Monday 30 January 2012

ceiling fans + the eco home

Four fan blades spinning
12 Days of a Camera Christmas Challenge

One of our resolutions in 2011 was to make our home more "eco friendly". When I reviewed our resolutions earlier this month, I mentioned that we had bought some ceiling fans, with a promise to post more about them within the month. 

Well, it's still January, so I've just made it. 

Our first summer in our home was a hot one. I mean HOT. We were lucky to have evaporative air conditioning to keep us cool but it used a lot of energy cooling the whole house, when most of the time Kym and I were using just one room. As such, we spent a whole lot of time moving our two portable fans from one room to the next. After three summers in the house, we have finally bought ourselves some ceiling fans. Here's what we've noticed since getting them installed:
  • Ceiling fans will do the job without the air-con the majority of the time. 
  • It's nice to have some air movement in a stale house! 
  • The air conditioner doesn't produce super fresh air, while a few open windows and the ceiling fan on low is BLISS. 
  • We use the fans a lot more than we thought we would. 
  • We have quite low ceilings, and should stop walking around the house with our arms in the air. 
Some points to consider when thinking about buying ceiling fans: 
  • You'll use your air-conditioner less. As ceiling fans take less energy to run than air-cons, you'll save on electricity... a LOT of electricity. 
  • Less electricity used = less money spent. 
  • A bunch of companies now suggest installing fans in every room to limit the need for air-cons. We now have fans in three rooms and have found having a bit of air flow in our primary living areas a great way to stop the house from feeling stale.
  • Ceiling fans don't mess up the humidity of a room. Most-air cons will either dry out your eyes or grease up your hair! 
  • Consider a fan that caters for your needs through the whole year. The fans we bought have a switch to change their direction, which makes them more effective in winter. Yes. Winter. By using ceiling fans in winter you're making sure the warm air from your heater is circulating the whole room, making it much more effective. I'm looking forward to testing this with our combustion heater this winter! 
  • Ceiling fans don't take up floor space. It's really easy to put a purchase like this off because, let's face it, it is much cheaper to buy a portable fan from Bunnings. However, aesthetics and ease considered, ceiling fans will always win out. 
So there you have it, my ceiling fan love letter. 

Kate xxx

4 comments:

  1. Nothing beats fast flowing air!
    I'm wondering what you are doing with your arms in the air?
    We have the fans in our bedrooms that have the summer/winter switch BUT our ceilings are 11foot high so not exactly convenient to switch them over! lol
    Your fans would run on your solar panel electricity too wouldn't they?

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    Replies
    1. 11 foot high! That is a bit difficult, isn't it! We make enough electricity to cover what we use, which is super awesome (and with less use of the air-con, we have even bigger cost savings). It's kind of cool wandering around the house throughout the day, knowing that the fan/tv is running on the sun!

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  2. you make a good case for ceiling fans :)
    we refuse to use our air-conditioner overnight, but I imagine that a slow running ceiling fan would be lovely on a hot night!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He hee we rarely use the air con overnight (haven't at all this summer), but on those nights where there's a few 35+ degree days in a row, the fan sure is lovely!

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