How much does it cost to run a ceiling fan?
We've pre-filled a typical ceiling fan below. Set your electricity rate and adjust the hours to match how you use yours — the cost updates instantly.
Typical power 65W
Usual range 15–100W
Category Heating & cooling
A ceiling fan is one of the cheapest appliances in the house — even running all day it costs only pennies, because it draws far less than a single old light bulb. A fan doesn't cool the air; it moves it, so the wind-chill effect lets you feel a few degrees cooler.
That's the real money move: a fan running for cents an hour lets you nudge the air conditioner up two or three degrees, and the AC is where the dollars actually are.
What drives the cost of running a ceiling fan
- Watts depend on speed — high is a few times more than low, but it's all small.
- An older fan with an incandescent light kit costs more for the bulbs than the motor.
- Left on in empty rooms it wastes money for no benefit — fans cool people, not rooms.
How to cut it
- Turn it off when you leave the room; it only helps if someone's there to feel it.
- Swap any bulbs in the fixture for LEDs — that's usually the bigger load.
- Use it to justify a higher AC setpoint; the fan's pennies save the AC's dollars.