How do you keep your home cool in the summer? If you’re like a lot of people, you keep the fan running as long as possible until you absolutely have to turn on your air conditioner. But have you ever considered running both of them at the same time? Maybe it seems like overkill. Maybe you’re worried that the energy that the fan uses will cancel out any savings that you might get from being able to turn up the thermostat a little bit. You may have even heard that it’s a myth that a ceiling fan can help cool down your home in any significant way when combined with AC.
The fact is that using ceiling fans with your AC can lead to substantial savings, and there are also things you can do to make the most of what those fans can do for you. The U.S. Department of Energy agrees, suggesting that you can raise your thermostat by 4 degrees if you’re running a ceiling fan. With the hot, humid summers that happen in and around Shawnee, KS, you need all the help you can get in keeping your home cool throughout the season.
How Does a Ceiling Fan Keep You Cooler?
You might assume that a ceiling fan works with the AC to cool down your home more quickly in some way. The opposite is true! A ceiling fan in operation does not lower the air temperature in your home. It can actually raise the temperature just a very tiny and hardly measurable amount. Despite this, the overall effect is still to keep you feeling cooler.
To understand how a ceiling fan works despite not lowering the actual air temperature, think about the times you’ve felt much colder on a cool day or refreshed on a hot day when there was a breeze. A ceiling fan works on the same “wind chill” principle.
Why does moving air, whether it’s from wind or a fan, make you feel cooler? The answer lies in how the human body operates. This “wind” pushes hot air away from your body. Sweat evaporates more quickly when there is a breeze, and you perceive the air as being cooler. You’re more comfortable even if the measurable temperature in the room hasn’t dropped, so you’re able to turn up the thermostat.
The ceiling fan can help in another way as well. You may have noticed that when you’re running the air conditioning on a hot day, parts of your home feel cooler than others. A ceiling fan helps to distribute cool air throughout the room more evenly. This reduces how much work your AC has to do. But it’s primarily the “wind chill” effect that makes the difference.
Ceiling fans can also extend the life of your HVAC system since their usage in the summer may reduce the overall demands you’re making on it.
What Direction Should My Ceiling Fan Spin in the Summer?
It’s important to understand the difference in summer and winter fan settings. In the summer, your fan should be set to turn counterclockwise in order to get the most out of its cooling capabilities, especially when paired with the AC. This will push a low column of cooling air down toward you.
You might be surprised to learn that your fan can be useful in the winter as well. Heat rises, and your ceiling fan can move air from up near the ceiling back down to you. To get this effect, you need to set your fan to turn clockwise in the winter.
Most ceiling fans have a switch on the motor that allows you to change the direction.
How Can I Improve My Ceiling Fan’s Efficiency?
There are several things you can do to improve the efficiency of your ceiling fan when you’re using it with your AC to cool down your home.
First, you can feel confident that it costs less to run the ceiling fan than to turn up your AC. Some ceiling fans are rated for being particularly energy efficient, so you’ll get even more savings if you purchase one of those.
Make sure that your ceiling fan is the right size for the room you’re trying to cool. If you’re trying to cool an area under 225 square feet, a fan with a diameter of 36 or 44 inches is sufficient. The diameter should be at least 52 inches if the room is 225 to 400 square feet. For rooms bigger than 400 square feet, consider multiple fans. The blades of the fan need to be a minimum of a foot and a half from the walls in order to circulate air efficiently.
If your HVAC system is the type that cools your entire house, opening up all interior doors helps your AC run more efficiently in conjunction with your ceiling fans. Of course, if you have window units or a system that cools different zones of the house, closing doors may be the more efficient choice.
Keep in mind that the cooling effect of the fan is all about your perception, meaning that there’s no point in continuing to run the fan in a room no one is using. It won’t lower the overall temperature. Instead, turn off the ceiling fan when you leave the room and turn on the ceiling fan in the new room you’ve entered.
Estimates for how much you can adjust your thermostat when you’re pairing your air conditioning with a ceiling fan vary from 2 to 4 degrees. You can experiment to find out just how much you can reduce your AC usage.
If you don’t have any ceiling fans in your home yet, you should keep all of the above in mind as you go through your home and decide where to install them. If you do have ceiling fans, you may want to reevaluate their placement to make sure that you’re getting the best use out of them. What are the typical airflow patterns throughout your home in the summer? Are there rooms in your house where the air conditioning doesn’t seem to work as well as others? Are there rooms that get heavy usage that could benefit from adding a fan?
Shawnee’s Top AC Experts
For all of your cooling needs, turn to Air Care Heating & Cooling. Whether you need AC installation, replacement, repair or maintenance, we have solutions. We can help you decide what type of new system is best for your household needs, including a ductless mini-split, and we are here to help you when your system isn’t working the way it should. We’ve been in business for more than 40 years, and it shows in our expertise. We’re members of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America and the Chamber of Commerce. We offer free estimates, and our pricing is transparent. We also offer commercial HVAC services.
We’re the best in the Shawnee, KS area at installing and maintaining air conditioning systems. Call Air Care Heating & Cooling so that we can give you an estimate and start working with you today.
