With summer in full swing and the temperatures rising, a lot of folks are turning to their air conditioners to keep cool.
But you may be putting yourself at risk of higher energy bills and an overworked AC by simply sticking it in a window and turning it on.
Worse, you may be making the room less comfortable by causing a breeze that could cause you to feel colder. It begs the question:
Does putting a fan in front of an air conditioner help?
If you put a fan in front of an air conditioner, in theory, it ought to move hot air that is in the room up and out.
We’ve all heard it before: “Colder air sinks, while warmer air rises.” But, what does that have to do with running a fan in front of my air conditioner?
After all, aren’t air conditioners designed to keep the cold air inside? Most of the time, an air conditioner’s rear-end vents are designed to draw in warmer outside air and push it through the system so it can expel the hot, stale air.
While air conditioners are designed to have cool air come out of the top part of the unit, they don’t always do a great job, which can lead to uncomfortable rooms. A good way to fix this is to place a fan.
What are the pros and cons of using a fan in front of an air conditioner?
Fans and air conditioners are both designed to cool the air, but they each have their own pros and cons.
For example, air conditioners cool the air by pumping it through a coil of refrigerant, and then through a vent where the air is cooled by evaporation.
This makes the air conditioner the better option in most cases, because it is more efficient at removing heat from the air than a fan is. (In the case of evaporative coolers, a different type of air conditioning unit that also removes heat from air, the opposite is true.)
But is it a good idea?
Pros
There are two main pros:
- The first is that the fan will help keep the air moving, which can help reduce hot spots.
- The second is that the fan can help circulate the air from the air conditioner, making it more efficient.
Cons
The main con is that the fan can increase the energy usage of your air conditioner. If you don’t have a programmable thermostat, the fan can’t turn on and off as needed, but if you have one, make sure it is set to “auto.”
Putting a fan in front of an air conditioner can save energy
Air conditioning units consume a lot of electricity. Even if you have a small room air conditioner, you are still using a lot of energy.
Putting a fan in front of an air conditioner can help because you are setting your AC unit in the lowest setting so it consumes less energy.
Read our in-depth article with sample computation of How Much Electricity Does an Aircon Use Philippines?
Fan alone can’t cool you down in most cases
When you consider the cost of running an air conditioner for a year, the cost may be a little high. In order to turn down the cost and still have a cool house, you might want to consider running a fan.
There is a lot of debate about whether or not a fan can cool you down as much as an air conditioner can. The truth is they can’t in most cases.
However, if you turn your fan on in conjunction with your air conditioner, you can get much more out of your air conditioner.
Some people can’t afford an ac unit so they often use fan 24/.
While fans are a good way to stay cool during the summer, or to add a little breeze to your living room during the winter, fans mean spending more money on electricity.
This is because fans are meant to be run 24 hours a day, which is a lot more electricity than your average air conditioner.