With the inevitable arrival of summer, fans, air conditioners or air conditioners have become our best ally to significantly alleviate the high temperatures that are reaching the Iberian Peninsula.

However, the price increase that electricity has suffered in recent months does not help at a time when more than one thinks better of connecting an appliance.

Thus, with all the alarms pointing to the "unusual" high temperatures that we will experience in Spain from this Wednesday -and which, presumably, could end up becoming the first heat wave of this 2021-, there are many who really wonder if it is convenient to use these devices to cool the environment and thus avoid further energy expenditure in our day to day.

Despite this, in cases of extreme heat, keeping the air conditioning or fans on may be the only option to avoid a sticky situation. Taking into account the differences in the operation of these appliances, their price and the energy cost of keeping them on can be important for the consumer.

But how much electricity does each of these appliances consume? This is what you should take into account when choosing between an air conditioner, a fan or an air conditioner.

The consumption of an air conditioner will always depend on several factors, including the age of the device. The older this appliance is, the more electricity it will consume. In addition, its power will also seriously affect the price that we end up paying to use it, because the higher it is, the more we will spend.

To know exactly how much it will cost us to keep the air conditioning on during the next heat wave, we must also take into account the price of the kilowatt and the time that this device will be working. The consumption of an average air conditioner of about 3,000 frigories is about 0.15 euros for each hour that it remains on.

Thus, if we want to calculate exactly the price of our usual consumption, we only have to take into account that the power consumed is equal to the power of the equipment times the time of use in hours multiplied by the price per kWh.

A floor fan could also be a good option to beat the heat. This type of appliance consumes about 90 kilowatts per hour, so keeping it on for about 6 hours a day could mean a monthly consumption of about 10 euros.

For its part, the power of a ceiling fan is much lower, about 60 kW, which would reduce the bill to about 6 euros, although the speed used can also seriously affect the price.

The use of a portable evaporative cooler is also one of the most common techniques to alleviate high temperatures. The consumption of a small one is around 150 W, about five times less than that of an air conditioner.