I have central air and a gas furnace for heating, and I believe one system controls the air circulation. When it gets hot out, the a/c doesn't cool the upstairs well. My thermostat has the option to keep the circulation fan on all the time, not just when the AC (or heat) turn on. I believe this will help a great deal, but hubby says it isn't built for that and we will break something. Is it safe to run the circulation fan all night, or should I save that for more conventional house fans?
Hubby is wrong. I do it all the time, and nothing has broken for years. It's suggested to run the fan all the time during the heating season, this eliminates the high and low temps when the system is cycling on and off. Run it. Mark
It's harder on a motor to turn it on/off than it is to keep it running. Also starting a motor takes more power. If you find it OK to run during daylight, why wouldn't it be OK to run at night?
Break something? If that were a common event, the manufacturers wouldn't give you the opportunity to do so. Their motors honor the "fan" setting of the thermostat, don't they?
If you want to save money, equip your bedroom with a ceiling fan.
If you REALLY want to save money, get a window unit for the bedroom. You can probably get a completely servicable one for less than $200 that will pay for itself in less than a summer.
I've always wondered how much it would cost to run the fan 24/7... Never did investigate much as I don't have a "Kill-A-Watt" or clamp on ammeter.
It is fine to do that, but another option would be a t-stat that has a "circ" option for the fan, where it runs the fan around 30% of the time to even out the temp throughout the house. The Honeywell VisionPro has the option, and I'm sure others do to.
I will often set the fan to ON - it runs continuously - to accomplish exactly what you describe: Even/balanced heating/cooling throughout the home.
The operation manual that came with my new WeatherKing (Rheem) system, installed 2 years ago, mentions - and allows for - running the fan continuously.
Of course, running the fan continuously will require more frequent filter changes. Good luck.
We had a new furmace and central air installed last year.After it was installed the owner came out to show us the system. He then told us that we should run the fan 24/7 because it would keep the temp.more even in the house and in the long run would save money. A week later I told a person at work abuot this ( he just had a house built .) and he said the company that installed his furance / central air told hoim the same thing.
Of course, according to my engineer/friend, that is given 100% power factor and other mumbo-jumbo.
Also, a typical blower motor is 1/2-horsepower. In any case, I'll use that in my calculation as I have always wanted to estimate the CO$T of running my blower 24/7.
My friend said he was being generous when he claimed my motor might be delivering at 80% efficiency. I asked him to guesstimate a WATT amount for my motor: 500. OK. We'll use that.
Now, how much for the electricity?
Omaha Public Power District's highest residential rate is 8.66-cents per kWh. I *LOVE* my "cheap" power!
(I feel sorry for you poor slobs that are - and always will be - paying for a brand new nuke that was decommissioned mere days prior to its going on-line.)
OK. 10-cents/kWh is a good rate to use.
How often would a system CYCLE (turn on-then-off) in a 24-hour period?
Just for the sake of our little calculation, let's say the system would cycle and run for 1/3 of the time.
Using the above figures, the 24/7 blower would cost $1.20/day.
The cycling blower would cost 40-cents/day.
The difference is 80-cents/day time 30 days = $24.
$24 EXTRA per month to run the blower continuously.
Hmmmmmm... That's somewhat more than I had expected. It is considerable.
I may think twice before switching the system from AUTO to ON next time.
At the same time my unit has multi speeds on the fan. When I turn the fan to on the fan runs at the lowest speed. I would need to find the manuals but this may draw a lower wattage.
During hot spells, I always leave the fan on. Last year when I checked with my amprobe, I think the fan used about 6 amps@110V amps. My CAC compressor uses 14 amps@220V. So thats 660W vs 3800W. Big difference. You obviously save more electricity running the fan more and the CAC less.
Our system has a continuously variable blower and the specs require that the fan switch on the thermostat be left in the "On" position all the time. Then the board on the furnace controls everything to do with the fan.
There might be times when it goes completely to off, but most of the time it is always turning at a low speed.
We do the same. An added benefit for us is that continuous running of the fan eliminates the need of a dehumidifier in the basement and the constant circulation keeps the air in the basement fresh and warm or cool (depending upon the season). Our air conditioner runs much less than most of our neighbour's units in houses that are basically the same.
Believe it or not, the circulation fan (if it's a standard 3-speed) uses a fair amount of electricity.
When the heat is off but the fan is on you are blowing about unheated air. I just don't see how that helps anything.
In the summer you definitely don't want to run the fan all the time. When the compressor cuts off there is still a little water on the coils. If you keep the fan running, this water is evaporated and inceases the humidity of the living space.
Summer or winter, the fan does consume some energy.
The blower is, what, 1/4HP? That's about 200 watts. Running for ten extra hours in a day is 2 kwh. At 15c per, that's thirty cents a day, $9.00 a month. To keep the temperature relatively constant.
Plus, keeping the temperature constant via continued circulation doesn't make you think you're going through the hot flashes of menopause. Peace of mind is worth something.
In my house the basement is consistently cooler than the second floor. Keeping the fan running makes both more comfortable. Certainly beats running the A/C cost wise. I left the fan running when I left for work this AM and it was close to 80 degrees out when I got home. The house was about 70 degrees inside, had the A/C set for 77 degrees, so obviously it never kicked on all day. (I must admit that it was cool last night so the inside temp. was about 66-67 degrees when I left, because I'd had the windows open and a big window fan running to cool it off before I went to bed.)
I'm sure that if I *hadn't* had the fan running it would have been at least 75 upstairs if not higher - I can say this because I didn't have the central A/C last year and just had a mercury thermostat with no fan switch, so I didn't have the option of leaving the fan running.
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