Summertime Death Match: Fans vs. Air Conditioning
By Jenn | July 15, 2008
By now ya’ll have read that my cohort Karina lives without an air conditioner– but don’t you even try to pry mine out of my sticky, sweaty hands…
It’s not like I’m living in a lux place with central a/c–I’ve only got one window unit in my bedroom, and I limit my usage to those evenings when I am just about to melt into my mattress (which averages about five nights per summer). But for those five nights, I just can’t bear the thought of not having the ability to significantly lower the temperature of my sleeping space.
For the rest of the warm months, I’m all about the fans. I’ve installed ceiling fans in three rooms of my home, and they are an amazing way to circulate air and cool things down. I’ve also got a small circular fan sitting on a windowsill in my bedroom, which pulls in sweet nighttime air when I’m ready to go to sleep.
I had gotten to wondering about the combined electricity usage of all the fans, however– when I’ve got the ceiling fan and window fan (and sometimes even the fan on the a/c unit) running, am I really using any less juice than if I were to kick on the a/c? Would I be better off just putting on the a/c and going to sleep in purely manufactured arctic bliss?
Well, Umbra says no:
From Grist: “As far as your fans go, they probably consume less electricity than a very efficient window air conditioner, and they certainly consume less energy than an older model.
If your current fans are not doing the job, consider installing (or asking your landlord to install) a ceiling fan, which uses even less power than a floor fan and can help the whole room feel cooler.
Many years ago, my parents installed a fan in the floor of their attic– when switched on it sounds like a landing jet, but does an amazing job of getting the airflow moving throughout their whole house. I do wish I could install a ceiling fan in the skylight of my building– I bet we’d all feel a whole lot cooler if that thing was roaring– but, seeing as I live on the top floor my life might be a bit quieter without it. I’ll just keep my personal fans going and keep eating ice pops, and I’ll survive yet another urban summer just fine.
[Image by Toasty Ken via Creative Commons]
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those 5 nights a summer are SO HOT, too, that I always end up staring at the ceiling as I drink gallons of iced water and wracking my brains to think of which nearby friends I have who *do* have air conditioning (and an open couch).
It’s too bad I’m not a nearby friend– I’d be much happier sharing my ac with another soul, and thereby cutting my personal ac emissions by half! (does it work that way?) :)
Trying to cool down without an a/c is its own art form. If I open the windows, I let more air in, but if I keep the blinds up too long, I overheat my room (I have three windows that let in light, which will be nice come winter). Throughout the day I rearrange my two little fans, according to the breeze and where I’m currently located in my room. And my kitchen, my poor kitchen, suffers in heat– but hey, getting hot in a kitchen is normal, natural, and makes the food taste better.
Now, my dependence on the a/c isn’t as strong now that I’ve moved from the South to the North, but what would be a green answer to purifying the air? Just a plain old air purifier, or is there something else that can be done? Because I used to run the a/c even in chilly springtime if I was having bad allergies. Now what!
Hey Miranda– I’m not sure about green air purifying options, it’s not something I’ve researched yet… but it’s a great idea for a post! Stay tuned… and if you come up with some ideas, keep us posted.
Moderation.
As long as you are consciously working to lower your energy usage overall, just don’t sweat making yourself comfortable. Pun intended.
Simply be smart, not masochistic - unless you enjoy the suffering, and then more power to ya!
Don’t leave the a/c on if you don’t need it. If it has cooled at night but ambient heat is stored in your furniture & walls etc, cool the room down with the a/c before you want to go to bed, then turn it off and open the windows & turn on a fan to maintain the cool overnight.
There is no need to suffer. We can greatly reduce our wastefulness and still be comfortable.
I’ve done lots of living without a/c in various desert countries and am happy to have it back at my beck and call. I still dislike a/c - the dryness, the sound, but i love having the control of the environment at my hands again.
I too love having control of the environment at my beck and call… as long as we use our power for good (or keep trying to, at least)…
I have one of those attic fans in my house, and it really is amazing. As long as the outside air isn’t incredibly sticky, it’s a great way to get a breeze flowing all through the house, particularly if you’re strategic about which windows you open. Because of this attic fan, I really only feel the need to switch on the A/C when the humidity is out of control. The fan doesn’t help with that.
Hey Lisa– glad to hear that you’ve had success with the attic fan, too! Seems like an underused smart option for whole-house cooling.
Be careful with the attic fans!
The theory is that the attic fan blows the hot, attic air out of the attic, thereby reducing the effort it takes for the A/C to cool the other rooms of your house.
HOWEVER
If your A/C is on, attic fans can actually REDUCE the efficiency of your air conditioner by actually drawing the newly-produced cold air THROUGH the various leaks from your house TO the attic and subsequently outside. Many authorities recommend not using an attic fan with air conditioning.
I found your site yesterday because I was buying a seltzer maker … I can’t wait for it to arrive!
For the most part, I’d be ok with just windows and fans or just sweating it out, but do resort to AC mostly for the benefit of my panting pooch, my hot dog. (the kind you love, not the kind you eat).
Any thoughts for cooling down the canines?
…though it would be a little funny to run the ac to cool down your frankfurter… :) (see doggie-cooling options below!)
cooling the tofu pup:-)
Kiddie pools for the dogs!
Dogs cool themselves by panting but not efficiently. They don’t sweat so they don’t get self cooled on the exterior, but many dogs will wet their chests and bellies to help cool down (of course they’ll want to then flop on all your furniture and carpets).
This is less of a solution in apartments I s’pose, but wetting their chests with a wet towel will help them out too, just be less fun for them. Some dogs love the heat, some love the cold. My mutt is a winter dog by far and will lay out on the ice for hours gleefully, but hides in the shade or house in the summer - when not flopping in the pool or a mud puddle.
She prefers the hardwood floor in summer to dog beds and couches, so we try to keep a fan on the floor for her as well.
A doggie! You have a doggie. Is she a ridegeback, by any chance? :)
Try living in Tucson without AC - everyone thinks I’m crazy!
The reality is, I’m not. Most of the year my swamp cooler works great and lowers the temp in my house so well that I get cold at night. The six weeks of the monsoon are what kills me - and we’re in then right now. That’s when the humidity is up - sure daytime temps tend to be below 100, but the nighttime temps don’t drop and with the air more humid, the cooler doesn’t work nearly as well. Remembering this made me realize that this is why I feel so sucked dry of energy right now.
It makes me debate getting a hotel room for just one night, just to sleep and sleep well in frigid air…but doing it once would mean that I’d do it again!
Wow, that’s hardcore, Laura! I wouldn’t think you’d last very long in a true desert environment without ac, but I’m sure glad to know I was wrong. Do you know other folks nearby who are doing it too?
Absolutely - it’s pretty common out here, as are dual systems for those who want AC during these few weeks. The swamp coolers tend to be cheaper to run and less damaging. I admit that’s not why I only have it - when I moved out here, my landlord let me know that my rent would be $75 a month higher if I had them put AC in, and I’d still have to pay the increased electric bill. It was initially a cheapness decision, not an environmental decision, but I’m glad it works for me.
To help keep my dog cool, I use a Cool Bed–it’s filled with one of those gel solutions that doesn’t absorb heat (unless you leave it in a hot car all day, and then it’s more of a hot bed).
They also sell a similar material in a little tie-on neckerchief that you can put on your dog (or yourself, if you get one in a human size). It cools the back of your neck, which helps your whole core stay more comfortable. They’re just made with water-absorbent crystals, similar (I imagine) to the ones you can put in soil to help regulate plant watering.
We use our air conditioner a lot in the summer, although the downstairs of our house is much cooler. I’ve pitched the idea to my husband of sleeping downstairs in the hot months, but he doesn’t buy it.
Thanks for the suggestion, Katie! All the hot pooches thank you.
a cool bed sounds enticing for both pooches and non-pooches.
:-)
A mechanical engineer told me that there is no point in running a fan to cool a room down unless someone is in the room. The fan will cool the person, but not the room itself. All a fan does is circulate the air in the room, not cool it.
Thanks, Uncle Marvin! I’ve read this too, and I’m glad to have the info because I’ve definitely left fans running in the past, when I wasn’t in the room. Another good way to cut down on electric use!
I do leave the fan in my bedroom and kitchen running when I’m not in them, but that’s because those are pointed directly into or out of a window and are set up to try and get some air flowing from outside of my bedroom (the back of the house is always relatively cool for some reason) through the LR and into the kitchen where the window fan exhausts the hot air near the ceiling (hopefully).
I have many many fans and use at least one every night of the year. In some ways I think I hate stagnant air more than hot air. However, that said, I am putting my bedroom window ac tonight as the nighttime temps are not cooling off much. I put it off for as long as I could because I only have one window in my bedroom so putting in the ac means no more fresh air and no more circulation of air through the entire apartment (I have a plethora of big windows on the western (!!!!) front of my apartment but but very poor circulation without that south-facing bedroom window. I can validate that ac uses more electricity than many fans. I finally found an ac that would work with our building’s ancient wiring last summer and the electric bill was almost 40% higher with the ac only running at night ($50 vs $32) than the hot 30 days before with just the fans. I’m very happy we have the choice of opting for wind-powered electricity in my locale.
It’s so helpful to see an actual price increase like that, Harper– thanks for sharing. 40% is really significant! I hope you get a good nights sleep this evening… :)