Air con vs ceiling fan

[scubascuba3]

Any knowledgeable people out there know what uses the most electricity, air con or ceiling fan? I'm assuming it's AC but thought I'd check.

Move to boring questions section if you like.

[CharlieH]

As you are specific about electricity, lets move it there.

MOVED

[scubascuba3]

As you are specific about electricity, lets move it there.

MOVED

Will be a miracle if anyone reads it in there

[transam]

AC....................sure..............Ceiling fans just move air...............

[ukrules]

LOL, large complicated A/C unit with power hungry compressor in addition to various fan systems inside and out vs a simple ceiling fan...

[scubascuba3]

LOL, large complicated A/C unit with power hungry compressor in addition to various fan systems inside and out vs a simple ceiling fan...

Sounds conclusive although I was hoping a cheap Charlie might have analyzed it.

[gerry123]

A C 4 SURE

[n210mp]

Not so sure

If you consider that there is a comfort element in all of this that should be considered in the assessment and it could be that the AC is the better option.

Once the temp has been reached by the AC then it doesn't take much Electric to maintain that setting especially if it is 25C (proved to be the most economic setting by pure volume if not statistically proved)

After the set temp has been reached by the AC then the AC room fan is the most comfortable (for me at least) the room ceiling fan leads me to dry mouth syndrome and is much louder then the AC fan and less direct in your face type of thing.

[Anthony5]

I have Daikin inverter aircons in the bedrooms, which are used every night and set at 26°.

During the months December 2013 and January-February 2014, it the temperature at night would here go to 14°, hence for 3 months I didn't use any aircon but had the ceiling fan at the lowest speed instead.

During those 3 months there was little to no difference in my average electricity bill.

[cmcom]

I have Daikin inverter aircons in the bedrooms, which are used every night and set at 26°.

During the months December 2013 and January-February 2014, it the temperature at night would here go to 14°, hence for 3 months I didn't use any aircon but had the ceiling fan at the lowest speed instead.

During those 3 months there was little to no difference in my average electricity bill.

That is interesting

[sdanielmcev]

Rough estimates:

Central air 3500 watts

Large window unit 1440 watts

Medium '' '' 900 watts

Small " " 500 watts

Watts per hour is how you pay for electricity. Most household fans are 50 watts and below

[Naam]

Not so sure

If you consider that there is a comfort element in all of this that should be considered in the assessment and it could be that the AC is the better option.

Once the temp has been reached by the AC then it doesn't take much Electric to maintain that setting especially if it is 25C (proved to be the most economic setting by pure volume if not statistically proved)

After the set temp has been reached by the AC then the AC room fan is the most comfortable (for me at least) the room ceiling fan leads me to dry mouth syndrome and is much louder then the AC fan and less direct in your face type of thing.

experts... they walk among us!

[KittenKong]

I have my aircon set to around 28 degrees but I also run two ceiling fans 24/7 on the lowest setting possible. This gives a very slight air movement in the room which increases the sensation of coolness and also keeps the temperature fairly even around the whole room, without making me feel like I'm sitting in a wind tunnel which I hate. I cant stand it in restaurants and bars when they put a floor or wall fan on me full blast, especially the oscillating sort.

Actual energy use for a ceiling fan seems to be around 50-100 watts, though I suppose that the speed setting will have some effect on that. And of course this will be the same all the time it is on, unlike an aircon where the compressor unit will work in bursts and will have less energy consumption when the compressor is not running.

http://energyusecalculator.com/electricity_ceilingfan.htm

[daveAustin]

Aircons draw around 1000 watts, ceiling fans draw around 50 watts. Make of that what you will. Indeed, the aircon's 'blower' uses similar, or less, juice to a ceiling fan, but inevitably you will be spurring on the compressor to bring down the temp or there would be no point in having the aircon in the first place. There is no dressing it up and anyone that says otherwise likely has little birds buzzing around their head.

[wayned]

My aircon is rated at1200 watts. If it was running 24 hours a day with the compressor running all of the time it would use 864KWH/ month. At my current PEA rate it would cost 3983 baht. 1.2 x 24 x 30 x 4.62 = 3983.

My ceiling fan is rated at 75watts. If it was running 24 hours a day it would use 56KWH/month. At my current rate it would cost 288 baht. 0.075 x 24 x 30 x 4.61 = 288.

Of course the compressor should not run 24 hours a day and most likely neither the fan or aircon would be on 24 hours a day., and the charge for power usage is on a sliding scale, the more you use the higher the rate.

From the above you can see that"my" aircon would cost 14 times as much to operate than my ceiling fan.

I'm really bored as I've been waiting for a Thai to pick me up since 0900 and it's now 1130. I don't believed I answered this.

