If the fan spins, does the electricity use more? Ways to save costs
October 3, 20244 Mins Read
Lifestyle Desk: It is very hot in spring. In this, the price of electricity at the consumer level has increased. On the one hand, the prices of daily commodities are skyrocketing, in the meantime, gas and electricity prices are increasing, and common people are getting angry.

the fan

Meanwhile, scientists say, due to the effect of 'El Nino', this summer will be longer and the temperature may exceed the record. As a result, more fans have to be run in summer. Naturally, the electricity bill will be higher!

However, there is a confusion among many people whether running the fan on high or low does not affect the power consumption. Many people say that whether the fan rotates strongly or slowly, the electricity consumption is the same. Is it really so? In order to understand the matter, a detailed discussion is needed on some issues.

How much electricity a fan will consume depends on several factors. Like—brand, coil quality, fan (blade) length, average daily run time, air supply rate, speed of air supplied, rotation rate per minute etc.

Typically, a 30-inch fan consumes 42 watts, a 36-inch fan 55 watts, a 42-inch fan 65 watts, a 48-inch fan 75 watts, and a 52-inch fan 84 watts.

Fan power is measured in watts and kilowatts. It is basically a calculation of the rate at which a device consumes electricity. For example, a 100 watt ceiling fan uses 100 watts of electricity per hour. Where 100 watts is one kilowatt.

The electricity consumption of a ceiling fan per hour is measured in kilowatt-hours. For example, a 100-watt fan running continuously for 24 hours uses 2,400 watt-hours of electricity, which is 2.4 kilowatt-hours. That means it will consume 2.4 units of electricity daily.

The biggest confusion about fan power consumption is speed. Many people think that the higher the power consumption, the higher the speed. Others say that the speed of rotation of the fan has nothing to do with the power consumption.

Let's try to clear this confusion: There are different types of regulators used to control fan speed. One type of regulator uses a potentiometer. This meter is connected in series circuit with the fan line. The resistors inside this meter control the fan speed by controlling the voltage.

The way to recognize this meter is: It is a dash-shaped meter on the switch board. It has a knob. Marks are written on the body from 0 to 5 or 6. This means that each stage of the knob has a different value resistor. Different resistors for different speeds are connected to the fan line in class circuit. Thus a higher quality resistor drops more voltage, resulting in a lower voltage to the fan, causing the fan to spin more slowly.

With this type of regulator the power consumption remains the same irrespective of the fan speed. This is because in all cases there is no variation in power flow and the same amount of power is wasted. AC electricity voltage in Bangladesh is usually 220 volts. When the resistor inside the regulator reduces the voltage, that reduced power generates heat. This type of regulator gets hot because of this.

But these days potentiometer type regulators are no longer used. Much cheaper regulators are now available in the market. Among these, the most widely used regulators in Bangladesh use TRIAC controllers. Its full name is triode for alternating current. A triac is a bidirectional three-electrode AC switch. This type of switch allows or controls the flow of electricity in a specific direction.

The current can be controlled by changing the firing angle in the triac regulator. Such regulators are quite small. Can be mounted on a switchboard just like a normal switch. The fan speed can be increased or decreased by turning its knob to control the current flow.

The current is limited by limiters or zero detectors, basically by changing the firing angle by turning the knob. As a result, it also reduces the average voltage of electricity flowing to the fan. Thus the fan speed is reduced. Electrical power is measured as the product of current (flow) and voltage (watt=amp x volt). So in this way the power consumption can be reduced by reducing the current and voltage at the same time.

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Therefore, it can be said that whether or not power consumption can be reduced by reducing the fan speed depends on the type of regulator being used. Controlling fan speed using an old fashioned resistor regulator does not actually reduce power consumption. As a result, the cost will not be saved. But using a triac type regulator will result in more or less power consumption depending on the fan speed. That is, if the fan rotates at a low speed, the power consumption will also be low.