Hi folks, I’m Jon Mullen the Energy Evangelist. This month we're looking at savings on your HVAC resources (that’s your Heating, Ventilation and Air Con), and today we’re talking about air fans.

During times of hot weather fans can help your office maintain comfortable temperature, humidity and air movement. Moving air can make extreme temperature and humidity feel more comfortable and reduce the use for air conditioning. Each degree of higher temperature can increase the cost of air con costs by about three percent. That means a 5 degree increase will raise your air con running costs by 15%.

I’ve heard it so many times “You’ve got air-con, what do you need a fan for?” That is the voice of someone who doesn’t care. But on the flip side of the coin, that manager will expect the same amount of work to be completed by struggling staff. 

A breeze created by a fan can make room temperature feel as if it is 3 degrees cooler. But one word of warning - a circular fan is the quickest way to throw an ordered stack of paperwork all over the floor. In an office with lots of paperwork it’s better to have a vertical fan which oscillates. Also, if you have windows which open in the office place the fan beside the window which is currently shaded from the sun as this air is cooler.

Here is an article about using your HVAC system to reduce the spread of Covid-19 (please remember this is a very fast moving topic of conversation, so this may be superceded) - https://theconversation.com/how-to-use-ventilation-and-air-filtration-to-prevent-the-spread-of-coronavirus-indoors-143732

I’m Jon Mullen the Energy Evangelist. Come and find out how to save more energy and cash at EnergyEvangelist.co.uk