<p>I am trying to decide whether to install ceiling fans in a house. If I decided to do so, I will purchase Energy Star ceiling fans. What I can’t figure out is whether my overall electricity bill will increase, stay the same, or decrease. Do any of you with ceiling fans know whether your electric bills have increased or decreased (all other things being equal) because of the ceiling fans?</p>
<p>BTW, cost of the ceiling fans is not an issue. I am trying to minimize electricity consumption (aka coal burning, etc).</p>
<p>I use my ceiling fan at night during the winter and summer…(the gentle hum of the motor also helps drown out ambient noise to help me sleep) you can reverse the rotation (summer down force draft to cool you, winter up force draft to displace warmer air near the ceiling.</p>
<p>I haven’t noticed a change in electricity costs…too hard to say since I usually don’t run my central AC at night and with increasing cost of electricity.</p>
<p>That being said, if you do run a central AC at night, and can get by with using a good ceiling fan…you should save on energy costs, because you’re just cooling the room you’re using. My guess is that ceiling fan motors use less electricity than AC compressors.</p>
<p>Another option you might consider, especially if you live in the West, is an attic/whole house fan. When it cools down at night, open some windows, turn on the house fan for a couple hours and blast out all the hot air from your home while sucking in cooler outside air…quite efficient.</p>
<p>We’ve found it helps to increase the effect of ac during the summer. 1 large wall unit, not central air for first floor. Fan is in kitchen, and room does not feel comfortable without ceiling fan running.</p>
<p>We keep ceiling fan on constantly at medium or low speed from end of May through early September.</p>
<p>If there are cathedral ceilings, a low speed reversed fan will have a marked effect in the winter to balance out room temps. Remember, hot air rises, and there can be as much as a ten degree difference from ceiling height to floor level.</p>
<p>As suggested, the whole house fan is a great idea, but in areas with both high heat and high humidity simultaneously running it is counterproductive. We’ve used our whole house fan for cooling provided the humidity levels are acceptable.</p>
<p>I run my ceiling fans 24/7 yr round. By doing so my AC does not kick in as often. I lost my family room ceiling fan last yr in Aug, my bill went up @ 50 for the month since the Ac wouldn’t kick off, and we are a dual zone. BTW the fan was only gone for @ 1 wk</p>
<p>The most important thing is to get a fan with large enough blades to circulate for the room…make sure to check the size of the blade, 5 is also better than 4!</p>
<p>Also I would suggest to get an attic fan placed in the house if you do not have one now. Attic fans will save the life of your roof, and will reduce your electric bill immensely. Our neighbors in VA didn’t have one and were paying 500 a mo., compared to my 200. The reason why is that the attic fan will be set at a temp and will go on, think about it heat rises, so if the attic is at 78, then the whole house continues to cool, but if you don’t have that the attic becomes too hot and your 2nd zone works overtime!</p>
<p>This is important…don’t get some cheap contractor special. They don’t move as much air, don’t last, and are much more noisy. I suggest Casablanca models…more expensive but will last a long time.</p>
<p>And for the uninitiated, there are differences between an attic (ventilating fan) and a whole house fan. I’m sure someone will require clarification.</p>
<p>Attic ventilating fans are small units, mounted either through the roof or at gable vents and are themostatically controlled. They are designed to turn on at a specific attic temp, and draw outside air through the opposite gable(s), ridge or soffit vents, cool the attic space and shut off at the low temp thermostat preset.</p>
<p>Whole house fans are designed to draw outside air through the living space, are normally through the ceiling or gable mounted and include automatic louvered panels that open when the fan is turned on. These units move far more air than a ventilating fan, and are correspondingly larger and have a bigger “footprint”. These are most often controlled by a manual switch, but can also be thermostatically controlled to operate automatically.</p>
<p>One caveat for whole house fans is the necessity to insulate the louvered panel area in the late fall so as to provide an effective insulation/air infiltration barrier during winter months to avoid heat loss.</p>
