Ceiling Fans and Energy Efficiency In Your Home

A Little Help for Your Air Conditioner

On days that aren’t too hot, stick to using your ceiling fans for as long as you can before turning on your air conditioner. Once you do turn on the A/C, don’t turn off the ceiling fan. A ceiling fan can make you feel around 4 to 5 degrees cooler, allowing you to raise your air conditioner’s thermostat temperature by the same amount with no loss of comfort.

For every degree you raise your A/C thermostat temperature, you can cut your cooling bills about 3 to 10 percent. Make sure the fan blades are set to spin counterclockwise as seen from below. Spinning in this direction, creates a cooling breeze downward over your skin. If the blades aren’t set correctly, look for a small switch on the motor housing to change the direction of the blades.

Comfort in Winter, Too

When the cooler winter weather moves in, set your fan blades to spin clockwise and run the fan on the lowest speed. When spinning this way, the blades create an updraft that pulls cool air from the lower part of the room toward the ceiling. This air pushes the warm air near the ceiling out towards the walls and down to where you are. The warm air in your room will circulate around you rather than pooling near the ceiling.

Maximizing Your Fan’s Efficiency

Fans make you feel more comfortable, but they don’t change the air temperature so they don’t help when you’re not in the room. To save energy, be sure to turn off the fan when you leave the room.

Also, to move air efficiently, your fan must be the right size for the room. For a room of less than 145 sq. ft., a 42-inch fan is enough. For a room size of up to 230 sq. ft., select a 50-inch fan.

Cool Connections, Inc. – Your Jacksonville, Florida HVAC Specialists

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Greater Jacksonville, Florida area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).

Cool Connections, Inc. is a locally owned and operated business. We have thousands of customers and the experience for HVAC service, repair, and installations for furnaces, heat pumps, air conditioning (AC), and air quality systems. Be sure to Contact Cool Connections, Inc. in Jacksonville, Florida for all your air conditioning and heating needs. (904) 908-5252