How Much Electricity Does a Fan Use? (Ceiling Fan or Box Fan)
As much as we love the comfort, safety and entertainment our electricity brings us, we’ve all experienced the frustration of opening a summer electric bill and feeling shocked by the amount we owe. If you’re someone who carefully turns off all the lights when you leave home and before bed, what’s making your bill spike?
More often than not, your heating, air conditioning and ventilation (HVAC) system is driving up your home’s energy usage. It takes lots of energy to control the temperature inside your home when the weather outside is extremely hot or cold.
As the biggest energy user in most households, your HVAC system accounts for about half of your home’s total energy usage. So how can you avoid driving up your energy costs in the summer when you need to cool down your home for comfort and safety?
The simplest way to make it easier for your HVAC system to keep your home cool and comfortable for less may surprise you: fans! In this article, you’ll learn how energy-efficient fans can be strategically utilized throughout your home to help you stay cool and save on your monthly energy bill.
Ceiling Fans
Most homes have at least one ceiling fan, and because of this familiarity, you may not even think twice when you flip the switch and leave the fan running all day. However, if used improperly, ceiling fans can actually increase your bill.
How Does a Ceiling Fan Work?
Ceiling fans are mounted to your ceiling and use a small motor to rotate, sending cool air out and downward around your room. Because of this, ceiling fans might create a more immediate, noticeable change of temperature in the rooms they’re installed in, making them an energy-efficient way to cool stuffy or hot rooms.
How Much Electricity Does a Ceiling Fan Use?
Ceiling fans come in a variety of wattages, but a standard 48-inch model uses about 75 watts per hour on average. This would cost you about $0.01 per hour, or $6 per month if you leave your ceiling fan on 24/7 all month.
The speed and duration of your ceiling fan also impact how much energy it uses. As a rule of thumb, you should use your ceiling fan at the lowest comfortable setting.
This will ensure that you do not overuse the fan. Additionally, you should not leave your ceiling fan running when you are no longer in a room. Since they work so quickly, there is usually no reason to keep it on, with the exception of extremely hot weather or when you’re using your ceiling fan to recirculate warm air when it’s cold outside.
If you’re replacing your old ceiling fans with new ones, make sure to look for Energy Star-certified energy-efficient models.
Alt text: A white room with large windows, black ceiling beams, and a large ceiling fan.
Are Ceiling Fans Cheaper Than Air Conditioning?
Ceiling fans are a budget-friendly way to keep your home cool during warm weather. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, the average 48-inch ceiling fan costs about $0.01 per hour to operate while a 2.5-ton central air conditioner with a Seer 16 rating would cost about $0.23 per hour, depending on the square footage of your home.
This means that even if you left a ceiling fan running 24/7, it would cost $6.50 per month to operate, compared to $162 per month to run your air conditioner 24/7.
The key to using a ceiling fan to decrease the amount you spend on your air conditioning is to use your fans as supplemental tools. Running fans in your home during hot weather will allow you to set your HVAC system’s thermostat a few degrees higher without sacrificing comfort.
When you consider factors such as price, installation, maintenance and energy consumption, ceiling fans are significantly more budget-friendly than just blasting the air conditioner by itself.
Box Fans
If you do not have many ceiling fans in your home or if you prefer a more direct cooling effect, try using box fans! Box fans are affordable and can be found at most home improvement, convenience or grocery stores.
What Is a Box Fan and How Does It Work?
Picture a fan in your head. Did you imagine a box fan? As one of the most common types of fans, box fans are an accessible, budget-friendly option—and they’re useful for more than just Darth Vader impressions. They can also help you stay cool and save on energy costs.
Box fans suck in air from one side and blow out cooler air from the other side. Many are stationary and provide direct, cool airflow, which means they work best when you point them at a couch, bed, workout equipment or workspace. However, they’re less effective at cooling down a large space. If you want to directly cool a specific area or feel more comfortable as you work, box fans are an excellent option for this purpose. They’re also a good choice in rooms that don’t have ceiling fans.
