Achieve Energy Efficiency By Using Ceiling Fans As Well As Air Conditioning

According to the New York Times, air conditioning for our homes and businesses costs America billions of dollars in electricity bills annually. Air conditioning also uses a large percentage of the total energy consumption of a home. When families consider ways to save money on their summer home energy costs by developing an energy savings plan, effective and efficient use of their home’s A/C system must head the list.

The best air conditioning system to have is an ENERGY STAR® rated High Efficiency Air Conditioning System with a SEER® (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio) of 15 or more. If you are in the market for a new A/C, consider this when shopping for your unit. Saving money with your current system is possible also when you: set up the temperature on your thermostat (every degree over 78°F saves from seven to ten percent on your energy costs); when you leave home for several hours, set it up several more degrees; and when you install and use a programmable thermostat that will make the temperature adjustments for you automatically.

The New York Times also reports that central air conditioning costs approximately $130 each month on your utility bill. In contrast to the use of A/C for cooling, ceiling fans cost approximately $1.20 each month to cool your home. In milder and more moderate climates around the country, many homeowners can get through most of the spring and summer using only their ceiling fans to cool the interior of their home. The financial savings they realize from this are enormous.

In the hottest parts of the country, ceiling fans are still highly beneficial in terms of A/C money saving. When ceiling fans are used with central air conditioning, they enable homeowners to actually be able to set thermostat temperatures up as much as 12 degrees and still keep the home’s interior as cool as if only the A/C is being used. This is because the fans creates air flow that triggers evaporation from the skin of people in the rooms in which the fans are operating and cools them an additional four or five degrees. Just be sure to shut off the fans when leaving a room, as fans are not cooling the rooms. They only cool the people in them.

Ceiling fans are considered more effective than all other types of fans because the ceiling models effectively circulate a room’s air to create a draft throughout the whole room. They work best when their blades can be mounted from seven to nine feet above the level of the floor so your ceilings need to be at least eight feet high to use them effectively. Large fans move more air at a lower velocity and are therefore quieter and more efficient than smaller fan blades. The fan’s blades should circulate in a counter clockwise direction in the summertime.

When you develop a family Summer Energy Savings Plan, be sure to include the use of ceiling fans to help lower your Home Energy Costs. Ceiling fans cost only one cent per hour to use but cool very effectively.