a/c versus fans

[opalred]

after 14yrs here i always liked fans in the house 

last year was extremely hot/so i put a/c in-the house

i found i always had a restless sleep and congested in the chest in mornings

went back to fans in house and found i feel better 

i think with the fans over body when sleeping evaporates any sweat and cools body natural 

and i sleep like a baby and wake no congestion ?

[lopburi3]

Air Conditioning will dry the air and helps to remove dust and pollens.  But agree it is often set too cold and clearly less green/more expensive to operate.

 

Fans can severely dry your eyes, blows materials and dust into air and your lungs and are of limited use during daytime heat. 

 

Either is better than nothing.

[Pib]

You can always put the A/C in Fan mode....then it's just a fan; no cooling (or high electric bill) occurs.

[4evermaat]

 

9 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

Air Conditioning will dry the air and helps to remove dust and pollens.  But agree it is often set too cold and clearly less green/more expensive to operate.

 

Fans can severely dry your eyes, blows materials and dust into air and your lungs and are of limited use during daytime heat. 

 

Either is better than nothing.

what about putting a mesh

 

Even my fan that is used nearly 24/7 gathers dust over time of about 3-4 weeks.  rinse it off and start over.  

 

I suppose you could set the A/C on a shutoff timer after 2 hours, and then a ceiling fan will take over for the remainder of the night.

[lopburi3]

21 minutes ago, 4evermaat said:

 

what about putting a mesh

 

Even my fan that is used nearly 24/7 gathers dust over time of about 3-4 weeks.  rinse it off and start over.  

 

I suppose you could set the A/C on a shutoff timer after 2 hours, and then a ceiling fan will take over for the remainder of the night.

But most of the dust is just blown around with the fan.

 

As for 2 hour timer recall on my first visit to China (Canton) the top class hotel had no air conditioning and the table fan which was the only cooling had about a 20 minute on time before it shut off.  Not a pleasant night.

[KittenKong]

I always have the aircon on and set to about 27/28 degrees, and two ceiling fans running on the lowest setting. Works well.

[Ulysses G.]

I like both fans and aircon, depending on how hot it is. I almost always have a fan on, but in hot season use both. 

[inThailand]

Ceiling fans on in every room 24/7, little impact on the electric bill.

[theguyfromanotherforum]

Funny.....I find the same thing as op. I thought there was something wrong with me.

[brewsterbudgen]

Air con all the way for me.

[jeab1980]

A/C  on for an hour or so when we go to bed then wall mounted fan not directed at us. Works well for us. A glass or bowl of water in the room also helps.  

[tonray]

51 minutes ago, jeab1980 said:

A/C  on for an hour or so when we go to bed then wall mounted fan not directed at us. Works well for us. A glass or bowl of water in the room also helps.  

A glass of chilled white wine also helps immensely.

[tonray]

The AC really is best at removing humidity, even if you set it at a relatively high temp, the drying effect makes the room feel so much more comfortable. But I have a big 18 inch fan which I direct right at me, the sound and the air rushing over me seem to put me into trance like sleep. Also the fan keeps the any odd stray mozzies that have avoided my barricades off me while I sleep

[lopburi3]

Just now, tonray said:

Also the fan keeps the any odd stray mozzies that have avoided my barricades off me while I sleep

Indeed that was a prime advantage of fans in the past - but for most homes today a black hole type trap along with window netting is quite effective at removing that threat.  

[Dmaxdan]

We don't have AC in our bedroom. We just open the window, close the bug screens and use the ceiling fan. With the exception of about a 6 week period around April/May we are never uncomfortable and on many occasions I actually turn the fan off in the small hours because it is too cold. 

[lopburi3]

3 minutes ago, Dmaxdan said:

We don't have AC in our bedroom. We just open the window, close the bug screens and use the ceiling fan. With the exception of about a 6 week period around April/May we are never uncomfortable and on many occasions I actually turn the fan off in the small hours because it is too cold. 

But then the higher elevation of Chiang Mai is likely not where most of us live.   Not to mention the almost complete blocking of sun part of the year for those in the city. 

[Dmaxdan]

But then the higher elevation of Chiang Mai is likely not where most of us live.   Not to mention the almost complete blocking of sun part of the year for those in the city. 

I'm fully aware that what we do will not suit everyone, and in fact I know plenty of people local to us who could not live without their AC running every night. It is just what we have got use to.

[tonray]

25 minutes ago, Dmaxdan said:

We don't have AC in our bedroom. We just open the window, close the bug screens and use the ceiling fan. With the exception of about a 6 week period around April/May we are never uncomfortable and on many occasions I actually turn the fan off in the small hours because it is too cold. 

I think Thais can be thankful for foreigners bringing bug screens into popularity, Most Thai only families don't even know what they are. Many kids I see around my neighborhood literally have years of scarring from scratching bites on their legs.

[lopburi3]

Just now, Dmaxdan said:

I'm fully aware that what we do will not suit everyone, and in fact I know plenty of people local to us who could not live without their AC running every night. It is just what we have got use to.

Indeed what suits one will not suit another but expect you are right that in Chiang Mai there is much less need for air conditioning most of the year.

