I recently switched to using a box fan, rather than an ineffective cheap desktop one. And I love it! Firstly, it creates a perfect breeze through the office, plus it looks great thanks to the sleek design. Adding to this, it’s compact enough to easily use in an RV! It now runs for hours on end and even joins my adventurous road trips. The only thing I’ve been concerned about is the power consumption.
Below we will discuss and test box fan wattage, explain how to work it out for yourself, and calculate the total electricity required.
How Many Watts is a Box Fan?
The average box fan uses between 40 to 80 watts.
The exact number depends on the size and model of your box fan. On the whole, most of these fans use a very similar amount of power. A 10” device uses upto 40W while a large 20” version exceeds 70W on high speed.
It is also worth noting that this range is based on running at the highest speed setting. These devices usually have multiple speeds to choose from. You can reduce the power consumption by running at lower speeds. This is because the internal electric motor is spinning slower and not working so hard.
How to Find Out Your Box Fan Wattage
There’s 3 ways you can work out the wattage of a box fan.
- Check Product Specification
The quickest way is to look at the box fan’s specification. The watts (W) is usually written on a sticker on the base of the appliance. If not, you can check the user manual or the manufacturer’s website for technical details.
- Use a Wattmeter
A wattmeter is brilliant for getting a live wattage reading and tracking total energy usage of any appliance. You can simply plug it into your box fan to get instant information.
I used one to test my box fan on high speed which gave a live reading of 49.6W.
- Wattage Formula or Calculator
If you know the amperage and voltage of your box fan you can use this to find the maximum watt rating. Simply use the formula Amps x Volts = Watts. Or you can head over to the ‘Watt Calculator’ to work this out.
Box Fan Wattage Test
Let’s take a look at a test of a box fan’s power.
Next is a video showing whether you could power your fan via a solar panel and the required watts on different speed settings.
How Much Electricity Does a Box Fan Use?
You can use box fan wattage to work out how much electricity it uses. Adding to this, it is useful in understanding how much it costs to run your box fan.
A watt (W) is a measurement of power at a single point in time. A watt-hour (Wh) is the total amount of electricity used in an hour. For example, a box fan drawing 50W would use 50Wh when running for an hour.
Happily, electricity bills are recorded in kilowatt-hours (kWh). A kilowatt is simply 1000 watts. So a 50W box fan running for 1 hour uses 0.05kWh.
In reality, you might use a box fan for 5 hours a day. This means a box fan uses about 250Wh or 0.25kWh electricity a day. That’s 7.5kWh a month and 91.25kWh a year.
That’s an electricity cost of $0.037 a day or $13.68 a year to run a 50W box fan for 5 hours every day.
Using a Box Fan Off-Grid
If you’re planning to use your box fan in an off-grid situation like an RV, semi-truck, or power outage the information above is important. You can install the correct electrical equipment and calculate runtime.
You can either use a power inverter, portable power station, or generator to generate AC electricity.
To make sure everything runs smoothly you should check two things on this equipment – wattage capacity and total energy capacity.
Your power source, like an inverter, should have a wattage capacity of at least 20% more than your box fan. This ensures it can deliver enough power as they are never 100% efficient.
Secondly, you need to ensure your energy source, like a battery, has enough energy to run the box fan for the required time. As we already know, it will use about 50Wh electricity every hour. This is equivalent to 4.16Ah on a 12V battery.
How Many Watts Does a Box Fan Use Summary
I hope you now clearly understand how many watts a box fan uses.
It is clear that the power consumption of these devices is quite low. It is rare to find a box fan that reaches more than 80W, even when running at high speed. This is great news if you’re looking to keep your electricity usage low, or you want to create a breeze when running away from home. You could even run one from a small car power inverter or solar panel!
