Picked a $9 box fan over a $400 window AC unit last July in Phoenix, and my electric bill showed me something
Last July in Phoenix, when my old window AC finally died, I had two choices staring at me: drop $400 on a new one or grab a $9 box fan from the hardware store down the street. I went with the fan, mostly because I was broke and it was 115 degrees out and I needed something that day. Here's the thing though, I set that fan up to pull air through my place at night when it drops to like 85, then shut all the windows by 8am and closed the blinds. My electric bill went from $210 in June to $140 in July, and I honestly didn't feel that much worse. I'm not saying a fan replaces AC for everyone, especially if you have kids or health issues, but the gap between what I assumed I needed and what actually worked was wild. That $70 a month I saved is real money that a lot of folks around here could use. Has anyone else tried switching to a fan and shade setup instead of running AC all day, and how did it go for you?
Did you rig up a second fan to blow the hot air out or just the one pulling air in? I did the same thing in Tucson a few summers back and the trick for me was putting a box fan in one window blowing out and cracking another window on the shady side. It's nuts how much of a difference 85 degree night air can make when you actually move it through the place.