fan on furnace

[readandpostrosie]

i believe that i read in here that keeping the house furnace fan on is a good idea, and really not expensive............is that true?

i hear the furnace fan running and immediately think about $$$$$

rosie

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Ideally then you need dual speed fan. Running all the time at low speed and when heat or cold is called for switching to normal high speed. I just control the fan manually when I need to circulate air more. In auto mode motor shut off delay is set at longest.

[Toller]

Mine draws less than an amp; about the same as a large light bulb. It evens the temperatures out and filters the air.

[m Ransley]

The average furnace fan pulls 350-400 watts around 3 amps, for me to run mine 24-7 would cost near 40$ a month, not cheap, mine is 2 speed and lowering the speed makes little difference Toller you have a VSDC motor, right, because those ore the only ones that can draw 1a, few people have VSDC.

[Speedy Jim]

Could be right.

A "typical" furnace blower will consume roughly 600 Watts. Multiply by 24hrs = 14,400 watt hours. Multiply by 30days = 432,000 watt hours.

or.... 432 Kilowatt hours per month.

If your elec rate is, say, $.08/KWHr, that comes to about $35 per month .

Jim

[Toller]

Yes, I do. I didn't realize they were uncommon. Great on small generators.

[trader4]

IMO, keeping a fan running constantly is a waste of money. I only want a fan running if it's going to do some good. Why would you run it

24/7, regardless of how much energy it uses? As an example, in winter, the living space is going to be warmer than the basement. If you run a fan 24/7, you are taking heated air and moving it into the basement (or even worse the colder attic), where it will lose heat through the ducts.

And then there is this:

If I had a VSDC motor, plus the furnace electronics that go with it, I would do everything I could to avoid running it on a small generator, because they are expensive to replace and many of these things are sensitve to power quality.

[readandpostrosie]

i got the idea to run the furnace fan today, because it was quite warm on the first floor from the sun, and the basement was cool and "musty"...................... it worked, the basement is aired out now!

thanks for all the answers guys!

[Noozer]

We'd like to be able to circulate the air in our home 24/7... The extra filtering would be welcome.

Heating the space in the basement is not a great loss if the basement is finished and insulated properly.

When replacing the furnace in the future, we will definately be looking into something that will provide efficient 24/7 air circulation.

[Toller]

I have run it for about 10 days on generator. Gosh it is a shame I didn't get your great advice before! It is probably completely shot by now. No wait, it is fine; you just don't know what you are talking about. It is great on small generators because there is no extra starting current.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I've not seen 8¢ in over 25 years. We are more than double than now. I'm in CT.

[mm]

Personally, I've never noticed differences in temperature in the house, and I don't care if the air is filtered.

I know it is usually cooler in the basement. I don't mind. When I'm out, it's warmer in the sun and cooler in the shade. When the AC is running, it's cooler right by the vent than elsewhere. None of this bathers me. It depends on whether it bothers you enough to spend the money....

[Ether Jones]

My off-peak rate is 1.5 cents per KWH. Basically free electricity. We do all the laundry in the evenings and on weekends, and heat the

120-gallon hot water heater at night.

Day rate is 9 cents.

[trader4]

You obvioulsy can do whatever you want with your electronics. All I'm saying is there have been plenty of people in the newsgroup pissing and moaning about the high cost of repairing furnaces with VSDC motors and controllers that have failed. The controls on these are electronic. And it's well known that small, cheap generators produce power that is far from ideal and have been known to destroy electronic components. The fact that in your case it's worked, doesn't mean this isn't a valid concern.

[mwlogs]

The real issue is why you want to run the fan 7x24. If as has been stated it is for the filtered air benefit then it is an issue of if you want to pay the extra for the electric to do this. And unless you have a high-efficiency filter on the unit, you probably are wasting your money. A stand-alone air filter my be a better option.

If your reason is to move the air and better balance your heating or cooling then running the fan is probably a better option than turning the thermostat up or down. We run our fan continuiously in the morning and sometimes evenings to move the cooler 1st floor air to the second floor where it is normally warmer. This has been an effective alterative to turning down the therostat, which does cool off the 2nd floor, but at the expense of making the 1st floor too cool.

Likewise in the winter - running the fan brings the warmer 2nd floor air back down to the 1st floor, saving having to turn up the heat.

I don't run the fan during the day when we aren't home as often and the thermo is set back.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Actually by adjusting CPH setting and fan turn off delay on the programmable thermostat, pretty well it can maintain even temp. throughout the house. Our furnace has EAC.

[m Ransley]

A cheap gen with fluctuating V and Hz can ruin alot of things. But im pretty sure Toller has an Inverter Honda EU, giving him utility co quality AC.

[readandpostrosie]

i have been running the furnace fan for about eight hours in the daytime, to circulate the hot air from the sun porch all around........................ it also does clean the air, about time to change my space guard filter again.