A steady relationship
Set your relationship status to ‘Steady’ with your home’s HVAC fan because we can help you take good care of that equipment.
You might like to turn on your home’s HVAC fan to circulate air in the afternoons. This can help to keep the house from getting stuffy or maintain air freshness to provide relief from allergies, asthma, or other respiratory ailments.
In multi-story homes, hot summer air can collect in the upper levels of the home. Running the fan can pull this hot air down the stairs while circulating cool air into the upper rooms of the building. This is also true for colder winter months when running the fan can help to even out cold spots in the home.
Not always your biggest fan
Even if your relationship with your fan is going well, however, be careful that you are not spending too much time with the fan turned ‘on’. Leaving your fan running can increase energy consumption and your monthly energy bill.
Although the movement of air provided by the fan is beneficial for temperatures in your home, the fan cannot replace your air conditioning or furnace. If you run your fan all the time in the summer months to try to cool your home, for example, the ducts that run through your attic or close to the walls will heat up without air conditioning to cool them. This will cause the system to pump hot, stale air into different rooms in your home. This will require you to run the air conditioning system more, not less.
Running your fan all the time might also contribute to greater wear-and-tear on the system, requiring more maintenance.
Fan wisely for best results
If you feel that it is important to run your fan more often, you can try to take a measured and careful approach to doing so. You might try using the ‘Auto’ feature for your fan or utilize a smart home device such as a Nest thermostat to schedule the frequency with which your fan turns on.
As you start to run your fan more often, be sure to track your utility bill to better understand the impact of your fan on your expenses. You can also ask everyone in your home to become more aware of the temperature differences and air movement within the home. Ask them if they notice any temperature changes, or if they feel uncomfortable in any parts of the home, when the fan is turned off versus when it is on.
Be sure to consult with one of our home comfort experts here at Applewood Air to determine how often you can run your home’s fan for best in-home comfort, energy efficiency, and equipment longevity. Give us a call today to learn more!
