Your air conditioner, like any appliance, can slowly wear down as you use it. This takes years if you keep your air conditioner in good shape, and you can keep the air conditioner running a little bit longer if you don't use it at full blast if at all possible. Combining your air conditioner with fans helps keep you a lot cooler without requiring the air conditioner to run excessively, even on hot days. These three types of fans in particular are very effective for removing hot air and moving cooler air into the rest of the room.
Exhaust Fan
Your house should have a big exhaust fan on the ceiling somewhere; in homes built in the past couple of decades or so, this might look like a big square with louvres that you open and close with a switch on the wall. These fans draw hot air out of the house and are invaluable when you come home and find the house a stuffy mess. They can be loud, so if you're in the midst of installing one, try to place it away from bedrooms. If you're in an older house that does not have an exhaust fan, you might try playing around with the kitchen and bathroom exhaust fans to see if those have any effect. They work in a similar manner but are smaller than whole-house exhaust fans, so their effect may take longer to notice. One caution: Don't leave any exhaust fan running continuously, especially the smaller bathroom and kitchen fans. They can overheat.
Ceiling Fan
If you don't have any ceiling fans in your home, have them installed now. These are fantastic for sending cool air to all corners of a room. With the air conditioner only, a room might feel somewhat cool on a very hot day, but add in a ceiling fan, and the room can feel downright refreshing. Ceiling fans should be very easy to add, but you can always have an electrician or air conditioning technician install one for you if you don't feel like messing with wiring.
One other bonus to having a ceiling fan: you can switch the direction of the blade rotation in winter to send warm air that's gathered at the ceiling down to the floor, making the room warmer and helping out your heater.
Circulating Fan
A circulating fan is a table fan that helps spread air around the room, usually without rotating. These help on very hot days when your air conditioner and ceiling fans are straining. Chances are, if you ask for a circulating fan now in a store, you'll get one that is configured to send out a wide swath of air, rather than a direct flow, though if you are really on a tight budget, a rotating fan may help. Just keep in mind that with a rotating fan, the stream of cool air keeps moving, so you can't just set it right in front of you and stay cool. With a circulating fan, the blades and housing are shaped so that it doesn't have to rotate to spread air around in a wider area.
Fans take less energy to run and, with the exception of the exhaust fan, provide a stronger breeze than the air coming out of an air conditioner vent, so these are excellent additions when trying to preserve your air conditioner. For more information, contact companies like Laroc Refrigeration-Metal Division.
Share13 April 2017
After my sister moved into my house with me, she started complaining about the temperature. I had never really thought about it before, or maybe I was just used to it, but my house was pretty cold. She told me that she didn't think the furnace was working properly, so I started checking things out on my own. Sure enough, my furnace seemed to be having some serious problems. I started looking for a replacement, and I was able to find a great furnace for much less than what I initially thought I would need to spend. I wanted to make this blog for anyone out there who might need to shop for a new HVAC system. Check out these great articles for information you might need.
