Tech
5 Reasons Why You Need Ceiling Fans
Whether you want to live more sustainably or cut your heating or cooling costs, a ceiling fan could be the answer. Ceiling fans are great for keeping both indoor and outdoor spaces comfortable without driving up heating and cooling costs or using a lot of electricity.
Ceiling fans in a home move air around enough to significantly reduce your reliance on your HVAC system. Plus, they can look stylish and many come with built-in light fixtures. Here’s what ceiling fans can do for you.
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1) Save on Heating and Cooling Costs
Air conditioning is a big energy suck. The higher you turn up the air, the more money you’re going to spend. A window air conditioner costs about $50 a month to run, while a whole-house central air unit costs about $129 a month. By contrast, a ceiling fan costs just $1.20 a month to run.
You can use your ceiling fans to save a lot of money during periods when temperatures aren’t extreme. Then, when it’s hotter outside and you need to rely on your A/C to keep your home comfortable, you can set your thermostat about four degrees higher than your desired temperature and save on cooling costs.
2) Stay Cool in the Summer and Warm in the Winter
Ceiling fans keep you cool in the summer by creating a breeze that blows directly downward and produces a wind-chill effect. In the winter, you can reverse the direction of your ceiling fan’s blades so they push the warm air that rises to your ceiling back down to the floor, where it can keep you more comfortable. In the summer, you should set your fan blades to spin counterclockwise. There should be a switch on the side of your fan’s motor housing that controls the direction of your fan blades.
3) Save Your Floor Space
Floor fans can have a lot of the same benefits as ceiling fans, but you need to find a place on the floor to put them. Ceiling fans don’t take up floor space, so you have more room for furniture or just to move around. Ceiling fans also don’t kick up pet hair, dust, and other debris that might be on the floor, like some styles of floor fans can do. They can move a larger quantity of air, they’re usually a lot quieter to operate, and they last for years and years.
4) Enjoy Ambient Light
You can feel more comfortable in your home with ceiling fans in all your most commonly used living areas, and you don’t have to give up your ceiling light fixtures to do it. You can buy ceiling fans in many different styles with lights included. Choose chandelier fans, cage fans, vertical blade fans, or more traditional fan designs. Some ceiling fans come with wall controls so you can turn on the fan and lights from across the room. Smart controls are also an option on many ceiling fans with lights, so you can control your fan and lights from your smartphone. Of course, you can also use the wall switch and pull chains to control your lights and fan. You can even get ceiling fans with dimmable lights – although you shouldn’t put a standard dimmer switch on a ceiling fan, but should instead buy a fan with different light settings or install a dimmer switch intended for use with ceiling fans.
5) Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
Ceiling fans use significantly less energy than air conditioners, so they’re the obvious choice when it comes to reducing your carbon footprint. A window air conditioner needs about 1.2 kilowatts to run, while a central air conditioner needs 3 kilowatts. A ceiling fan uses just 30 watts, just a fraction of the amount of energy to run your air conditioner. You can keep your thermostat set several degrees higher in the summer and a few degrees lower in the winter and save up to 10 percent on your heating and cooling costs while living more sustainably.
Ceiling fans can really take your home to the next level when it comes to comfort. The breezes they create keep your home from getting stuffy, and keep things cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Ceiling fans can look stylish and sophisticated in a home, and they can help you live more sustainably, too. They’re so cheap to operate and easy to install, it would be silly not to put one in.
Check out: Here's Why Every Indian Household Needs a Wall Mount Fan