How Much Does It Cost to Run a Box Fan?
Depending on the model and size of your fan, it will use different amounts of power. The average 20-inch box fan uses about 75 watts per hour (.075 kWh) on full speed.
At around $0.01 per hour to operate, a box fan would cost you about $6.50 per month to power around the clock for a whole month here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This makes box fans an energy-efficient choice to cool your home, since you can raise the temperature on your thermostat a few degrees without experiencing reduced comfort.
Like most home appliances, you can seek out energy-efficient models in order to minimize operation cost.
Are Box Fans Cheaper Than Air Conditioning?
Box fans are significantly cheaper than using air conditioning (AC). In Chattanooga, Tennessee, the average 20-inch box fan costs about $0.01 per hour to operate while a 2.5-ton central air conditioner with a Seer 16 rating costs about $0.23 per hour, depending on the square footage of your home. This means that even if you left a box fan running 24/7, it would cost about $6.50 per month to operate, compared to $162 per month to run your air conditioner 24/7.
Although box fans likely won’t be enough to keep your entire home comfortable during extremely hot weather, they can be used to supplement your AC, especially if you don’t have ceiling fans in your home. If placed strategically in your most used, warmest rooms, you might be able to keep your thermostat a few degrees higher, and keep your energy bill lower than if you were relying on AC alone.
Choosing the Right Way to Cool Your Home
Since every home is different and every person has different comfort levels, the type of fan that helps you save the most depends on your preferences. Consider the following when planning your fan-cooling strategy:
- Your local climate.
- Your home’s square footage.
- How many ceiling fans you have.
- Whether your family members are sensitive to warm or cool temperatures.
- How much white noise you can handle, as fans are often louder than AC and the sound could impact your family’s quality of life.
If you’re using fans to lower your energy bill, remember these tips to save as much energy as possible:
- Place your fans in your warmest rooms where you spend the most time, and turn them off when you leave.
- Use your fan at the lowest comfortable power setting.
- While the fans are running, set your thermostat to the highest temperature setting that you still find comfortable.
- In areas with hot summers, such as Chattanooga, Tennessee, fans may not provide enough cooling to keep you comfortable, but they can be used alongside AC so that you don’t have to run your HVAC as much.
- Ceiling fans provide cool air to a wider area. Use ceiling fans in larger rooms or spaces and turn them off when you leave the room.
- Box fans provide direct cooling to a small area. Use them to cool down a small room or a specific space.
- If your box fan has an oscillating option, you can use it to cool down larger spaces.
- Watch this quick video on how to reverse your ceiling fans seasonally to save even more.
Use the tips above to create your home’s energy-efficiency cooling strategy. That way, you save more on your energy costs while staying safe and comfortable.
Want to learn more about how you can optimize your usage to reduce your bill? Your EPB Energy ProsSM are here to help EPB customers at no cost. Schedule a free, 30-minute EPB Home Energy CheckupSM or a 30-minute phone consultation. Learn more at epb.com/energypros.
Should You Dim Your Lights to Save Energy?
This is one of the best solutions to help you to save money at home or where you work every day. You will use less energy from your lights, and you will have more control over the kind of lighting that is being used in each room. You might also avoid health concerns like glare that causes eye strain and migraines or headaches.
If you can’t change to dimmer lights, you can also save money by turning off the lights in rooms that are not in use. There is no need to waste power by lighting up rooms that aren’t being used, and you can save a lot of money each month just by remembering to turn lights off when you leave a room.
Remember that there is no reason to install a dimmer switch if you just want to turn the lights off instead of lowering the brightness. In that case, you can skip buying a dimmer switch.
Always make sure that you check that the bulbs that you have installed in your lights are compatible with a dimmer switch. Most new lightbulbs will be able to be used in this way, but that is not true of every single style of lighting or some LED bulbs. Installing dimmer switches is a simple way to help save on power, but you should not install these switches if you are not using the right bulbs for this style of switch.
