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Be a fan of fans

 

Fan of Cooling

Fan of Cooling

Summer's in Atlanta are hot and muggy. By nature I'm a hot person.  This is more information that you care to hear, but I sweat a lot.   I tell you this so you can understand how much I like to not sweat.  And in the middle of July here in Atlanta, the only sweat I like is on my ice cold beer while I'm hanging out by the pool.  So you would think that means I blast my AC all the time right?

Not necessarily.  While I do love walking in to a cool house on a hot summer afternoon, I try to use the AC only when I have to, and rely on fans the rest off the time.  I'm going to analyze the actual numbers in a later blog, but trust me when I say that using a fan blowing right on you saves much more energy than having to use your central AC over your whole house.

If you've read my Programmable Thermostat blog, you know that using it will save you a ton on your energy bill.  The next step to saving your AC some work is to install ceiling fans and/or use the table mount fans whenever possible.

When we moved in our house, we didnt have a ceiling fan in our bedroom.  Before installing one, I would have to set the thermostat on 72° to sleep comfortably at night.  After installing the fan, I was able to set the thermostat at 75° while I ran the fan at night.  This 3 degree difference may not sound like a lot, but in the middle of summer it can prevent the AC unit from doing a lot of work.  And best of all, I'm not cooling our guest room and office in the middle of the night when nobody is using them.

I also have a table mount fan that I keep in my office.  When I work from home and opening the windows isn't enough, I've found that if I keep the fan pointed at me, I can leave the AC off and be perfectly comfortable!

So if you have rooms in your home you spend a lot of time in, think about a ceiling fan or one of those portable fans to help cool you and take a load off your AC.  This will enable you to quit wasting your valuable cooling in areas you don't need it and save you some money on those high summer cooling bills!

Tags: 
ac
Ceiling fan
cooling
desk fan
energy bill
fan
open windows
programmable thermostat
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Comments

Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/25/2009 - 10:23
When I had central air in my old house I kept it on 68 year round. That was the only way to be comfortable even with fans. I am okay with paying a higher energy bill to be comfortable. Life is too short to sweat needlessly.
Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/25/2009 - 15:07
Tommy, I never mentioned anywhere that you had to sacrifice comfort anywhere in the blog. If the only way you can achieve comfort is through the use of your AC and no fans, then that is how you had to operate, but there are millions of Americans who would be perfectly comfortable using a fan and who actually care about saving money and energy. Some people are just too closed minded to be open to other ways of operating.

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