central air?

Question

i have central air in my home, and my question is... would it be better to run my central a/c fan switch on auto or on?
wich one would help me save on energy?

Answer 1

If you run your "fan" switch on the thermostat in the "on" position, your blower in your Air handler/ furnace will operate non-stop untill you change it back again to "auto". In the auto mode, the fan will kick on and off with the air conditioning as the thermostat calls for it. Therefore, having your fan switch in "auto" will be mor efficient than on "on".

Answer 2

Setting the thermostat switch to auto will gellerally save you energy. This is assuming that if you set your thermostat back at night while your sleeping or during the day when your not at home, that you only set it back a few degrees. It's important to understand that temperature setback means that both the air and all the furnishings in our home are aloud to warm up by the mount of setback. So when we ask for the system to return to normal cooling, both the air and furnishings must be cooled down. The time and energy it takes to cool the air down is minimal, because air as no mass. However cooling down the furnishing which includes walls, floors, ceilings, fixtures, basically everything in the house takes much more time and energy because they all have greater mass than air. So the real challenge to saving energy is finding a thermostat setback point that allows the system to recover from setback using less energy then keeping the home at a constant setting with the switch in auto. Keeping your filter clean will also save energy.

Setting the switch to ON is useful if you have a lager home or a room within your room that is difficult to keep comfortable. By running the fan at all times you will circulate air even if the system is not cooling. This will help keep all the rooms in your home at or close to the same temperature. Running the fan at all times will use more energy, but not a lot. A 2000 square foot home might run $100 a year. Don't forget to change your filters more often with the fan always running.

Hope this answers your question.

Answer 3

Central Air.

Answer 4

As explained above, if you put it on the "on" position it will run until it burns up. Do you have any ceiling fans that can help the air circulate? I have a thermostat that will allow the fan to run 20 mins every hour. So if the AC is not called for it will still come and run the 20 min/ hr to keep the air circulated and I don't have to worry about leaving it on. good luck

Answer 5

Runnig it in the on position with vents open high and less open, or closed lower vents, will insure a more stable temp. throughout the house, letting the compressor work less by not having to catch up all the time with heat fluctuations.Return air open lower and less open higher as well will balance the system nicely.