[NeverSure]

My aircon is rated at1200 watts. If it was running 24 hours a day with the compressor running all of the time it would use 864KWH/ month. At my current PEA rate it would cost 3983 baht. 1.2 x 24 x 30 x 4.62 = 3983.

My ceiling fan is rated at 75watts. If it was running 24 hours a day it would use 56KWH/month. At my current rate it would cost 288 baht. 0.075 x 24 x 30 x 4.61 = 288.

Of course the compressor should not run 24 hours a day and most likely neither the fan or aircon would be on 24 hours a day., and the charge for power usage is on a sliding scale, the more you use the higher the rate.

From the above you can see that"my" aircon would cost 14 times as much to operate than my ceiling fan.

I'm really bored as I've been waiting for a Thai to pick me up since 0900 and it's now 1130. I don't believed I answered this.

I'm going to report this. It breaks the forum rule of writing in a foreign language.

[Pomthai]

I've lived in the tropics for the past 20 years, the last 10 of them in here in Phuket. I still don't understand how people are comfortable with a setting of 26C. No wonder your electricity bills are low, AC isn't going to be doing very much work at all with that high a set point. 21-22 for sleeping and 23-24 during the day is a more realistic comfort level for me at least. Maybe its an english tthing, were more accustomed to being cold and therefore prefer a cooler climate overall.

[Naam]

I've lived in the tropics for the past 20 years, the last 10 of them in here in Phuket. I still don't understand how people are comfortable with a setting of 26C. No wonder your electricity bills are low, AC isn't going to be doing very much work at all with that high a set point. 21-22 for sleeping and 23-24 during the day is a more realistic comfort level for me at least. Maybe its an english tthing, were more accustomed to being cold and therefore prefer a cooler climate overall.

all my aircons are set to 26ºC but my electricity bills are not exactly low:

may..........20,747.-

june.........19,950.-

july...........20,683.-

august.....19,411.-

currency Thai Baht not Viet Nam Dong!

[Anthony5]

I've lived in the tropics for the past 20 years, the last 10 of them in here in Phuket. I still don't understand how people are comfortable with a setting of 26C. No wonder your electricity bills are low, AC isn't going to be doing very much work at all with that high a set point. 21-22 for sleeping and 23-24 during the day is a more realistic comfort level for me at least. Maybe its an english tthing, were more accustomed to being cold and therefore prefer a cooler climate overall.

all my aircons are set to 26ºC but my electricity bills are not exactly low:

may..........20,747.-

june.........19,950.-

july...........20,683.-

august.....19,411.-

currency Thai Baht not Viet Nam Dong!

Naam, without doubt TV member with the biggest carbon footprint.

Not something to be proud about.

[IMHO]

I've lived in the tropics for the past 20 years, the last 10 of them in here in Phuket. I still don't understand how people are comfortable with a setting of 26C. No wonder your electricity bills are low, AC isn't going to be doing very much work at all with that high a set point. 21-22 for sleeping and 23-24 during the day is a more realistic comfort level for me at least. Maybe its an english tthing, were more accustomed to being cold and therefore prefer a cooler climate overall.

all my aircons are set to 26ºC but my electricity bills are not exactly low:

may..........20,747.-

june.........19,950.-

july...........20,683.-

august.....19,411.-

currency Thai Baht not Viet Nam Dong!

Wow, and I thought we were big consumers - we average around 7K Baht +2/-1K, running 9 AC's (160K BTU total max. capacity) - obviously not even close to the capacity and/or duty cycle you are running.

Edited December 19, 2014 by IMHO

[Morakot]

This ceiling fan in my office has four settings; on the lowest it consumes 15 W/h and on the highest 80 W/h.

[transam]

I've lived in the tropics for the past 20 years, the last 10 of them in here in Phuket. I still don't understand how people are comfortable with a setting of 26C. No wonder your electricity bills are low, AC isn't going to be doing very much work at all with that high a set point. 21-22 for sleeping and 23-24 during the day is a more realistic comfort level for me at least. Maybe its an english tthing, were more accustomed to being cold and therefore prefer a cooler climate overall.

all my aircons are set to 26ºC but my electricity bills are not exactly low:

may..........20,747.-

june.........19,950.-

july...........20,683.-

august.....19,411.-

currency Thai Baht not Viet Nam Dong!

[Morakot]

all my aircons are set to 26ºC but my electricity bills are not exactly low:

may..........20,747.-

june.........19,950.-

july...........20,683.-

august.....19,411.-

I presume that does not include the power for the indoor ski slope! You run that on renewable?

[IMHO]

all my aircons are set to 26ºC but my electricity bills are not exactly low:

may..........20,747.-

june.........19,950.-

july...........20,683.-

august.....19,411.-

I presume that does not include the power for the indoor ski slope! You run that on renewable?

