Air Conditioners vs. Fans: Which is Best?

The argument has probably existed for as long as there has been air conditioning. Fans or air conditioners. Who has the best? We explain how fans and air conditioners function to cool your home in this post. Additionally, we compare air conditioners to fans based on two factors: keeping you cool and minimising your electricity costs.

How Does Air Conditioning Cool Your Home?

Your air conditioner operates by transporting inside heat to the outside. Thus, an air conditioner doesn’t really “create” cold air. Heat and moisture are taken out of the air. Here are the stages involved in operating an air conditioner.

Your HVAC system draws hot air in through the intake vent.
Then, that air is sent across the refrigerant- or Freon-filled Evaporator Coil. The refrigerant turns from a liquid to a gas by absorbing heat and moisture. This refrigerant is circulated throughout the HVAC system by the compressor.
The condenser coil outside is reached by superheated refrigerant gas. The refrigerant’s temperature is lowered and turns back into a liquid as a result of heat being drawn from it by the ambient air.
The Evaporator Coil is where the colder refrigerant liquid is brought back indoors.
Until the temperature in your house meets the thermostat setting, this cycle will repeat. The thermostat then instructs your system to turn off.

You’ll see that we left out the AC fan. That’s another way your HVAC system cools your house. Cooled air enters the air handler and is then forced into your home by the AC blower fan through the ducting.

Should you utilise the Auto setting or leave your AC fan on all the time (On position)? As opposed to activating AC Fan Mode, the auto setting is far more effective. Only while the HVAC system is cooling the air will your fan run. While keeping the fan mode set to On helps move air around the house, it can also result in greater humidity, which makes a space feel sticky.

Those who can hear the AC fan running “feel” cooler. If that describes you, you might want to use a tiny fan or a white noise maker instead.

How Does a Fan Cool Your Home?

Does a fan chill a house or a room? No, a fan won’t keep your house cool. The individual within the house is cooled. Convection and evaporation are the two ways that fans cool. (Science-related alert!)

When heat from your body is moved away by moving air, convection occurs. Heat is being produced by your body. Cool air will replace that heat as soon as you move it away from you. You feel chilly as new air enters your body more quickly.
Perspiration causes evaporation. Tiny sweat beads are leaving your body through your skin pores even if you can’t see them. You feel cooler as a result of the breeze’s evaporation of moisture from your skin.

Is there a particular kind of fan that works the best to keep you cool? Yes. In comparison to a stand-alone fan, a ceiling fan will keep you cooler, claims the Department of Energy. Cooler air is touching your skin because ceiling fans circulate the conditioned air coming from your ceiling vents. Convection and evaporation are accelerated as a result.

When leaving the room, turn off the fan because it just cools the person, not the space.

Now for the major event. Which is more effective for cooling your home—a fan or an air conditioner? We’ll examine energy consumption and cooling capacities.

Ceiling Fan vs. Air Conditioner Energy Use

How much energy does a fan use versus an air conditioner? Which uses more, then? Though it’s quite obvious, let’s perform the calculations.

How Much Electricity Does a Central HVAC Use?

Texas homes with 2000 square feet of living space typically require 4 tonnes of air conditioning. The wattage of a 4 tonne AC system with a 16 SEER efficiency rating is 3429 watts.

However, we must consider how often your AC runs in order to determine how many kilowatt hours it consumes.

Your air conditioner will run for a total of 12 to 16 hours a day, lasting around 15 minutes each time, three times an hour. Your air conditioner might run 20 hours a day if the ambient temperature is over 100 degrees.

But if you use 3429 watts and 15 hours per day, you’ll arrive at this:

Equipment: 4 tonne 16 SEER air conditioner
Total Watts: 3429
daily hours used: 15
51,435 watt-hours per day from 3429 watts over 15 hours
dividing 51,425 watt-hours by 1000 results in 51.4 kWh daily.
1,543 kWh per month is equal to 51.4 kWh per day times 30 days.
You have to pay $231.45 a month to run that AC at an average cost of 15 cents per kWh.

How Much Electricity Does Ceiling Fan Use?

For your ceiling fan, we’ll perform a computation akin to the one above.

We chose a Harbor Breeze Bradbury-style fan from Lowe’s, which costs about $200. This 48-inch-diameter fan can be used in spaces up to 400 square feet. It consumes 75 watts when set to the highest speed.

The ceiling fan is only turned on when you are present in the space. Assume you utilise the same model of fan in your bedroom (5 hours) and living room (8 hours)

utensil: a ceiling fan
Watts in question: 75
13 hours are used each day.
975 watt-hours per day are equal to 75 watts multiplied by 13 hours.
975 watt-hours daily divided by 1000 is 9.75 kWh daily
30 days in a month times 9.75 kWh per day is 292 kWh per month.
You have to pay $44 a month to run that fan at an average cost of 15 cents per kWh.

So obviously from this? It’s cheaper to run a fan than an AC.

However, a fan can only keep you cool to a certain extent. For instance, a fan actually makes you feel hotter after the temperature in your home reaches 95 degrees!

Conclusion: Is an Air Conditioner or Fan the Best Way to Cool Your Home?

Which is better for cooling—a fan or air conditioning? Apply both.

Adjust your thermostat to the summer cooling settings.
To generate a breeze in the space you are utilising, use a ceiling fan or portable fan.
When leaving the room, turn off the fan. Your home’s air is cooled via air conditioning. Only the person in the room is cooled by a fan due to evaporation. Therefore, turn it off when you’re done.

How Long Does it Take to Cool a House from 80° to 72°?

Bonus material! You should set your thermostat so that your HVAC system doesn’t run as long if you want to reduce the cost of your electricity bill. Here’s a method for staying cool in your house while using less electricity.

Let’s assume that when you are away from home, your residence is kept at a temperature of 80 degrees. When you arrive home, it will take 2 hours and 24 minutes to raise your temperature to 72 degrees.

A better strategy? Reduce the temperature on your thermostat from 72 to 76. Use a ceiling fan to stay cool after that. The wind chill impact of your fan will make it feel 4 degrees cooler, or like it is 72 degrees outside, according to Energy.gov.

At order to save electricity in a home office, we put that to the test. Our staff member had to fetch a sweater because the ceiling fan was directly over the desk and the temperature was 76 degrees.

What would it mean if your home was cooled to 76 degrees rather than 72? significant energy savings. As stated above, it would take 2 hours and 24 minutes to reduce the temperature of your home from 80 to 72 degrees. if the temperature is set at 76 degrees? The time frame is only 72 minutes.

Half the time, that is. And it will cost significantly less to cool your house. Use a fan to create an evaporative breeze after the temperature in the room reaches 76 degrees.