Be Cool

That is simply not true in many instances. A fan may be bringing in cooler air from another location such as a basement or cool evening air and needs to run during all the cool hours to work effectively.

In my case, I use a strategically place double window-mount fan that use 50-75 watts. If used well in an area that cools off below indoor temperature at night it can cool off 1000 sq ft on low power for most nights. We live in a dry area where the summer days are often 80-95 degrees and the nights are 60-75 degrees.

The key is to place it at the coolest and lowest end of the structure and open the highest windows at the opposite end. Keep windows near the fan closed. It will push cool air through the entire place. We can cool our house off by about 10 degrees F on most days.

Keep ALL windows completely closed when the temp outside is hotter than inside. The instant the outside temp drops below the inside temp, open the windows and turn the fan on and LEAVE it on until the temps reverse again.

So, 50-75 watts with a fan on for less than 12 hours a day vs. 1000 watts for AC and there ain't no contest. The fan is the clear winner.

Our electric bill right now for a 2 person 2,000 sq ft house with a highly computerized office that is used all day is about $30-40/month in the summer.

I've got one that I wear when I take the metro into the office here in D.C., and I can tell you, wearing one of these wraps under the collar of your shirt makes a huge difference. It also helps me keep cool at home when our AC isn't quite up to the task of offsetting the summer heat, or when I'm working out. Putting one on and then having your fan blow air past it will cool you down enormously. I believe other companies make caps that do the same thing.

(I have no stake in any producer of these things, just sharing a tip I use to keep my cool!)

Kenneth Green Resident Scholar American Enterprise Institute kgreen@aei.org

Anyway, leaving your fan on all day is not going to effectively alleviate this problem.

Quoting the DOE to get wattage of fans? And that extreme range...a 250w fan is like those giant 48" industrial air movers you see in factories. A table fan may be 50w.

Then the incorrect "no one seems to care about watts (on a/cs)" What? Every a/c ad. and certainly the a/c nameplate shows wattage used. Iae, the computation of watts=btu/eer is something even my 9 year could do, it's hardly "too many numbers."

Also, who uses 3 (250w!!) fans in a room to replace one a/c as noted in the comparison? The comparison of energy used should be 50-90w (fan) to 700-900w (a/c.)

Obviously, the a/c provides different comfort (not least the reduction of humidity which is in most cases more important than temp,) not mentioned by her.

As for the person with dogs, you may not like this answer but they might be happiest with a little kiddie pool that they can plop in.

Umbra faild to discuss programmable AC units.  On days mentioned above I need my AC especially after gardening outside and to relieve my allergies (or I could suffer with a constant headache from the humidity).  When the AC is on, I always have it programmed to control itself at the highest temperature I can comfortably stand.

For someone who mentioned fans to be used to bring cool air from a basement, I'm sorry to say but that is impossible.  Heat rises, and as my bedroom is on the second floor I can tell you there is no cool air moving up my stairs.

As far as the pets, if it is hot and you are uncomfortable, I'm sure they are since they are most likely covered in fur.  I too keep the air on for my pets on very hot days (and it is programmed).

Sarah

It is astonishing that people ostensibly concerned about global warming, and who are willing to force others to change their lifestyles with regard to cars, housing, clothing, flying, and even limiting the number of children people can have feel free to own animals that have extensive carbon footprints due to their protein diets, energy used in heating and cooling, and the zillion-dollar pet products industry.

If environmentalists were honest, they'd tell you straight up that the great green future is one of no pet-ownership. But they won't admit that, since it would lose a significant fraction of their support from animal lovers who also love their pets.

Kenneth Green Resident Scholar American Enterprise Institute kgreen@aei.org

As for bringing cooler air up from the basement: I used to do this all the time when I lived in un-airconditioned older houses in eastern MA.  Most basements in such houses have at least one window that opens, or a walkout door.  If you open that window or door in the evening, open the door to the basement, and put a strong window fan in an upstairs window, directing the air OUT of the room (i.e. on the exhaust setting), you will feel cool air flooding your house from the ground floor up.  Even in dwellings without basements a window fan set in the upper part of a double hung window can help bring cool evening air in while exhausting hot interior air.  While cold air is denser than warm and will not rise without help, a fan can easily overcome this density differential.

No, this won't work in dense urban areas where nighttime temps never drop below 80.

Just don't do what a former roommate of mine insisted on doing: opening her bedroom windows wide all day to the hot outside air while leaving a powerful room fan on while she was out at work.  No surprise that her room was at least 10 degrees hotter than the rest of the house by 5 PM . . .

All other thing being equal, a large, high ceilinged room, or a shady porch, will feel cooler than a small low room at the same temperature because our bodies actually absorb long wave radiation coming off solid objects like walls and ceilings.  It's time we started designing buildings with some thought about climate and comfort.  Time to bring back the screened porch for summer sleeping and after dinner living!

When it comes to cooling a house/apartment for the sake of the animals, don't bother.  Unless it gets incredibly hot in there, you're just being wasteful.  I'd say that as long as you leave water out for them every day, they'll be fine.  I mean...it's not like they're running around and working hard when you're not home...they're just sitting in a window or sleeping.  If it gets to 90 degrees, they may pant a bit but they'll be fine.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

But as some have stated, pets take up energy.  Is it a burden you are willing to deal with?  If no, then don't have a pet.

Sarah

All environmentalists make some concessions, (just being alive is a big one).  Some of us own pets because they give us companionship and fill emotional gaps in our lives.  Others turn on the AC in the summer rather than use fans to be comfortable.  The point is there are no perfect environmentalists, we all have non-green things we do for our health or sanity, and no activity is completely exempt from some sort of environmental impact.  Everyone posting or reading these comments is using computer that is consuming electricity.  We could all save power by shutting our computers off right now and never turning them on again, but for one reason or another we've decided that the benefits to ourselves of using a computer outweighs the environmental costs.  Pet owners are no different, and shouldn't be made to feel guilty about the life enrichment they get from their animals.  Just as we focus on lessening the impact of our computers and AC units rather than getting rid of them, we can do the same for our pets by feeding them a healthy but more vegetarian diet, getting them spayed and neutered, avoiding needless pet product consumerism, etc.