Of course you should leave it on, even if not at home...because it would take longer and use more power to try and get the temp down,after being turned off.
Although we have two ceiling fans in our cottage, one in the main living/dining/kitchen area and one in the bedroom I also have a box fan for the bedroom and that is the fan I use every night. I cannot sleep with the ceiling fan on over our bed...it stuffs up my nose. My box fan circulates the air and has a calming noise that helps me sleep better than I would without it. We also have a fan on a stand that we use out on the porch for those days there is no breeze. We find fans helpful and we also don't need to put the air conditioner on as high a setting with the fans in use too...which does help lower our utility bill. The home I lived in with my ex sounds a lot like your apartment @Kitty Carmel. The air conditioner while cooling some rooms...just didn't do the job in others...especially the master bedroom. So we bought a window cooling/heating unit for that bedroom and that solved that problem for us. Fans definitely can help with circulating air...but they are not air conditioners that put out cold air. I have put them in front of a vent that was putting out the air conditioners cold air and the fan helped distribute that cold air over a wider space.
@Babs Hunt I love the ceiling fans but the one in the bedroom is small and worthless. I never use it, not even the lights. The one in the dining area is much better but it clicks sometimes. I know what you mean about the white noise of a fan. I have a white noise CD I play and I think I sleep better with it. Blocks out minor noise. I'm looking at this fan since it's bladeless and yes my tabby would be interested in fan blades. She misses nothing. https://www.amazon.com/pureFlow-Bla...98011&sr=8-1&keywords=bladeless+fans+for+home
I have a Holmes twin window fan with reversible blades (flip a switch and it goes from intake to outtake). The grating is too small for a cat to get to the blades. Something like this one https://preview.tinyurl.com/y7llay3k but an older model. It works quite well, until the temperature outside is hotter than the inside, then it becomes a heater. It's being replaced with an Amana AMAP121AD portable air conditioner, but only for the 'dog days' of NorCal (July through early September), then it's back to the window fan.
I have window fans like that. I find that they are more effective when set to move air out of the house, in conjunction with another fan. When I just had a window fan blowing air in, that didn't seem to do any good. They get dirty though, and they're hard to clean.
It works fine so long as the outside is cooler than the inside. I use the outtake only when I burn something (my paper shredder died), or its stuffy. When the outside is hotter than the inside, both intake and outtake is totally useless, and those 'dog days' are fast approaching, so I'm definitely hoping for a positive outcome: 1. Portable air conditioner arrives before the heatwave. 2. I guessed right and the Amana AMAP121AD is not a lemon. For dirt, cone brushes (https://preview.tinyurl.com/y8g9rvm2 ) help a little.
We're at 90 degrees plus here..and set for 3 figures this week..and we don't have AC, nor do most of the stores because we don't usually need it... average temps here in the summer is usually around 80 deg but BOY it's hot here and has been for weeks... and my ceiling and standalone blade fans are just not helping...plus the noise from them is driving me nuts!!! Wonder if that tower fan would be any better for us @Ken Anderson
I don't bother with AC or fans during the day but I do run an oscillating fan at night next to my bed all year round. The sound of the fan creates a sort of white noise that blocks out the sounds of the city and it helps to bring in a little cool night air.
That is true Beatrice - I find I sleep better with a fan running for the reason you stated @Beatrice Taylor
It doesn't beat an air conditioner but I like it. It blows as much air as another type of fan but it's quieter and doesn't take up as much space. Of course, when the air is hot, it's just blowing hot air around, but even that is better than when it's standing still.
I don't have much noise around here @Beatrice Taylor , so I don't need to block any out when I'm sleeping, but my bedroom ( well all of my rooms) are very hot.. so I need fans every night and during the day to try and cool things down. I have all the windows open throughout and ceiling fans and standalone fans going, but still it's hot. @Ken Anderson , I just had look at all the tower oscillating fans online and it seems none of them are any better than the pedestal fans we already have ( although they would take up less room)... so I may as well just stick with these, and the ceiling fans
We are very fortunate here that is seldom gets hot here, and even when it does, it cools at night. We have found when the weather does get hot here, our best defense is NOT to open windows or doors. Since our houses are so well insulated due to cold winters, we can allow the house to cool at night, then close the house u and we are defended from the heat just as from the cold. We can keep our house 20 degrees F. cooler then the outside simply by closing the house. We spend time outside when it is warm, however, just because it is unusual.