{"id":954,"date":"2021-04-19T11:00:54","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T15:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acguyoftampa.com\/blog\/?p=954"},"modified":"2021-04-19T08:54:57","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T12:54:57","slug":"fan-only-vs-air-conditioning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acguyoftampa.com\/blog\/air-conditioning-service\/fan-only-vs-air-conditioning\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cFan Only\u201d vs. \u201cAir Conditioning\u201d: What\u2019s the Difference?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"desk-fan\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In our last post, we explored a topic that\u2019s always popular with homeowners: ways to save money<\/a>. Specifically, how to lower the cost of cooling a home in the summer. It\u2019s not hard to find ways to reduce how much you use your AC, and our technicians can help out with installations like dehumidifiers and high-efficiency ACs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We didn\u2019t touch on one way to lower AC costs in the last post, which is \u201cfan only\u201d mode. We\u2019re going to address it here because it\u2019s not exactly<\/em> a way to save money, but it\u2019s something important to know about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Central AC as a Central Fan<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You know that a fan makes you feel cooler. It doesn\u2019t lower air temperature, but instead, allows more heat to escape from your body so the air feels cooler than it is.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your central air conditioning system is largely a whole-house fan. The air handler of the unit has a powerful blower fan that\u2019s responsible for circulating air through the ventilation system. The air conditioner only provides cooling when the compressor is running, which causes refrigerant to move through the indoor coil to pull heat from the air the blower sends into the ducts. When the compressor isn\u2019t running, the blower circulates room-temperature air.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Difference in Electrical Use<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Both the blower fan and the compressor have motors that run from electricity. But the difference in how they use it is substantial. The average central air conditioner uses between 30,000 to 35,000 watts per hour. The blower fan uses around 750 watts per hour. Although it may seem like the AC is consuming the same amount of power whether the compressor is on or the system is in \u201cfan only\u201d mode, it\u2019s much less costly to run only the fan.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should You Leave the AC on \u201cFan Only\u201d Mode to Save Money?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although the air circulation from \u201cfan only\u201d can help with keeping the house from feeling stuffy, you have to be standing in the direct path of the air current from a vent to get any cooling benefit from it. In general, keeping the AC running in \u201cfan only\u201d mode without the compressor coming on doesn\u2019t do much good for comfort and it puts stress on the ducts as well as the blower fan. Too much of this strain can lead to air conditioning repair in Tampa, FL<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it is helpful to have the AC set to the \u201cauto\u201d mode, which is when the air conditioner will turn on the compressor as needed and have the fan run between those times. The reason is that it takes more energy to keep turning the fan on and off than to let it run. As long as you need cooling for the house, it\u2019s wise to have the fan running even during periods when the compressor cycles down. The \u201cauto\u201d mode handles this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call The A\/C Guy of Tampa Bay Inc. for the best in cooling help.<\/a> Serving our Tampa Bay family with integrity and honor.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re going to address “fan only” mode on an AC: it\u2019s not exactly a way to save money, but it\u2019s something important to know about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[23,100],"class_list":["post-954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air-conditioning-service","tag-air-conditioner-repair","tag-tampa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acguyoftampa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acguyoftampa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acguyoftampa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acguyoftampa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acguyoftampa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=954"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.acguyoftampa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":959,"href":"https:\/\/www.acguyoftampa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954\/revisions\/959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acguyoftampa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acguyoftampa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acguyoftampa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}