Fans provide that much needed respite from stagnant air, but they can also help lower your home energy bills. You can use fans to enjoy exercising indoors or to keep your computer area safely cooled. You might even make your house more attractive for resale by having a residential electrician install a new ceiling fan and other energy upgrades. Still, the traditional, portable box fan has a lot of fans. Is there still a reason to choose box fans over ceiling fans?
Box Fans
Most people love a nice breeze, and a box fan lets you enjoy air circulation targeted at specific areas (or perhaps the chair you like to sit in). Box fans also allow for relatively easy portability and a non-permanent solution—you won’t need to call a residential electrician to plug in a box fan. If you’re about to move out of an apartment, box fans may be all you need. If you are building a room addition or renovating the house, you can use a box fan to augment your air circulation.
Box fan key details:
- Price options from very affordable to deluxe
- Easy or no installation required
- Ability to move to different locations
- Wired—must be close enough to plug and cord will be out
- Typically have multiple speed options
- Lacks ability to help push warm air down in winter
For a blast of air needed in a single location, you can run out and buy a box fan and you obviously won’t need a residential electrician to help install it. However, make sure to consider all the details: will you need an extension cord? Will the box fan need to take up space on a piece of furniture in order to circulate the air where you need it?
Ceiling Fans
For esthetics and functionality, the ceiling fan offers many significant upgrades over a box fan. With ceiling fans, you get air circulation and cooling with the flick of a switch. Box fans require the hassle of dealing with a cord, and often present a decorating challenge. Ceiling fans can come with or without overhead lights and allow for any decorative style you prefer. A residential electrician can help explain your options, the best locations for fans in your home, and how to achieve better energy efficiency.
Perhaps most important, however, is the fact that ceiling fans offer better energy efficiency over time and provide help lowering your energy costs during the winter. Ceiling fans and overhead lights often use half as much energy as other fan and light solutions—ask your residential electrician about the most efficient solutions. In the winter, ceiling fan blades can be reversed to push warm air downward so you don’t have to turn up the thermostat.
Ceiling fan key details:
- Tons of style, color, and price options
- Simple installation by a residential electrician
- Potentially an involved DIY project if you have electrical knowledge
- Whole-room circulation
- Typically have multiple speed options
- Summer and winter settings for energy efficiency
- Installing Fans with a Residential Electrician
Depending on your home’s wiring and the location where you want a fan, installation can range in difficulty from very easy to only moderately complicated. In any event, a residential electrician can install the wiring and ceiling fan seamlessly, doing a professional job that leaves your ceiling and walls in perfect condition. Some ceiling fans can be installed as a DIY project by enterprising homeowners, but it may be worth hiring a pro residential electrician to ensure speed and quality of installation and a perfectly functioning fan you can enjoy year-round.
