What Is A Window Fan?
Summers can get pretty hot and uncomfortable, especially when living in a tropical country like India. This calls for the usage of various cooling appliances such as air coolers, air conditioners, and fans. While air coolers and air conditioners are on the costlier side, fans are the most popular and economical way of cooling homes in India.
A window fan is a cooling appliance that is mounted on a window frame. They usually have expandable side panels that cover the window completely to facilitate the airflow from it.
Window fans have an advantage over other room fans – they not only circulate the air within the room, but they can also replace the stale air inside the room by continually replacing it with fresh air from outside. Thus, window fans are the ultimate air-cooling and purifying appliance. They are perfect for small rooms that tend to get stuffy and humid, but they can also be mounted in windows of large rooms that require greater amount of air circulation and ceiling fans aren’t enough.
Purpose Of A Window Fan
The primary purpose of a window fan is to cool the room and maintain a continuous fresh supply of air in it. These fans basically work in one of the two following ways:
- Drawing in fresh and cool air from outside
- Pushing out warm and stale air from the room
The position in which the fan is placed determines its function. They can either perform the above-mentioned functions independently or simultaneously. The combination of these two functions of window fans creates great ventilation for your home or office.
Features of a Window Fan
- Window fans generally operate on less energy to cool a room and also purify the air within.
- Window Fans are light and portable. So, you can shift them from one place to another at your convenience.
- They are equipped with high-performance motors and hence, do not produce much noise while operating.
- Most models come with a Timer feature that allows you to set a time for turning the device off. This feature helps save energy.
- Some models even come with remote controls that allow you to control the fan speed and operation from anywhere in the room. So, you don’t have to get up every time you want to change the fan speed or turn it on/off!
- Some window fans come with a a grill frame on the front for safety purposes.
Benefits Of Window Fans
- AffordableWindow fans are budget-friendly and much more energy efficient than coolers or air conditioners, thus, making them a great choice for cooling your home.
- VentilationIn the process of driving the hot and stale air outside, these fans also eliminate any unwanted odors from your house. So, your home always smells fresh!
- Easy installationWith adjustable panels, most window fans are very easy to install in any kind of window frame.
- Enhances the effect of ACAn AC just circulates the cool air within the room. It cannot bring in fresh air from outside. Using a window fan to complement the AC ensures that there is a continuous supply of fresh air in your room. Thus, even while maintaining your AC at a high temperature, you can enjoy great cooling throughout the room. To top that, you are also saving valuable energy!
Different Types of Window Fan
Window fans are essentially cages with blades that are supposed to be mounted within a window frame. Though there are many types of window fans in the market, they can be primarily classified into two types based on the number of blades – single and twin window fans.
Single window fans have only one set of blades. They are small and compact and are ideal for small sized windows. Twin window fans, on the other hand, operate with two sets of blades. They are bigger in size than single window fans and are great for large rooms having standard sized or big windows. Both these models often come with a reverse feature that allows them to reverse intake of air to exhaust mode and vice versa. Some twin models have blades that can function independently, that is one set pushes the stale air out, while the other draws in fresh air from outside.
The more advanced window fan models come with thermostats, LED indicators, and smart features such as timer and automation. The best choice would be to opt for a window fan would be the one that doesn’t vibrate and create noise during operation.