Beating the Heat Without Air Conditioning

NEW CONCORD, Ohio – Residents who live without air conditioning often use fans to keep their homes comfortable during the summer.

Guernsey Muskingum Electric Cooperative Energy Advisor Ray Crock explains how to get the most comfort out of your fans without adding the most to your energy bills.

“First of all, everybody should know that running a ceiling fan when you’re not in the room doesn’t do anything. That’s a waste of electricity to leave all your ceiling fans on all day and you’re not even home. They affect your comfort while you’re in the room. With that being said, you want a ceiling fan blowing down in the summer on higher speed so that you feel a draft. Now we talk about using ceiling fans in the winter also, but there we’re talking about pulling the air up and bringing the air down the walls so that you don’t feel a draft,” Crock said.

Moving air creates an evaporative effect that provides a cooling sensation. Many home owners without central air will open a window and install a box fan to help ventilate the home or circulate the air.   

“The box fan’s always going to move air into or out of the home,” Crock said. “I mean you’ve got two ways to turn it. One’s blowing the air out or one’s bringing the air in. and sometimes you may want both. If the air’s typically moving from the west, you might have windows on the west side of your house or apartment blowing air in. On the east side, you may put one to blow air out also. The other thing is, when you’ve got multi floors, always know that heat rises. So it’s good to have the upstairs open with fans maybe blowing out.”

Crock added that direct sunlight inside the house can raise interior temperatures significantly and that blocking those intense rays can also help to keep your home comfortable when air conditioning isn’t an option.