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The short answer: most tower fans draw 40 to 60 watts on high and 15 to 25 watts on low. Slim bladeless models land at 40 to 55 watts; efficient DC-motor towers run 20 to 30 watts. At the US average residential rate of about 17 cents per kilowatt-hour reported by the EIA, that is well under a penny an hour — roughly 6 to 8 cents for an 8 hour night and about 6 dollars for a whole summer of nightly use. A fan is one of the cheapest appliances in the house to run.
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What does that cost per night and per season?
Watts times hours divided by 1,000, times your electricity rate. The figures below use 17 cents per kilowatt-hour; state averages run roughly 11 to 33 cents according to EIA data, so scale accordingly if you are in New England, California or Hawaii. The headline point holds everywhere: even the highest-draw tower fan in the most expensive state costs less to run overnight than a single load of laundry.
| Fan | Watts | Per hour | 8 hour night | Summer (8 h x 90 nights) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tower fan, low | 20 | 0.003 | 0.03 | 2.45 |
| Tower fan, high | 50 | 0.009 | 0.07 | 6.12 |
| Large tower, high | 65 | 0.011 | 0.09 | 7.96 |
| DC-motor tower, high | 25 | 0.004 | 0.03 | 3.06 |
| Ceiling fan, high | 15 – 75 | 0.003 – 0.013 | 0.02 – 0.10 | 1.84 – 9.18 |
| Box fan, high | 60 – 100 | 0.010 – 0.017 | 0.08 – 0.14 | 7.34 – 12.24 |
| Portable AC | 900 – 1,400 | 0.15 – 0.24 | 1.22 – 1.90 | 110 – 171 |
Why do tower fans use so little?
Because they are moving air, not changing its temperature. An air conditioner has to run a compressor to move heat outdoors against a pressure difference, which is inherently power-hungry; a fan just spins an impeller. The consequence worth acting on is that a fan and a warmer thermostat setting beat air conditioning alone. The Department of Energy notes fan use permits raising the thermostat about 4°F with no perceived loss of comfort, and a 50 watt fan replacing several hundred watts of compressor time is a straightforward win.
The mechanism is the wind-chill effect ENERGY STAR describes for ceiling fans, which is also why an empty room should have the fan switched off. The catch is that the saving only exists if the air conditioner setting actually goes up. Running a fan alongside an unchanged thermostat just adds 50 watts. Setpoint strategy is in best temperature to set AC to save money.
How do I lower the draw further?
Three levers, in order of effect. Run the fan on a lower speed — power falls steeply with speed on any fan, so medium often gives most of the comfort for half the watts. Use the sleep timer so it stops after the first few hours rather than running until morning. And switch it off in an empty room: a fan produces no cooling without a person in the airstream, which is the single most-wasted watt in most houses.
- Medium instead of high — a large drop in watts for a small drop in airflow.
- Timer or sleep mode rather than all night.
- DC motor if you are buying new and run a fan constantly.
- Clean the intake grille — a dusty fan works harder for less air.
What a fan can and cannot do is covered in do tower fans cool a room, expected service life in how long do tower fans last, and the format comparisons in tower fan vs pedestal fan and tower fan vs box fan. More in the heating and cooling hub.