[bert bloggs]

We only use air con in the bedroom for a few hours at night ,but always have fans as well ,funnily enough when we lived in the UK my wife always kept a small window open at night and the fan on even in the winter ., 

[Bung]

I use ac every night.  I don't hear dogs barking,  cats fighting,  late night vehicles passing nor how heavy it is raining. I can close the curtains and am not wakened at dawn. I set it to 26/27 and sleep like a baby. If it is cooler outside,  fine,  the ac compressor just doesn't kick in as much if at all.  It is much nicer sleeping in a dehumidified room and you don't sweat leaving your bedding smelly. I run my ac,  my son runs his in our bedrooms,  the one in the lounge in the evenings or wherever we are chilling out in there.  I keep the filters clean and clean the whole unit every few months and my electricity bill is around 2500 a month. That's nothing.  

 

I tried without the other night as there was a lot of rain and some breeze.  Slept with a fan on and woke up at dawn feeling flu like. 

 

A lot depends on what you are used to. 

[SpokaneAl]

We use the a/c for a few hours each evening to cool things down. We really like ceiling fans but have been unable to find good quality fans in Thailand that move air sufficiently.

[lemonjelly]

Indeed A.C. can dry out the air excessively, causing irritation to the bronchial tracts. This can be remedied with the use of a room humidifier; easily and cheaply found on Lazada etc.


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[lopburi3]

8 minutes ago, lemonjelly said:

Indeed A.C. can dry out the air excessively, causing irritation to the bronchial tracts. This can be remedied with the use of a room humidifier; easily and cheaply found on Lazada etc.


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Very unlikely in Thailand however - here you need to remove humidity as it is often at oppressive (wet sauna) levels.

[topt]

1 hour ago, Bung said:

I use ac every night.  I don't hear dogs barking,  cats fighting,  late night vehicles passing nor how heavy it is raining. I can close the curtains and am not wakened at dawn. I set it to 26/27 and sleep like a baby. If it is cooler outside,  fine,  the ac compressor just doesn't kick in as much if at all.  It is much nicer sleeping in a dehumidified room and you don't sweat leaving your bedding smelly. I run my ac,  my son runs his in our bedrooms,  the one in the lounge in the evenings or wherever we are chilling out in there.  I keep the filters clean and clean the whole unit every few months and my electricity bill is around 2500 a month. That's nothing.  

 

I tried without the other night as there was a lot of rain and some breeze.  Slept with a fan on and woke up at dawn feeling flu like. 

 

A lot depends on what you are used to. 

I envy you as you must have small rooms and or very good insulation. With 3 rooms using ac as you say I hate to think what my bill would be

 

Most of the year I could not sleep comfortably without AC unfortunately.

[Surasak]

Stand a small bowl of water in the room at night when A/C is running. No more dry mouth or throat. Temp set to 25c should be quite comfortable.

[Antonymous]

I used a/c for some time but it didn't suit me at all - always seemed to end up with a runny nose and flu-like symptoms. Eventually I became completely acclimatised to Thai heat.

 

Now just use standalone or ceiling fans and open windows and haven't turned on the a/c for the past 25 years. I also turn a/c off in hotel rooms whenever possible.

[The Deerhunter]

3 hours ago, Dmaxdan said:

We don't have AC in our bedroom. We just open the window, close the bug screens and use the ceiling fan. With the exception of about a 6 week period around April/May we are never uncomfortable and on many occasions I actually turn the fan off in the small hours because it is too cold. 

You must be up north and/or reasonably high up. 

[jeab1980]

I have tried opening a windo problem with that is.  The hot air comes in and is mearly distributed around the bedroom by the fan. Having A/c on for a short while then fan at least cooler air is blown around till i drop of to sleep.I have tried fans in all sorts of positions free standing ceiling ect best i have found for me is wall mounted on the opposie wall from headboard angled level not blowing directly on me.  Works for me anyway saves the eye's going dry.

[nisakiman]

I've never liked AC. It dries up my sinuses and makes me feel uncomfortable. Unfortunately, my wife absolutely loves AC, and is a lot less tolerant of the heat than I am ("I worked in AC offices in Bangkok for 20 years, so I'm used to it"), so we always have to seek some sort of compromise when we're in Thailand. Where we live in Greece, summer temperatures are regularly 35° - 40° C, and I'm under pressure to install AC here. We currently use ceiling and free-standing fans, which I find quite adequate, and a lot cheaper to run than AC.

 

The first time I was in Bangkok in 1971, the hotel I stayed (the Malaysia Hotel) had the AC turned down to what felt like about 20°, and the outside temp was in the high 30s, and very humid. With going in and out of the hotel, within a couple of days I'd developed a serious bronchial infection, and ended up having to move to a Chinese hotel in Hualamphong which only had ceiling fans so I could acclimatise to the heat naturally. I've been averse to AC ever since. It's the thing I most dislike about flying.

 

When I'm wandering round Bangkok, I often wonder how many degrees the ambient temperature is raised by the thousands upon thousands of AC units pumping out hot air. It must be a fair bit, I'd imagine.