<p>We’re in Southern California, and love our whole house fans. As UCBChemEgrad said, they do a great job of cooling down the house without turning on the AC. They work best if you are out and about during the day and come home late enough to notice a difference between cooler outside air and indoor cooped-up hot air. They’re also great at keeping a breeze going during the night. That assumes it’s not installed right near bedrooms, since they are LOUD. violada, I didn’t know they can be controlled by a thermostat. That might work best for people with transom windows or a multi-story building, since you need to have (a) window(s) open to pull in fresh air.</p>
<p>Installation is nontrivial (generally framed into the ceiling) but do-able by a dedicated DIYer. We paid to have ours installed, and we’ve more than paid for that by utility savings. </p>
<p>We have also learned that any helium balloons must be put in lockdown prior to turning on the whole house fan. :)</p>
<p>My sister in OH has a whole has fan, and I personally hate it…very loud when it starts up.</p>
<p>I was speaking of an attic fan that costs @400, it is designed to keep the attic cooler. By keeping the attic cooler it also saves your roof from heat and the 2nd floor is cooler since heat rises.</p>
<p>In our house we have fans in every bedroom and the family room.</p>
<p>I do not suggest placing one in the kitchen work area because as a woman who works in the area, it becomes grimy from grease, and it is typically going to be close to standing height (older homes have an 8 ft ceiling --flush mt puts you at 7 ft. —6 ft people find it a little to close for comfort)</p>
<p>We have ceiling fans in all the bedrooms, LR, and porches. My heating/AC guy told me to keep them on 24/7 (in the used rooms) all year. He says it reduces energy cost by feeling cooler with AC set higher and circulating the warm air in the winter. I don’t have any concrete “facts” as I have never had them all off for a month and then all on in a similar temperature month.</p>
<p>Generally, yes. Ceiling fans typically will decrease the amount of time the A/C is on and when the A/C IS on, the thermostat can typically be set to a higher setting due to the ‘wind chill factor’ of the fan.</p>
<p>I only turn mine on when I think I need them - i.e. not 24/7. I can’t think of any reason to always have them on. I live in a relatively temperate climate however.</p>
<p>Just remember to turn them off when you leave the room. They don’t cool the air, just make you feel cooler because air is moving (wind chill). If nobody is there to be chilled, it’s like leaving a light bulb on in every room.</p>
<p>We got an roof exhaust fan that is solar powered. Low speed, can’t hear it, we assume it works, does work when I on the roof (but you never know, the tree in the forest issue), keeps house cooler. $400 bucks installed 2005</p>
<p>The XPDF allows for that, the only problem is that a person would be required to use 2 of them at the fan/light box in which they would not fit in the box, and still seperate switches would need to be installed at the switch level. If you can fit two of them in your box, then you could leave the main switch to the fan on all the time and install a stick-a-switch next to it.</p>
<p>The difference between what cielling fan manufacturers offer and what is availble with X-10 remote modules, is that the manufacturer remote requires the switch to be constant on, and they usually offer the light at 100% or 0% and 3 speeds for the fan, in an easy to fit module.</p>
<p>X-10 offers 0-100% lighting and 0-100% fan speed, That is why they cannot create an all-in-one module, because it could possibly fry under the heat loads of lower fan speed and dimmed lighting.</p>
<p>If you have access to your attic or basement it is not that hard to upgrade to a 3-wire setup, all you need to do is locate the wire that goes from the switch to cieling box, and replace it with a 3-wire Romex. After that cut a hole for a double gang re-model box, split the black wire coming into the box between each switch by pig-tailing, connect the white wires, and grounds. finally connect a black wire to one switch and the red wire to the other switch.</p>
<p>One switch operates the light, the other operates the fan, they both can be controlled by X-10. </p>
<p>If OP isn’t concerned about cost, know that there are also solar powered attic fans out there that use hardly any electricity at all. Just one item to consider.</p>