All About Fan Mode in AC | Its Application & Power Consumption

There are various modes in your AC like cool, auto, etc.

But What is fan mode?

As the name suggest in fan mode only the fan is operational and the main component of the air conditioner which is the compressor is OFF.

It does not offer any cold air but rather circulates or blows air.

The compressor is heart of any air conditioning system. Without it no cooling is done. When the compressor is running then only your AC produce cool air.

There are two fans in a split AC. One is inside the indoor unit used to circulate the cool air inside your room and another fan is inside the outdoor or the condensor unit used to throw the hot air in the outdoor environment.

You can read this article to know how an air conditioning system works.

Does both fans in the indoor and outdoor unit runs in the fan mode?

To find the answer I ran my window AC, and found both fans to be running.

Is this true for all the aircon.

Cannot say, do tell me about your AC in the comments.

Is Fan mode of any use?

If you google this question you will find answers like

It saves energy as the compressor is non-operational
It takes less power
It helps in circulating the room air

The above answers are obvious and we all know that.

But I found one very useful feature of this mode which helps me to sleep better.

I winters when the temperature is low we do not require any kind of cooling from ceiling fans, coolers, or air conditioners, etc.

This is the time when there is pin drop silence and even if a pencil drops in the apartment just below or above us we will hear it.

That is fine in the daytime but in the night time, the slightest of noise can break our sleep.

That is not the case with every individual but it is true for many like me. My neighbors have the habit to watch TV and listen to music throughout the night, this breaks my sleep and hinders my sleep time.

So I run the fan mode of my ac, it creates a lot of white noise. This noise masks any unwanted noise and disturbance from my neighbors.

And I sleep a good night sleep.

“Good night sleep is crucial for Good health”

How much power AC use on Fan Mode?

In fan mode only the fan is operational that is why the power consumed in this case is equal to power consumed by the fan.

An air conditoner’s fan wattage can vary from 40-50 watt.

AC is a heavy load appliance. A 1 ton AC is generally equal to 1000 watt and so 1.5 ton to 1500 watt.

You can see the difference between the wattage of the enitre AC and its internal fan.

The compressor itself consumes most of the power in AC whereas the fan only consumes 3-5 % of the power.

Which consume more power Ceiling Fan or AC Fan?

Aircon fan delivers low volume of air and is of low wattage varying from 40-50 watt while ceiling fan delivers high volume of air and is of wattage varying from 100-150 watts. Therfore ceiling fan consumes more power than an AC’s fan.

AC’s fan is a type of blower which produces concentrated airflow, this is crucial for delivering AC’s cool air far away to any spot of a room.

While a ceiling fan circulates air in the entire room with equal airflow.

Another way to compare power consumption for both is to see the size of a fan.

AC’s fan is smaller in size whereas a ceiling fan’s size is bigger and so we can say that the bigger one consumes more power.