Does a ceiling fan pay for itself?

[heatherweh]

Anyone have any experience with this?

I was thinking it might save us from using the a/c on those iffy days.

I think ti costs maybe $60 for a pretty nice one, but probably $100 to have it installed?

[loitering]

I don't know what instillation costs - my dad has always installed them himself. We recently installed 3 in our bedrooms. Ds's was cheapest, at $30 for a very basic one that'll be fine. I got mine on sale for about $40 - check your flyers. And the other one was a hand-me-down.

Since we don't have air conditioning and rent, using the ceiling fans costs more than the alternative - not using anything. But it sure is nicer!

[Purple*Lotus]

We have one in our living room that was here when we rented the house. I truly do not think they help that much. It might depend on where you live. Where I am it is mainly the humidity that makes it so hot.

[CameronsMama]

We just put one in not long ago, and i am beyond in love!!! On hot days I made it until several hours later in the day before turning on the ac than I did before I had the fan. Like when the high was 92 I didn't have to turn on the ac until 4:30 in the afternoon, before we had the fan it would have been on by lunch, maybe 2:00 at the latest, so it does seem to help. Ours has a reverse feature too, so when it is cold, you can move the warmer air off the ceiling, so you don't have to run the heat as much either. Ours cost like $65-$70 I think, but I don't know what it would cost to have it installed, FIL is a contractor so he does all that stuff for us!

[Pancakes]

We have 5. I don't think they prevent me from turning on the AC, but they do allow me to turn the AC up a degree or two. If you truly want something that will delay your AC usage, get an attic fan (whole house fan). But that's not something you want to do if you rent.

[DiannaK]

Originally Posted by Pancakes

We have 5. I don't think they prevent me from turning on the AC, but they do allow me to turn the AC up a degree or two. If you truly want something that will delay your AC usage, get an attic fan (whole house fan). But that's not something you want to do if you rent.

do you have an attic fan???
I was in my attic a few days ago, and about FELL over from the heat, and it's not even that hot here!!

Does it make a huge difference???

[DiannaK]

before DH and I met, I used to be the girl who would run the AC all the time. He's more of a 'fresh air' person, so I slowly got used to not running the AC as much, and having the windows open.
I'm a Southern girl ... so I like the fans running, just to circulate the air.

I think that us using our fans helps with decreased usage of our AC ... Like one of the PPs said .... there are many days that we don't turn it on til the afternoon. We're a pretty humid area as well. Tomorrow, the high should be mid 80s .. the air will probably be turned on around noon, here!!

My electric bill is probably much better since he's been around!

[yukookoo]

we have one in the living room and it does help circulate air on summer nights through the house.

But you have to remember they make a lot of air haha so if you have papers and things they will end up all over the place.

That doesnt seem like a big deal but we keep our mail and some lists and stuff int he dinning room /kitchen area where we have our fan. Sometimes i dont turn it on just because i dont want to have to pick up anything or im too lazy to put stuff ontop of the paper to keep it where it is.

[texmati]

yes, yes, yes, the fan lets us not run the AC so much.

We bought ours off of amazon, and were able to install them ourselves. It's actually not bad after the first one-- it was our first real 'house project', and we did pretty well.

I would def look into learning to install it yourself. After we got good at it, our quickest time was 45 minutes from cutting open the box to lying on floor with the fan on.

[Aliviasmom]

They help. I'm not sure how much of the cost is decreased, but it's definitely not as stuffy. Oh, and I've installed them myself, it's not that terribly hard, and even though I can follow instructions, it's dealing with electricity! If you go to your hardware store, they can give you a basic rundown of what needs to be done.

[EmsMom]

We don't get much sun on our house so it doesn't get too terribly hot. However, we love our fans and haven't used a/c since we got them (installed them ourselves). There are 4 blade fans and 5 blade fans. The 4 blade ones are not worth much. But the larger 5 blade fans really get things moving. Sometimes the smaller ones can be found at yard sales, but they are just not worth it. I think ceiling fans in addition to a/c might really help reduce the cost of the a/c because you could keep the temperature much higher, just removing the humidity while the fans circulated the air.

[kedwards313]

I've wondered about the electric usage of ceiling fans. We have 9 in our house - 2 in each living room, 1 in each bedroom and kitchen. If I used all of them, would I really save when compared to the cost of running the A/C? My DH is complaining because I am turning up the thermostat on the A/C.

[bc1995]

Watch how your meter runs when you have ceiling fans on and then watch how it runs when your a/c is going. You will see the difference! They really help out here, and we hope to be adding more soon.

[kdabbler]

We made it through last summer without turning on the AC in our bedroom because of the ceiling fan.

They do make a difference. We bought ours from Home Depot. If either of you can follow directions, both Home Depot and Lowes make DIY books and pamphlets for installation. It's easiest if you're installing a fan in the place of an already existing light fixture (so says the girl whose dh installed it )

[MommyinMN]

We have 7 ceiling fans. All are larger 5 blade fans. If we have the windows open in the evening and the mornings when it is cooler and everything shut during the day we don't turn the a/c on except for the hottest of days (and sometimes at night). Dh installed them himself. When our a/c is one we do turn it up 3 or 4 degrees hotter than we would have it without the fan so for us it makes a huge difference.

[Ellien C]

Wouldn't live without one.

and what's with all those home improvement shows where they take out the ugly ceiling fan? Hello! You can't just take the fan out and have a light - they are there for a reason!

DH and I always make fun of that.

[henhao]

We're getting ceiling fans. We've talked about it for a long time. Our neighbor may install it for us. He's a handy man sort.

When I lived in hot, sticky FL, I know we were able to use the ceiling fans more than the AC. We also were able to open the house during the cooler mornings and take advantage of that.

Shade trees helped, too.

[EFmom]

I don't even have A/C. Ceiling fans are a big help and they are much cheaper to run than A/C. If you know anybody who is remotely handy, they can probably put in the fan.

[PrettyBird]

We always had ceiling fans growing up instead of AC. Even when we got AC when I was 10 we hardly ever ran it. I wish we could have ceiling fans here (we rent), it gets so hot on a top floor apartment that it is miserable without AC.

[Pancakes]

Originally Posted by DiannaK

do you have an attic fan???
I was in my attic a few days ago, and about FELL over from the heat, and it's not even that hot here!!

Does it make a huge difference???

We have two attic fans to vent the attic, but what I'm speaking of is a whole house fan. It's in the ceiling and vents to the attic. Basically you open your windows and the fan pulls air in from the outside and sucks the hot air up to your attic and out the eves.

Yes we installed one about 3 years ago and is the single best investment we've made to our home. I say that knowing that we've completely gutted the entire house and renovated it. A fan, a 250 dollar fan is the one improvement that DH and I made that we both agree was the best improvement of them all.

It allows us to delay turning on the AC a full month in the spring and a full month in the fall. We live in Florida and use it for most of the winter while everyone else is still running their AC.