How does Power Consumption of our Fan Impact the Electricity Bill?

While we enter a new normal and resume our routine tasks from our homes, the pandemic has changed our lives in many ways. For one, we have stayed indoors for a year and a half now, resulting in the work from home culture reshaping the employee experience for many organisations. Similarly, children went to school online workshops and virtual classrooms from their own rooms. This also gave rise to a spike in power consumption in our homes while everyone continued their routine by going digital in almost every aspect!

As most of us spent time in our separate rooms to avoid any disturbing noises and concentrate on our work, it has led to a significant increase in our monthly electricity bills as well. We had our laptops, mobile phones charged up every day, to make sure there were no technical glitches while working and studying from home. Our Wi-Fi devices, home appliances like fans and ACs were been used for a comparatively much longer duration. It is important to note that in most Indian households, the ceiling fan is the most common appliance used in our homes, almost every single day of the year running 24x7. Thereby, making it important to understand and rethink how our fan can impact the electricity bills of our home.

• Understanding Power Consumption by Fans:

The power consumption of a fan often is influenced by the sweep (radius) of the blades, the air delivery rate and the revolution per minute of the motor, where in most ceiling fans have rated power anywhere between 60 -100 watts.

The rate of electricity per unit differs across India. In Delhi, for instance, the rate per unit for domestic energy supply is Rs. 3/kWh for consumption up to 200 units a month, Rs. 4.50/kWh for 201-400 units a month, Rs. 6.50/kWh for 401-800 units a month, Rs. 7/kWh for consumption between 801-1200 units a month, and Rs. 8/kWh beyond 1200 units of consumption in a month.

An average household of Urban India consumes 200-400 units of electricity per month. In the pandemic, where the work and school from home culture has become the new normal, it is safe to assume that 3 fans operate the whole day, i.e., 24 hours. So, accordingly calculate how much the power consumption of our fans impacts our electricity bill.
 

 

• How Can We Save Power & Money with Energy Efficient Fans?

As we understand the math behind power consumptions by fans in Indian households, we need to review our products and make a conscious choice of opting for energy efficient variants in Fans, especially in the recent times where every family member probably runs their personal fans for the whole day. We can always opt for energy efficient fans that are powered by Activ-BLDC motor technology, one of the prime factors for its high full-speed savings. These fans consume only 35W of power vs. traditional fans that consume 75W of power, that in turn helps us save Rs. 1500 per fan adding up to Rs.6000 for an average of 4 fans in an Indian household.

While being energy efficient, these fans don’t let us compromise on air comfort by offering a speed of 370 RPM and air delivery of 220 CMM. They also come with 98% power factor, i.e. the ratio of usable power to total power, making them highly energy efficient. These fans can also be remote controlled with sleep timer, speed control, multi-pairing and intelligent memory which uses RF technology for added convenience, hence allowing us to operate the fan without having to point at it creating an ease of operation. These energy efficient fans also come equipped with IoT connectivity, making them easily accessible with voice-enabled assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant thereby, making our life and home convenient and energy efficient.

There are also a couple of additional reasons that affect the efficiency of a normally functioning fan, one of them being dust accumulation. While regular cleaning can be a quite a hassle especially when it comes to ceiling fans that are not easily accessible, hiring professionals for servicing results in spending more money! We can avoid this by opting for fans that come equipped with Anti-Dust technology which attract 50% less dust than regular fans, making it more cost-effective and maintenance-friendly.

• How to Start?

We can always start with basic energy-saving practices like - Turning off the ceiling fan when not in use, avoiding the fan while other cooling appliances like AC’s, Air Coolers are turned on, and not forgetting to turn off the fan while leaving the room. However, if we are looking for saving up on energy and monthly bills for the longer run, it is always smart to opt for an energy-efficient fan that helps us regulate and crunch the power consumption significantly. As we continue working from home, and spending more time indoors with our loved ones we need to start making conscious choices in terms of energy consumption by our home appliances to make a difference tomorrow that is beneficial to both, us and the planet at large!

- Rangarajan Sriram, Vice President - Fans, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals