The recent 101-degree day made some of us want to retreat to aggressively air-conditioned shopping malls or movie theaters. Despite such extreme occasional temperatures, the frugal may find it hard to justify buying a whole home AC unit to use only a few days a year. A portable air conditioner runs $300 and up while ones for the window start at about $200 — and then there’s the electricity required to run an air conditioner. Some may decide it’s worth it to be chilled when it’s hot outside, but to keep energy costs down, a ceiling fan may be a better way to stay cool this summer.
At half the purchase cost of an air conditioner, a ceiling fan is an attractive and affordable alternative. Not only can it help you feel cooler in the summer, it can also increase the comfort of your home in the winter when you reverse its rotation to gently move warm air down.
Clark Public Utilities energy counselor and energy services supervisor DuWayne Dunham suggests looking for a ceiling fan with the Energy Star label. Energy Star models have more efficient motors and blade designs so they use about half the energy of conventional ones.
If you have a ceiling light already in place, installing a ceiling fan instead can be pretty easy. Always start by turning off the electricity to the room at the breaker panel and follow the manufacturer’s installation guide.
Ceiling fans may weigh as much as 50 pounds and must be anchored between ceiling joists. Usually, the fan comes with an adjustable brace for hanging it. There are “teeth” on the plates at each end of the hanger. Make sure they dig into the wood to hold the weight of the fan.
Blade position is important for a smooth-running fan. Make sure you arrange them before installation. Check the alignment of the blades by placing a yardstick across them. Carefully adjust any high or low blades.
If the fan has a light fixture, consider using LED bulbs. When it’s warm in the house, LEDs are the best bet because they don’t create very much heat. Other types of bulbs generate more heat, and use more energy.
Once installed according to the manufacturer’s instructions, see if everything works. Reset the electrical breaker and turn on the fan. If the blades wobble, a balancing kit may have been included, or is available from the manufacturer to fix the issue.
“Using a ceiling fan is quite economical,” said Dunham. “Running one every day for six hours costs just 90 cents for a month.” In contrast, running a whole house air-conditioning system or heat pump runs $1 to $2 daily or $30 to $60 a month. This makes ceiling fans one of the better investments for saving energy — and for cooling.
Remember, though, fans don’t work the same way as air conditioners, which actually change the temperature of the air. Instead, any fan circulates air and can make you feel as much as 8 degrees cooler. But it’s not necessary to leave them on when you’re not in the room.
“While ceiling fans aren’t as effective as air conditioning on 100-degree days, they’re still a good choice for our more frequent 80- and 90-degree days,” said Dunham.
Other tips to help keep the house cool include using sun-blocking awnings, shades, or drapes to keep the heat out during the day, and opening up windows when it cools down to create a breeze and move the warmer air outside. Keep safety in mind, however, and remember that screens aren’t strong enough to prevent falls or stop unwanted entry. For more tips on ways to stay cool without wasting energy, visit ClarkPublicUtilities.com.
Energy Adviser is written by Clark Public Utilities. Send questions to ecod@clarkpud.com or to Energy Adviser, c/o Clark Public Utilities, P.O. Box 8900, Vancouver, WA 98688.
