During summer, when the days are the hottest and most humid, you need air-conditioning in your home. But what about when it’s merely warm during the day, yet cool after the sun sets? During the temperate seasons, usually in spring and fall, your house can be uncomfortably warm inside even when the air outside is cool and comfortable. Lots of cool air outside, free for the taking. But inside your house is too warm. You might open the windows, but what if the air isn’t moving? If only there was a breeze to move the cool air in and the warm air out!
If nature doesn’t provide a breeze, make your own with window fans. All fans make you feel cooler by moving air over your body — as long as the air is cooler than body temperature, moving air will make you feel cooler. Window fans not only move the air, they exchange the air inside for air from outside. Whenever the air outside is cooler than the air inside, window fans can cool your house for much less than the cost of air-conditioning. Air-conditioners use a lot of electrical power (i.e., money) to cool the air. Window fans don’t cool the air, they merely move cool air from outside to inside.
You can choose which direction you want the air to move through a window fan: from outside to inside, or vice-versa. You might experiment with two window fans in the same room or opposite rooms, one fan set to intake, the other to exhaust. Another possibility is a window fan in an upstairs room set to exhaust and another one downstairs set to intake. This takes advantage of the fact that warm air naturally rises.
Use window fans to keep comfortable without air conditioning for as long as possible and you will see the difference in your electric bills and your checking account.
