During warmer weather, cooling savings become a priority. In the United States, the seasonal cost of indoor comfort all summer long varies from just under $100 up to more than $300, depending on your geographic locale, size of structure, and the efficiency and maintenance of your air conditioner. However, the cost of summer comfort need not be written in stone.
You can achieve cooling savings, and one good example of steps you can take to improve savings while enhancing indoor comfort is using ceiling fans. Introduced at the end of the 19th century, these graceful, slow-spinning fans were a must-have comfort accessory in American homes by the 1920s. Today, they’re just as relevant to both saving money and keeping you feeling cooler as they work in conjunction with your cooling system. Here are some basics of how ceiling fans get the job done at a lower cost:
- Ceiling fans don’t actually reduce a room’s air temperature. Instead, the gentle downward flow of air circulation increases the perception of coolness in humans and pets. It’s basically a warm-weather version of the chill factor we experience outdoors on a windy winter day: Moving air passing over the skin evaporates perspiration, accelerating the natural process of heat loss from your body.
- As an adjunct to your cooling system, ceiling fans can make a room feel several degrees cooler than the actual temperature without lowering the AC thermostat setting. While the immediate effect is greater comfort for occupants, the longer-term benefit is lower cooling costs.
- Today’s high-efficiency ceiling fans consume only a fraction of the electricity required by a central air conditioner. Because the ceiling fan makes an air-conditioned room feel cooler without running the AC longer, you enjoy a more comfortable indoor environment without higher energy costs.
- In winter, fan rotation can be reversed to push rising warm air that typically accumulates at the ceiling back down into the room to enhance heating comfort. This can result in shorter furnace cycles and lower heating costs as well.
For details about more savings while staying more comfortable this summer, talk to the experts at Jackson & Sons.
