How Much Electricity does a Fan Use?

When it comes to keeping a comfortable temperature indoors during the summer time, we have a few options we can settle with. For the extreme heat, an air conditioner seems the most viable option. However, for more moderate climates, a fan does the job perfectly well. They do not even take a lot of power to run, especially when compared to an air conditioner. But, how much electricity does a fan use actually?

Before we get into that, you should know, you can even invest in a water cooler for that matter. They fall somewhere between a fan and an air conditioner, but are not really helpful in the really hot climates.

How Much Electricity does a Fan Use?

Making your living space comfortable is not easy. If you consider electricity bills, the entire ordeal becomes that much more difficult to manage. So, how would you battle this issue? How to figure out how much electricity does a fan use? We are here to help.

Firstly, you would have to look at the many different types of fans the market has to offer. From our understanding, most consumers are well aware of just three types of fans, the ceiling fan, table fans, and pedestal fans. While all three of these are totally viable options and can easily be used for the summers, they possess different qualities, work in very different ways, and even use a different amount of electricity.

Do Fans use Less Electricity?

Yes, fans use only a fraction of the amount of energy a minimal-sized air conditioner would use. If we wanted to lay all these cooling appliances down by electricity consumption, air conditioners would obviously be on the top with the highest electricity consumption, coolers come next, and fans are at the bottom with a minimal amount of electricity required to run them. 

Now, that said, there are also different types of fans which take different amounts of power to run. Ceiling fans, for example, are highly energy conserving appliances and only take up 15-90W of energy to run, depending on the size of the fan and the speed you have set it at. Similarly, tower fans, or pedestal fans are bigger and use up around 100W of energy. 

There are also energy-rated fans that take even less electricity to run than their more conventional counterparts.

Calculating the Power Consumption of a Fan

There is a very simple calculation that can explain to you how much energy your fans consume. Now, first you have to check how much power input do your fans require in the first place. Most ceiling fans take up around 15-90W of power.

To calculate how much power this fan would consume in a day, simply do this calculation.

Power consumed by 1 fan in a day = Rated Power x Operational hours

So, if your fan is 75W and runs for a complete day, i.e. for 24 hours, the Power Consumed by a 75W fan in 12 hours comes out to be 900 Watt hours.

Power consumed by a 75W fan in a month = 900 Watt hours x 30 days = 27,000 Watt hours, or 27kWh.

Using this method, you can easily calculate how much power it requires to power a fan, or multiple fans, and figure out how much electricity bills would you potentially receive during the summer months.

Power Consumption of Different Types of Fans

Obviously differently sized fans use a different amount of energy and power. Its not just the size that matters actually. The speed they are running at, and any extra components that come with the fan, can potentially add to the total power required to keep the fan running. Something as simple as a digital display on a tower fan, or lights on a ceiling fan can easily bring up the required power input.

Here is some idea about how much electricity does a fan use.

Use the above method for calculating how much power your specific fans burns through on a monthly basis. There are also Energy Rated fans that are highly energy efficient and made for saving electricity during its run time. You can easily get to purchasing those as well, but they generally have a higher initial purchase price which deters most people. However, you can actually easily make it up by saving a huge amount of money on electricity bills.

Similar to Energy-Rated fans, there are also smart fans that have started to hit the market. They work on motion-detection in addition to also detecting an optimal temperature in the room. Once the desired temperature is reached, the fan either slows down, or completely shuts off to conserve electricity. They can even be connected and paired with something like Google Home, or Alexa to remotely give it certain commands and enjoy a totally hands-free experience.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Conclusion

When it comes to electricity usage of fans, there are some breathing space. Fans are effective appliances and take up a lot less electricity and provide quite the comfortable experience. If you live in a really hot climate, simply a fan might not do the trick, but it can prove helpful. Similarly, if you live in a moderate climate, a fan is actually a much better option than something like an air conditioner or a cooler. If you are pondering the age old question – how much electricity does a fan use. Trust us, it is not something that would hurt your wallet too much.

That said, you can still save quite a bit of electricity if you make the right decision during purchase. We have listed above all that you need to know about how to calculate the power requirements of a fan. You can easily figure out by yourself how much electricity does a fan use.