How much electricity can a box fan use?

Question

My grandma refuses to use the central heat/air unit. She will only use a few box fans. She refuses to leave the fans on during the day stating that it will "run her power bill up way too much" My question is how much energy will a box fan or two use? I think the woman is crazy and will be happy to get moved out of her house next week. Its 95 degrees outside and we have 1 box fan running in the living room, nothing else.

Answer 1

$20 month

Answer 2

A box fan COULD cost a couple of cents an hour (depends on the size and the rate for electricity in your area).  It's probably true that it isn't the actual cost of running fans and the AC unit.  It is that she is more frugal than you.  In addition, old folks like higher temperatures than younger folks.

  At ten cents a kilowatt/hour, it could cost around a dollar an hour to run the AC unit.

Answer 3

about $5-$10 actually per fan for 120 hours of usage (or like 5 hours a day) so maybe $20 a month per fan if used 24/7.  if you want to get very exact, you can buy a $25 watt measurer.  it might be a smart investment to coax your grandma into using certain products.  or, if you don't want to do that, buy $25 in energy efficient lightbulbs - should be enough to change out all the lights in an apartment.  the lightbulb savings would probably equal out with the cost of the fan.