Oh my, the weather forecast has announced blood-hot days again! I bet many of you will be sweating profusely at night. If you have an air conditioner or fan in your home, you’ll be happy to know that it feels like a real relief to leave it on all night. This will just cost some energy and therefore money. How much will you spend for it?
Air conditioner or fan?
If you are in doubt during the hot days whether it is better to turn on a fan or air conditioner, the answer is simple: a fan. This is cheaper, more environmentally friendly and uses a lot less power than an air conditioner. Milieu Centraal calculates that a fan left on for 110 hours uses 5.5 kWh of electricity. A mobile air conditioner that blows cool air around for the same amount of time uses 110 kWh.
The costs of a fan
So, according to Milieu Centraal, a fan that is on for 110 hours consumes 5.5 kWh of electricity. That works out to 0.05 kWh per hour. Are you assuming a night in which the fan is on for 8 hours? Then you use 0.4 kWh per night. In terms of costs, this amounts to €0.02 per hour and €0.16 for an entire night, according to Max Vandaag. These amounts are calculated with the tariff that applies under the price ceiling (€ 0.40 per kWh). Of course, how high the costs actually turn out depends on how long the fan is on and your energy contract.
How much an air conditioner costs per night
And then there’s the air conditioner, which we can safely call an energy guzzler. How much electricity your air conditioner consumes and what you pay for it depends on the type of device you have. For example, the single split air conditioner is the smallest consumer when compared to a mobile air conditioner or multi-split air conditioner, according to figures from Milieu Centraal. On average, the single split air conditioner consumes about 0.73 to 0.75 kWh per hour. That works out to 5.84 to 6 kWh per night. If you calculate again with rates currently under the price ceiling, that comes down to €0.29 to €0.30 per hour and €2.34 to €2.40 per night.
Do you opt for the mobile air conditioner or the multi-split air conditioner? Then, according to Max Today, the following amounts apply per hour and per night:
- The mobile air conditioner consumes 1 kWh per hour and thus 8 kWh per night. That amounts to €0.40 per hour and €3.20 per night.
- The multi-split air conditioner consumes even more. The advantage of this air conditioner is that it can cool several rooms, but it also consumes more energy. Per hour it consumes 1.65 kWh, which amounts to 13.2 kWh per night. This is equivalent to €0.66 per hour and €5.28 per night of 8 hours.
