Trying to save electricity here. Do you leave all of your ceiling fans on all day? (loft, house)

[titaniummd]

So as you know, I was looking into saving some electricity and lunch money. Thanks to Karla, I made an appointment for an Energy Audit from Clay Electric.

I have ceiling fans throughout the house and I have the air conditioning people coming in on Wednesday to 'balance' the 2 zone air conditioning.

My questions are these: Do you leave your fans on all of the time? Or do you just use the fan when you are in the room? If the fans are running all the time, are you not taking a load off the air conditioning unit by cooling it?

I saw this article but I was wondering what Floridians do:
ENERGY BOOMER: CEILING FANS

[David in JAX]

Just use the fan when you are in the room. An A/C unit and a ceiling fan cool by two completely different means. The A/C uses the refrigerant cycle to "capture" heat from the air and then expel it outside your home. A ceiling fan cools by rushing air past your body and helping circulate the air. The ceiling fan does not actually work by reducing your heat load. So, when you are not home the ceiling fan is just circulating air and actually using electricity when it is not needed.

The best way to cut down your electricity bill is to ensure that your attic is properly insulated. The next best way is to use energy efficient windows and A/C systems, but that may not be practical since it’s not every day a person just goes out and gets new windows or A/C units.

[mawipafl]

Having somewhat of an open floor plan, we keep our ceiling fans on all the time. Because of the constant air flow, we rarely need to run the AC in Zone 1 (main floor). But the bonus room (Zone 2) over the center of the house has the AC all day even with the ceiling fan running -- the window wall, although tinted, generates a ton of heat up there.

However, I'm not so sure we're doing it right -- our electric bill for last month was $286 (3000 sq ft), which tells me the air from the un-AC'd first floor is going up the stairwell to the bonus room and adding to the heat; thus Zone 2 is working overtime trying to cool the downstairs as well.

(The AC unit doesn't seem to run 24/7, so we're also wondering if there's an adjustment needed on our electric water heater. Or we need an audit to make sure we're properly insulated. Or both. Ah the wonderfulness of home ownership.)

Regardless of the above scenarios, we'll be keeping our fans on in every room at least on low -- even with AC running it feels stuffy, and the fans keep the air moving throughout the house.

[Karla with a K]

Because of our dogs hanging out in different rooms we leave them all going in the master bedroom & great room all day
the great room gets turned off at night because everyone is in the master.
We don't have kids or use the additional bedrooms so they are hardly ever turned on.
I also had a ceiling fan put in the master bath and have found that makes a world of difference. How many times have you either dragged a fan in there or wish you had one ?

titaniummd I am glad you got the apt now by 2 zones do you have an upstairs?
My sister has a bonus room and realized that the thermostat for the bonus room was in the stairwell which is one of the reasons it seemed to run all the time. They are having it moved into the bonus room. Makes you wonder at times what certain builders were thinking.

[David in JAX]

I don't think $286 for 3000 square feet in August is very bad at all. It actually sounds pretty good.

If I’m envisioning your home correctly, there is a bonus room above a garage or another room and the hip roof is one basic level. The bonus room is more than likely hotter than the rest of the house because it is picking up the heat load coming up through the ceiling of the first floor room / garage and there is less separation between the room and the roof compared to the lower level. It’s always difficult to cool a bonus room in August no matter what. Normal home A/C units have a cooling range of only 15-20 degrees. So, when it’s August and 95 degrees outside, you will never hit the 75 degree mark and the unit will run continuously. It sounds pretty normal for a bonus room in Florida.

As far as the ceiling fans go, you won’t remove any actual heat by running them when you are not home (or when you are home for that matter) but you will get better air circulation when you are home. The actual removal of heat happens at your air handling unit so there is really no point in running the fans when you are not at home.

[titaniummd]

Originally Posted by Karla with a K

titaniummd I am glad you got the apt now by 2 zones do you have an upstairs?
My sister has a bonus room and realized that the thermostat for the bonus room was in the stairwell which is one of the reasons it seemed to run all the time. They are having it moved into the bonus room. Makes you wonder at times what certain builders were thinking.

The house is a one story 3400 sq foot, a 2 car and a 1 car garage with a bonus room upstairs. Our bonus is above the 3 bedrooms on one side of the house. The thermostat is in the bonus. I run the bonus at 80 degrees and only when I have to go up there do I turn it down or run the fan.

David, that is reassuring to know about the cost. I was wondering if it was a Clay county versus Duval county thing since my friend's house ran cheaper by $100. That's a good tip regarding air temperature outside versus what the unit can compensate to make the house comfortable.

I was having a debate with my wife and based upon what I have read, she is correct (again! oh, fiddlesticks! hahahahahaha).

[mawipafl]

David in Jax - totally appreciate your comments! Makes me feel better knowing $286 isn't wacky. And yes, our house config is hip roof with bonus roof above the center of the house, so it's getting whacked by heat from all sides.

Certainly, you're right, that fans don't remove the heat nor humidity, but the air circulation does help for comfort for us and the pets.

Karla with a K ... I'm chuckling because the last fan we're installing is in the bathroom. The moisture assimilated into the air from the shower goes right into a peak in the room and gets "stuck" there. We've purchased an indoor/outdoor tiny fan to replace a can light in the peak to get the air moving so that the air can flow better and disperse the humidity.

I'm also chuckling about "what certain builders were thinking" because we contacted the original electrician to ask him some questions, and he passed the buck to the interior designer as the culprit for putting some odd things in this house. <sigh with a laugh>

[deano 177]

you should treat the fan as any other energy using item. If you are not in the room, turn it off.

If you are really trying to save energy you should start replacing your light bulbs with flurescent ones. you should see some gain with that. also get a timer for the water heater and have a qualified person install it.

[dadood]

Hi, I have a bonus room upstairs in a 1.5 story house. My house has a single AC unit that is zoned. There are 2 thermostats (1 up, 1 down). I have a hard time cooling the bonus room. I have installed solar screens on all my windows. The problem is....the bonus room is open to below in a loft style manner. I believe most of the cool air is lost this way. The only way I found to cool this room faster is by placing a circulatory floor fan at the base of the stairs. This helps push the cool air upwards, however, it's noisy, and I don't know if this raises my bill or not. I pretty much keep the circ. fan on 24/7 because I use the bonus room as an office (I work from home). Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations?

[Karla with a K]

dadood
does the sun set on the windows in the bonus room ? we have that problem with our great room the back is all glass and guess where the sun sets.
I shut the blinds and the curtains once the sun reaches that side of the house. We also have the solar film on the windows.

You might also want to check to make sure the vents are calibrated to make sure there is a good airflow
also make sure the direction of your ceiling fan is going in the correct direction

You can also have them come do a free energy audit they measure the temp of the air coming out of the vents and will let you know if there is anything you can do other than the suggestions you have read here .
karla
karla