The AC conditions your indoor air to desired comfort temperature, humidity, airflow velocity, and air quality. While fan can only be used in a naturally ventilated environment, anything otherwise, is discomfort and detrimental to the health.
Health: Fans circulate the natural air in your home, while air conditioners generate cold air by extracting the moisture out of the natural air. Unless you live in an area with terrible air-quality, chances are the air from outside is better for your health than the cold air generated by an air conditioner.
Ceiling fans can be the best option to sleep with to relax your body and brain instead of an AC or cooler. However, an AC or cooler can be tempting but isn't the best option for your health. But sleeping with a fan on is always a better option as it provides us with natural sleep and several benefits.
This blast of cold can be extremely useful for people in helping them to improve breathing. In fact, for many people that suffer from chronic illnesses with breathing problems, air conditioning can be critical for patients to continue to breathe properly.
For example, ceiling fans provide light to moderate cooling through another mechanism compared to an air conditioner, but at a much lower cost. Air conditioners, in contrast, give much greater cooling power but at a disproportionately higher cost.
Absolutely. Central Air Conditioning (AC) uses around 3500 watts of electricity per day, an AC window unit uses between 600 and 1500 watts and a ceiling fan uses between 30 and 50 watts, so it's quite a savings!
AC Electricity Usage – A Comparison. Fans undoubtedly use less electricity than an air conditioning unit. In fact, fans use about 99% less energy. However, they both have their place, and it's important to use each appliance correctly to get the best results.
Air conditioning impact on respiratory health
In healthy individuals, exposure to air conditioners with very cold air can cause alterations in the respiratory airways that, in the context of pre-existing conditions such as asthma, can increase the risk of developing a respiratory illness.
According to the Department of Energy1, 78° Fahrenheit is the sweet spot for air conditioners to balance energy savings and comfort when people are at home and need cooling.
Health problems associated with air-conditioning are small but significant. Constant exposure to air trapped in a room can lead to headaches, dizziness, eye irritation, throat and skin allergies. Walking out of an air-conditioned room into the heat and vice versa can trigger respiratory allergies.
According to Sleep Advisor, sleeping with a fan on might not always be a great idea for health-related reasons, as although having a fan on will circulate air to make your room cooler and fresher, it can also circulate pollen and dust.
Having a ceiling fan in the bedroom aids in better indoor airflow, as it cools down the room during warm seasons and helps bring down warm air during the colder seasons.
You should place outward-facing fans on the warmer side of your home to blow the hot air out and inward-facing fans on the cooler side to draw cool air in, says Barry Jacobs, vice president of product development at Comfort Zone, a home environment product company.
Research has found the ideal sleeping temperature is around 17 to 19 degrees Celsius. If this level can't be provided then it helps to have air flowing over your skin to help cool your body. Good ventilation with an open window can help.
On average, the best air conditioner temperature setting for summer in Australia is around 23℃ – 24℃ for comfort or 25℃ – 27℃ for maximum energy savings. In winter, reverse cycle heating should be set to around 18℃ – 20℃.
Choose the right temperature
People often think that setting the AC at 16 degrees will provide better cooling, but that's not really the case. As per the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), the ideal temperature for the human body is 24 and any AC will take less load to achieve that target.
What is known is that hotter air has the capacity to absorb and carry more water vapor than colder air. In other words, the hotter the air, the higher the humidity tends to be. That said, hot and humid air is thicker and heavier, and, therefore, harder to inhale.
As mentioned above, air conditioners do not produce additional oxygen. The oxygen concentration in the air is normally 21%. Due to air pollution, however, this may reduce the percentage to about 17%. An air conditioner will cool the air in a home without raising the level of oxygen present.
Sleeping with the AC on helps prevent heat-related conditions, such as dehydration, heatstroke, and heat exhaustion. Typical AC filters will not purify the air, though they can prevent dust and particles from entering the unit.
Fans are cheaper to run than air conditioners, and can be used in place of air conditioners or along with them to save money. If you have a ceiling fan, run it at the same time as the AC.
If a young child is having a cough and runny nose, parents can still put the child in the air conditioner, but remember to cover the child's chest with a thin cotton blanket and turn on the air conditioner at a suitable temperature.
Running a fan is always a lot cheaper than running an air conditioner. Keep in mind that they're doing two separate things. In some instances, a fan will suffice; in others, you'll need air conditioning. Sometimes running both a fan and an air conditioner gives you the benefit of air conditioning at a lower cost.
They turn on all the ceiling fans thinking that they'll help the AC work more effectively and lower temperatures throughout their whole home, only to discover even higher bills once all that extra energy use is clocked. Fans have no effect on the efficiency of your AC!
But in actual fact, fans don't cool down your room in the way that an air conditioning unit can. They do relieve some of the struggles of living in high temperatures, circulating air and making you feel cooler, but even the best modern fans won't actually lower the temperature of your room by themselves.
Energy Use
According to the Saving Electricity website, a medium-sized window air conditioner consumes approximately 900 watts of electricity hourly. A floor fan, on the other hand, generally only uses 100 watts per hour. Given these figures, it takes nine fans to equal the energy used by a single room air conditioner.