Saving with Ceiling Fans

Ceiling fans can help keep you comfortable in both hot and cold weather, while reducing your energy consumption and saving you valuable dollars. But you have to know how to use them right to get the most efficiency. Follow these tips and saving money and energy will be a breeze!

Turn blades in the right direction. The direction your fan's blades turn is the most important aspect of ceiling fan efficiency. In the summer, you want the blades to turn in the direction that will force air down (on most fans this will be counter-clockwise, but the slope of the blades determines whether clockwise or counter-clockwise is appropriate). In the winter, reverse the direction of the blades so the fan will push warmer air trapped between the blades and the ceiling down into the room. As long as the speed is kept low, air won't blow over the people in the room, so it won't feel drafty.

Don't cool an empty room. The way a fan works in cooling mode is it forces air down and blows it over the people in a room. The wind chill created by the air blowing over the people makes them feel cooler, meaning you can either turn off your air conditioner or at least set the temperature a bit higher. Since fans use less energy than air conditioners, you'll save a bit on your electic bill. But a fan does not drop the actual temperature in the room. So, if no one is a room, no one is getting the benefit of the wind chill, and you are simply using energy to run the fan. So turn off a fan in a room that's unoccupied.

Buy Energy Star. Any ceiling fan is cheaper to operate than your air conditioner, but Energy Star-qualified fans will save you even more. The Energy Star program claims that fans with the Energy Star label are 50 percent more efficient than conventional fans. They can cost more up front, but over time, savings will outpace the initial increase in cost.

Go light on lights. If you buy a ceiling fan with a light fixture, use energy-efficient bulbs. Compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs fit in ceiling fan fixtures just as they would in any other light socket in your home. They are more expensive than incandescent bulbs, but they last longer and use only a third of the energy of traditional bulbs, so you'll pay less to operate them and replace them less often.

Size matters. Short or thin fan blades will not be as efficient at moving air around as longer, thicker blades. The size of the blades must be a match for the unit's motor, so don't buy a fan with a small motor and small blades and simply replace the blades with large, long ones, but don't buy a fan simply for style, only to find out it's not powerful enough to cool you. Function is as important as fashion.

Don't worry about blade number. Most residential fans come with four or five blades, though occasionally some designs have three or six. Does the number of blades affect efficiency? Nah. The number of blades is primarily a design factor. Efficiency is based on the design of the blades themselves (see the last paragraph), the slope of the blades, the motor speed and proper installation. So, you can go with appearance on this one.

Frugal Energy

Frugal Household

Jump from Ceiling Fans to the Laughing Wallet home page