home faster, and it doesn’t even help it get to a lower temperature. Ceiling fans actually add heat to your home. It’s an almost immeasurably tiny amount of heat, but it’s important to emphasize how fans work.
What they really do is help the biological cooling systems of the human body work better. The draft created by ceiling fans moves hot air away from your skin and helps with natural evaporative cooling. So, while the ceiling fan won’t exactly help your air conditioner, it can be used in ways that still help you feel cooler and save you money.
What this boils down to is that when you use them together, you can get away with turning your thermostat up by about two to four degrees. This already saves you money — since ceiling fans cost so much less to run than an AC unit. If you optimize your approach, you can push those savings without any extra discomfort.
The first tip is to open the interior doors in your home. This helps the air conditioner pull air more easily and it will run more efficiently. The fan can make it feel like air is circulating better, and it tricks a lot of people into keeping doors closed when they shouldn’t. The second trick is even easier. Don’t run fans in empty rooms. Since they don’t help lower the temperature, they’re just wasting money if they aren’t putting a breeze on a person.
Beckham & Jones Heating & Air Conditioning has been providing air conditioning services to Huntsville for more than 60 years. Contact us today for your any AC installation, repairs, or maintenance.
If it's time to replace the current furnace in your Midway, TX home, you might…
There are many different ways to maximize the lifespan of your furnace. Keeping your system…
If you're interested in saving money on energy bills and having more control over your…
The heat exchanger is one of the most important components of your heating and air…
In the dead of winter, homeowners rely on their heating system to keep their family…
A thermostatic expansion valve, or TXV, is a part of the air conditioning system. It…