Electricity is pretty expensive here in the Philippines. That is, when you can get it. Thankfully we’ve been in a much better situation with regards to brownouts for the past coupe months or so. I sure hope that holds.
Just prior to my trip to the U.S. I had gotten on a mission to lower my Davao Light electric bill. It had climbed to a level that I was unhappy with. I knew I could do better and I wanted to find out how. So I invested some of my energy into that.
One of the main things that had prompted me to do all this was the frustration of an old refrigerator that led to the purchase of a new one. The old one had gotten to the point where it was running constantly. I put a lot of time, effort and money into getting it to work better, but in the end I gave up. I’m glad I did, as the new refrigerator is much more efficient and keeps things much colder and drier, too.
To help me analyze my situation I purchased a power watt meter. More on that in another article. After doing an analysis of all my electrical appliances I learned, as most of us know, that the aircons are energy hogs. What I didn’t realize was the even when they aren’t cooling the fans are using 60+ watts. And that’s one area I decided to focus on, as I was running my aircon fan continuously in place of a regular fan.
I tested all my fans and found that even in the lowest setting, the least any of them used was about 35-40 watts. I wondered if there were fans out there that were more energy-efficient. My first attempt to find something didn’t turn up much. Most fans were rated about 55-60 watts. I did find a cheap, portable overhead fan that used only 9 watts, but it’s effectiveness is limited.
One day while stopping in SM Appliance I saw them assembling a fan that was different from others I had seen. They wanted to show it to me, but when I asked the price and found it to be near P5000, I said “no thanks”. I left, but later came back because I wanted to see what was so great about this fan that they could ask that much for it.
What was so special about this fan? Well for one thing it is a DC inverter fan and it has very low watt usage, which is exactly what I was looking for. Turns out they had two models – one that is rechargeable, and one that is plugged in only. The rechargeable one commands a bit higher price, and since that was not a feature I was looking for I focused on the plugged variety.
The model of this fan is an Asahi DC-6072 DCIII 16″ fan. It has a lot of bells and whistle, including a remote, which add to the cost. None of those really matter to me, I was interested in its wattage usage. It is rated at 24 watts – top speed. Unlike other fans which have just a few speeds settings, it has variable speed from 1 to 24. That was appealing to me. I never use my fans at top speed, so I was pretty happy to find out that at 12 (which I assumed correlated to watts) the fan was putting out plenty of air for me. Come to learn later (yes, I ended buying one) that at 12 it is only using 7 watts. That was a pleasant surprise. At 24, without the oscillation, it uses 20 watts as tested by my meter.
This is an expensive fan. I paid P4370 for it. It would take me a long time to recoup the cost of the fan in terms of energy usage, but maybe not as long as it would first seem. I decided to get it and in doing so I’ve eliminated the use of other fans. Instead of using my aircon fans in my den and bedroom, I use this fan now. The bedroom aircon fan was using 70 watts at the lowest setting (fan only, no cooling) AND I was supplementing that with another fan using over 40 watts. I now use only the DC fan at watts for the duration of my sleep.
The aircon fan in my den was using 60 watts (fan only), so during the day I’m saving that also. I rarely run aircon now, which is a separate savings of course, except to cool the bedroom prior to sleep. It had occurred to me that it rarely came on at night anyway with the setting I had it on. It usually only cooled to temp and then held.
It’s not as convenient to move the one fan around as I move from room to room, but to me it’s worth it. I do have another floor fan that I can use if needed, and of course the aircons are still installed ready to supply the cooler air when I just can’t take the heat.
Aug 25, 2014 @ 03:58:55
You made me check my fan. We use a standing rechargeable fan that is listed at 30 watts (Leetec LT-627).
No fancy stuff like a remote, but it does great work maintaining the AC’s cool air after shutting it off. Being rechargeable, It’s not always plugged and I only remember to plug it in when it dies down. Wish I could remember the price though.
Aug 25, 2014 @ 12:56:20
That’s a great solution too. When I tested things that needed charging, they only use a fraction of the wattage that they would be rated at running. If you are happy with the fan’s output, then that works!!
Aug 25, 2014 @ 10:46:18
We had three split-type air conditioning units put in and we’ve yet to use more than two at a time. We didn’t use them at all during the cooler months, Dec-Feb. We used a couple of fans just so we could sleep.
Our don’t know what your electric bill is like, but our largest in 7 years was about 7500 pesos, after we’d had the downstairs AC running all day, with visitors going in and out.
Even with a washer and dryer, it’s never been real high.
Aug 25, 2014 @ 12:58:48
I’ve never been in a place, that I was living in, that had the split inverter aircons. I understand they are much more efficient than the window type, especially if you want to do a large room or whole house. I’ve also heard that it is more efficient to let them run 24 hours.
If I had the right place, that’s what I do, assuming I could afford the unit(s).
I guess in the bigger picture my electric bills are pretty small. But when my budget is also small, it looks a lot bigger. It can be one of my larger monthly expenses if I let it. I’m pretty sure I have it down to where I want it, though I haven’t seen a complete month since I made the changes. I’ve had two months of bills that I was gone half the time.
Aug 26, 2014 @ 04:09:35
Well, Randy, I’m a frugal kind of guy with the belief that we have to live with what we can afford. I have no problem with using next to nothing. Heck, the many brownouts we had in one year proved it.
On the other hand, the next major investment for me is a diesel generator (although I’d love to have a battery bank power inverter instead, though I doubt I can find one and I don’t know how to build one).
Aug 26, 2014 @ 09:07:22
I’ve always been frugal too. Often called kuripot here, though it is probably meant more as stingy.
One can live comfortably on little here if they choose to watch their spending and don’t try to make it just like back home.
Feb 02, 2015 @ 16:10:37
On the other hand I bought the counterpart which was the rechargeable model. For the amount of 4,985 I had never been happier to have invested on a quality product! How much was the power watt meter? Thanks for this article youve given me a broad understanding about the importance & effeciency of the fan I just bought!
Feb 03, 2015 @ 06:53:26
The watt reader was just under P1000. I happy that I bought it, and it’s paid for itself already.