Is Running The AC And A Fan At The Same Time A Good Idea?

When it's sweltering hot outside, the last thing you want is to be sweating inside your home, too. Sure, you might have air conditioning as a first line of defense, but on the hottest days, AC alone might not feel like enough cooling power. As you eye your fan and reach to turn it on, you may be wondering: Is running air conditioning and a fan simultaneously a good idea to cool down a room?

The answer is yes. While fans can't actually lower the temperature in a room, they can make it feel lower, especially in combination with air conditioning, thanks to the wind chill effect. As the air conditioner blows cold air in, turning on a fan gets that air circulating when it would have otherwise settled. This air then blows across your skin, which draws heat away from your body and reduces skin temperature, followed by internal body temperature. In short, while air conditioning cools the room, the addition of a fan cools the people in it, and the cooling benefits don't stop there.

The worst part of being too hot is the sweating, but running your air conditioner and fan simultaneously can help you beat the sweat faster. As the fan pushes conditioned air over your skin, it enhances the evaporation of sweat, leaving you feeling cooler and more comfortable. With this plus the wind chill effect, adding a fan to your air conditioner can make you feel up to 4 degrees Fahrenheit cooler. 

But surely running the AC and fan simultaneously will send your electricity bill through the roof, right? Wrong — it actually has the opposite effect and can reduce energy consumption and associated costs. According to the Department of Energy, the total electricity cost of running household ACs adds up to around $29 billion a year for homeowners. Electricity bills go down when the difference between the outdoor and indoor temperatures does too, so in the summer, that means turning your thermostat up. Running a fan with your AC lets you raise it by 4 degrees Fahrenheit without sacrificing comfort, which lets the energy savings stack up. 

Saving energy comes with added environmental benefits, too. Air conditioners are a significant contributor to carbon dioxide emissions, but relying on them less by using them in combination with fans cuts down on greenhouse gases. And the more climate-friendly our cooling habits are, the less we'll worsen the heat waves of the future.

Running your air conditioner with a fan is already beneficial, but there are a few bonus tips you can follow to really make the most of the combination. If you have a ceiling fan, it's time to use the feature you may not know about: switching its direction to spin counterclockwise. This will push cooler air downward and get that aforementioned wind chill effect going to cool you down.

Similarly, if you have a standing fan, it's a good idea to angle it downward as much as you can; cold air sinks, so since air-conditioned air will be settled closer to the ground, pointing a fan there will help distribute the coldest air in the room. If you can't angle it, one of the best spots to place your fan is under or nearby the AC vent to get the most circulation going for the coldest air. And don't forget to turn off fans when you're not home; since they change the temperature feel of the room rather than the actual temperature, there's no point having them on if there's no one there to feel the breeze.