Waited for the footage of someone face planting and then getting smacked into the back wall, but it never happened

[Morakot]

all my aircons are set to 26ºC but my electricity bills are not exactly low:

may..........20,747.-

june.........19,950.-

july...........20,683.-

august.....19,411.-

I presume that does not include the power for the indoor ski slope! You run that on renewable?

Waited for the footage of someone face planting and then getting smacked into the back wall, but it never happened

555+ Only if the binding doesn't release you'll end up at the back. If it all goes well you end up continuously spinning around on the spot, as with increased speed the slope angle automatically increases. Lets wait for Naam to come back and he'll give us the relevant calculations.

Edited December 19, 2014 by Morakot

[Naam]

I've lived in the tropics for the past 20 years, the last 10 of them in here in Phuket. I still don't understand how people are comfortable with a setting of 26C. No wonder your electricity bills are low, AC isn't going to be doing very much work at all with that high a set point. 21-22 for sleeping and 23-24 during the day is a more realistic comfort level for me at least. Maybe its an english tthing, were more accustomed to being cold and therefore prefer a cooler climate overall.

all my aircons are set to 26ºC but my electricity bills are not exactly low:

may..........20,747.-

june.........19,950.-

july...........20,683.-

august.....19,411.-

currency Thai Baht not Viet Nam Dong!

Naam, without doubt TV member with the biggest carbon footprint.

Not something to be proud about.

stating facts has nothing to do with pride. i answered member Pomthai's comment

...AC isn't going to be doing very much work at all with that high a set point. 21-22 for sleeping and 23-24 during the day is a more realistic comfort level for me at least.

and if my present home was located in my home country Germany the carbon footprint would be much higher due to heating cost. our German home (size 2/3 of the Thai home) gobbled up heating oil equivalent to ~66,000 kWh p.a. whereas my present consumption in Thailand is a "mere" 37,000 kWh.

i am of course aware that people living in shoeboxes and saving electricity to buy more Chang or Leo would fall in with negative comments about my comfort level

[Naam]

I've lived in the tropics for the past 20 years, the last 10 of them in here in Phuket. I still don't understand how people are comfortable with a setting of 26C. No wonder your electricity bills are low, AC isn't going to be doing very much work at all with that high a set point. 21-22 for sleeping and 23-24 during the day is a more realistic comfort level for me at least. Maybe its an english tthing, were more accustomed to being cold and therefore prefer a cooler climate overall.

all my aircons are set to 26ºC but my electricity bills are not exactly low:

may..........20,747.-

june.........19,950.-

july...........20,683.-

august.....19,411.-

currency Thai Baht not Viet Nam Dong!

Wow, and I thought we were big consumers - we average around 7K Baht +2/-1K, running 9 AC's (160K BTU total max. capacity) - obviously not even close to the capacity and/or duty cycle you are running.

it's all a matter what area you are cooling and how many other power consuming gadgets are "contributing" to the consumption. aircon in my case is ~60% during the hot season dropping to ~45% during the "cool" season.

[IMHO]

I've lived in the tropics for the past 20 years, the last 10 of them in here in Phuket. I still don't understand how people are comfortable with a setting of 26C. No wonder your electricity bills are low, AC isn't going to be doing very much work at all with that high a set point. 21-22 for sleeping and 23-24 during the day is a more realistic comfort level for me at least. Maybe its an english tthing, were more accustomed to being cold and therefore prefer a cooler climate overall.

all my aircons are set to 26ºC but my electricity bills are not exactly low:

may..........20,747.-

june.........19,950.-

july...........20,683.-

august.....19,411.-

currency Thai Baht not Viet Nam Dong!

Wow, and I thought we were big consumers - we average around 7K Baht +2/-1K, running 9 AC's (160K BTU total max. capacity) - obviously not even close to the capacity and/or duty cycle you are running.

it's all a matter what area you are cooling and how many other power consuming gadgets are "contributing" to the consumption. aircon in my case is ~60% during the hot season dropping to ~45% during the "cool" season.

Where you are in TH also matters too, of course. AC constitutes the variable range of our bill - i.e. without it we get down to high 5K's, best case (that includes the indoor unit fans running though). We are cooling ~300sqm of 400sqm, but duty cycles on the outdoor compressors are usually fairly low.

If we have a lot of visitors we can spike right up though - last Songkhran with 15 people and 6 bedrooms + a study occupied, and 9000w RMS of Crown-powered JBL speakers running most of the time, we hit 15K Baht

Edited December 19, 2014 by IMHO

[transam]

I ain't got any of that sh....to deal with...........

My singing takes care of all.............. .................

[pattjock]

If you set the aircon to dehumidify mode the humidity will drop and the temperature will stay about the same but it will feel like the temp dropped about 10 deg.

The aircon will use much less electricity in dehumidify mode.