ENERGY MATTERS


FANS

It’s one of those particularly warm summer days. We reach to turn on our air conditioner, aware of increasing electricity costs, and wish there was some way to obtain cooling at a lower cost.

Maybe there is another alternative: cooling fans. Sure, cooling fans use electricity, you say to yourself, but they use less, don’t they? Operating several fans at a time uses far less electricity than the air conditioner you were about to turn on.

Fans are effective in that they significantly increase evaporation of moisture on our skin. Evaporation is a cooling process, so we feel cooler with air flowing over our bodies.

We’ve known about small fans, both fixed and oscillating. A large 18-inch diameter three-speed floor fan can move a large amount of air, which in turn makes a medium size room feel more comfortable. And, in placing one of these in an open exterior doorway, they can be directed so as to blow cooler air into the house or by reversing positions, blow warm air out of the house.

Then, there’s the whole house fan. These are larger diameter fans, 24 to 36 inches, that move a large amount of air through the house into the outdoors. Following a hot day, the whole house fan blows out the hot air that’s built up in the house and brings in the cooler outside air. And, selectively opening and closing windows can control this airflow through the house. If all the windows are opened, a low velocity of outdoor air through each opened window results. If all windows are closed, leaving only a bedroom patio door opened to the outdoors, the velocity of outside air increases into the bedroom. Thus, by experimenting with different windows and their open or closed positions, a suitable home cooling airflow can result.

A whole house fan is installed in the ceiling of a home to blow the warm air in the home into the attic, requiring the area of attic air vents to the outdoors to meet the manufacturer’s stated minimum.

Lower cost whole house fans made significantly more noise and as a result should be located away from the master bedroom or areas that are occupied in the evening. The more expensive whole house fans are belt driven and are quieter.

Another option, the evaporative cooler, is a fan system many of us are familiar with and is a good choice in warm, dry areas. It consists of a fan, encased with sides lined with porous material through which small amounts of water flow. The fan moves outside air through the wet porous material, which in turn cools the air by evaporation of the water.  These work well in the LWW area as discovered by some owners, and at considerably less cost than air conditioning. 

And, what about rebates? Do any exist? PG&E has a 1-2-3 cash back rebate program for 2001. According to PG&E, requests for rebates submitted after they declared bankruptcy, will be paid. The published rebates are $50 for portable evaporative coolers, $300 for whole house evaporative coolers and $150 for whole house fans. Call PG&E at 1-800-933-9555 for a rebate application.

So. As you reach for your air conditioner, remember.......
ENERGY MATTERS!