Air Con vs Evaporative Air Cooler vs Pedestal Fan Running Costs 2022
With the weather warming up and the cost of living crisis hitting us all hard, many people may be wondering about how much it costs to run various cooling appliances.
Air Conditioning Unit Running Costs
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- POWERFUL 9000BTU COOLING: Chilly Portable Air Conditioner of 9,000 BTUs, delivers an instant cooling relief for your bedroom, living room or office place. The unit, delivers a max power of 9000BTU for areas that are ideally up to 215 square feet (20m2).
- REAL-TIME DISPLAY & REMOTE CONTROL: Chilly Mobile Air Conditioner includes a digital display indicating the current temperature, view in °F or °C. Its multi-functional control panel plus the remote control allows you to set time, adjust the temperature & switch between modes easily.
- 3-in-1 FUNCTIONS: Chilly, integrates 3 convenient modes: cooling mode, to chill your room in hot weather conditions; fan mode to deliver either gentle or powerful air stream; dry mode to dehumidify the air and keep the room humidity from 40% to 60%.
- PORTABLE & HASSLE-FREE INSTALLATION: Expandable exhaust hose that fits with any Standard Slider or Double Hung Window. The exhaust hose may be stretched out to 1.6 meters of length making the initial installation a breeze!
- HUMANISED DESIGN: Space-saving design with easy-roll omnidirectional & durable casters that help you move your “Chilly” around spaces.
Air conditioning is the only way to effectively cool a room; everything else is just faking it. However, it takes a lot of energy to cool (and warm) things.
Portable air conditioning units have always been notoriously expensive to run. Most of the air conditioning units you see on Amazon have a cooling capacity of 9000 Btu/h or 12000 Btu/h.
Read More: How much does it cost to run a portable air conditioner, and how quickly does it cool a room?
A 12000 Btu/h will typically use around 1200w per hour, while a 9000 Btu/h will be closer to 800w. In theory, they will cost about the same to run if you cool a room down to a specific temperature; just one will be faster than the other (depending on insulation etc).
Last year, I worked out that my Inventor Magic 12000BTU Portable Air Conditioner was costing me 16.38p per hour to run (13.6476p/kWh), which was quite expensive if left on all the time, but not so bad for a few hours per day.
Today, based on variable tariffs (28.02 p/kWh) from British Gas and Bulb, that works out as 33.60p or a 105% price increase.
It is perhaps not prohibitively expensive if you are only running it a couple of hours per day, but I certainly wouldn’t be running it for many hours per day.
Upfront & Running Costs
- Upfront: £300 – 600 for portable air conditioning units
- Running: Roughly 33p per hour for 12000BTU
- £1 per day if used conservatively
Evaporative Air Cooler / Swamp Cooler Running Costs
- POWERFUL AIR COOLER WITH REMOTE: Industry-leading honeycomb waterfall system that passes warm air over ice cold water to distribute cold air throughout a room. Including a control panel and wireless remote control, giving you full access to all operational modes.
- FOUR OPERATIONAL MODES: This 5.5L portable evaporative air cooler operates as a fan only, air cooler, natural mode, and night mode. Additionally with a 7-hour timer and 3 fan speeds this multi-purpose cooler fan is versatile for any air cooling needs.
- ENERGY SAVING & SUSTAINABLE: Featuring an advanced cooling technology that is much more economical when compared to other coolers on the market. Evaporative air coolers are also better for the environment when compared to expensive air conditioners.
- LARGE YET EASY TO USE: Detachable 5.5 Liter water tank with 2x ice packs for coolers. Simply fill with cold water and cooling packs and the unit will automatically cool and moisturize the air to combat dry heat and low humidity - Both of which are bad for your health.
- PORTABLE AND PRE-ASSEMBLED: Featuring 4 easy-roll castor wheels that allow the air cooler to be easily moved from room to room, completely hassle-free. Dimensions: 26.5cm x 28cm x 70cm. Its space-saving design also ensures minimal intrusion.
A popular alternative product is an air cooler, and you absolutely should not get this confused with air conditioning, which many people do.
They are often, not so affectionately, called swamp coolers. They are basically a fan that blows air over water. The cool water cools down the warm air and should cool down the room, or at least the person on the receiving end of the air.
The problem is that warm air passing over water creates humid air, and a humid room will feel warmer and clammier than a room with low humidity.
For obvious reasons, evaporative air cooling is significantly less effective in humid environments. However, in the UK that is not too much of an issue.
You can keep your windows and doors open with these coolers, and considering the humidity, this is likely advisable. These are therefore semi-effective as a personal cooler and should provide a more pleasant cooling effect than a basic fan.
Evaporative air coolers should be no more expensive than a fan to run, because that’s all it is. If you use ice in the water, you may want to factor in the cost of that.
Fans are efficient to run and the electricity usage will vary per fan and depending on the setting you have it on.
Typically, this should be no more than 50-70W, so 0.07kwh. As you are unlikely to have a significant impact on the overall room temperature, you would likely want to run this for several hours per day as a personal cooler. The cost of running it is still going to be minimal.
The smaller desktop models are unlikely to do a great deal. I’d stick to the larger models. They will also be louder to run than a pedestal fan (which is important to me for sleeping).
Upfront & Running Costs
- Upfront: £100 – 150 for free standing towers
- Running: Roughly 2.5p per hour
- 20p per day if used for 10 hours
- Not including the cost of ice (if you use it)
Pedestal Fan Running Costs
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I have reviewed several fans over the years, and they are my go-to piece of cooling tech. Not because they are particularly good, but because they are cheap. It’s basically just recirculating the already warm air. However, blowing the air onto you does definitely make a hot room less miserable.
In particular, I have been on a quest for the ultimate fan to be used during sleep. The trick is to have one that can run as slow as possible with minimum mechanical noise. I am yet to find the perfect solution.
I like pedestal fans because they are cheap, move a lot of air, and the large blades a quieter than tower fans.
My main office/bedroom fan is the Ansio 9-blade 26-speed Pedestal Fan. At its max speed of 26, this will daw 30w.
My Dyson Pure Cool tower fan, which is also an air purifier, uses 40W at its max setting of 10.
Upfront & Running Costs
- Upfront: £30 – 130 depending on how fancy you go. Expensive models tend to have more speeds, can push more air and run quieter.
- Running: Roughly 1.5p per hour
- 15p per day if used for 10 hours
Overall
Obviously, anyone worried about the cost of living should reconsider buying an air conditioning unit. Others may feel the quality of life improvement is worth the cost.
Thankfully I live up north, so there are only about 5 warm days per year. This year, I may consider buying a swamp cooler to see if it improves my comfort during office hours.
I am James, a UK-based tech enthusiast and the Editor and Owner of Mighty Gadget, which I’ve proudly run since 2007. Passionate about all things technology, my expertise spans from computers and networking to mobile, wearables, and smart home devices.
As a fitness fanatic who loves running and cycling, I also have a keen interest in fitness-related technology, and I take every opportunity to cover this niche on my blog. My diverse interests allow me to bring a unique perspective to tech blogging, merging lifestyle, fitness, and the latest tech trends.
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