In a heating world, let's explore window fans
Assuming you live somewhere quiet enough to better accommodate them
By D Menzies
It’s been a bit cooler these past couple of weeks in ole Chilltown, but as I’ve passed by places with air conditioners in the windows, I’ve noticed those air conditioners are usually still blasting even when it feels like 70 degrees (21 degrees Celsius) outside.
That’s people’s prerogative, but it’s also clear to me there are people who keep their air conditioners on continuously during the summer, from when it’s 70 degrees to 100 degrees (38 degrees Celsius), and there’s some overlap with people who keep them in during the winter and use them to supplement heating systems.
Look up at a sea of windows in an apartment building, and what someone probably won’t see very often is a window fan. I’m not talking about relatively new buildings that provide a central air conditioning option for their apartments. But everywhere else there are buildings, what’s more a more common sight than a small gray air conditioner working overtime?
Earlier this month, during a heatwave, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani asked the city’s residents to set their air conditioners to 78 degrees to lessen the chance of the power grid failing. It garnered some right-wing complaints, and one not entirely unreasonable check of the city government offices that found a few offices with temperatures that wavered below this at times.
Reportedly soon thereafter the Department of Energy deleted more than a thousand pages on energy conservation.
One reporter referred to the move as “broad and indiscriminate,” noting “pages about water conservation, types of insulation, and its solar decathlon challenge” were among what was deleted.
I’m writing this because the use of a window fan as a primary cooling device is worth noting, particularly because of how minimal the wattage used for even a slightly advanced version of a fan is compared to an air conditioner.
Fans are so much cheaper, but …
Is outside noise an issue?
There are caveats about window fans, and some of them are more surmountable than others. First, for people who don’t live in a quiet area, window fans would let more noise through than air conditioners — which, to some degree, make up for how much noise they let in with their own static noise. Fans also provide a certain kind of white or brown noise, but they are unable to dampen that music from a needlessly bass-heavy stereo the way an air conditioner will to more of an extent.
As I write this, it occurs to me how commonly air conditioners some remain in the windows of homes in the most disenfranchised and noisiest neighborhood windows year-round; and that’s probably not a coincidence.
It’s indicative of a sociological hump in thinking about window fans as an option.
More so than dealing with the sun at its most “angry”-UV level, this is the least easily surmountable caveat of fans as main cooling system.
The best fan for cooling, and any window fan’s worst downside
There’s a particularly effective kind of fan for trying to cool off a room or a housing unit, and it’s not the one pictured above. It’s the kind with dual-blades. One fan pulling air out, and the other pulling it in.
The best temperature for people to sleep is generally considered the mid-60s, and it’s a temperature range that a somewhat fancy dual blade fan can have.
But as with all fans in a window, the downside of pulling air from the outside is that it will suck bugs through the blades.
If someone is using a fan’s highest setting over the course of several hours the floor below that window can look like the counter of an open-air pizzeria that let a gnat infestation take hold.
Okay. Maybe it’s not that bad. Some people would actually consider it a small caveat, but tending to the remains of bugs can invite a level of pause.
The need to treat shade like a garden to tend to
A cooling tip that can make the difference between a home feeling like it’s 100-plus degrees or a home feeling like it’s 90 degrees?
Keep as much space in that home in the shade as possible. Don’t open any windows that face the sun, or at least close them accordingly as the sun moves from east to west.
When the sun is shining on glass on a hot day, that glass may as well be a magnifying glass for heat.
It’s unlikely for most people to have or to be able to make cover enough that the sun doesn’t beat down on a window fan, so one of the biggest caveats is not minding how not optimal it is to have them on in a window while the sun is blaring down on it.
Using a fan in such conditions is an odd feeling. Nobody does their best thinking when it’s hot, and there’s a level of wishful thinking, maybe, in thinking there has to be some relief from any airflow.
For the average person who doesn’t have body temperature control regulation issues (as smaller children, seniors and other people have depending on various factors), it might feel more like “just” another unpleasant stretch of time in hot, humid weather (that should also be mitigated by staying properly hydrated, etc.).
For those that do have temperature control regulation issues, it can be particularly dangerous. Cooling centers generally have air conditioning for this reason.
If someone is fortunate enough to have air conditioning, especially in the time of heat domes, they’re an invaluable tool. Heat pumps are another option, though the need to install them or pay for as much is another hurdle in the sociological vein; they also use consume much more energy than a fan, so for someone looking for the most cost-efficient way to cool their homes and is fortunate enough to be able to handle the caveats, it’s hard to find a better choice than a dual-blade window fan.
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