Good idea or bad idea? I’m slowly but surely updating an old barn for my horses. There are two ancient fans that no longer work just above my stalls that I’d like to replace. Had an electrician come to give an estimate and he noticed a thermostat box which, we assume, prior owners had hooked up to the fans. He offered to hook up new fans that I buy for free if we tap into the thermostat, as all other barn electricity is in working order. I’m looking at buying Durafans. I’m scared of what my electricity bill might look like, but would this be a bad idea otherwise? If not, at what temperature would you set them to turn on? I’m in Mid-Atlantic with humid summer days. Thanks in advance!
I was considering installing a solar panel on the barn roof and that solely powering a fan in the summer. I had the same concern with the utilities cost, figured if it was on solar it’d work relatively well.
If I set it to a certain temperature here in ohio, there’s no guarantee the horses are even in their stalls.
Could you set it with a motion sensor, so it only comes on when a horse is near?
We have never used ceiling fans in barns, just the small individual ones and those rarely, because of the dust being stirred around, a trade-off with temperature control thru fans.
yes the fans can be dual controlled by motion and thermostat.
might want to have a heat of rise detector as a kill switch just in case there is ever a fire then fans do not kick on
If these stall fans blow directly on the horses in the stall I would have a manual switch in conjunction with the thermostat switch. It would require you to remember to turn on/shut off when you put the horses in and out. I would set the switch at 70F.
If you are talking barn exhaust fans; my plan (when I find the funds) is to have them thermostatically controlled and have them run at 50F or higher.
Yes,
I have sealed motor round fans with the plus in the ceiling, and only the fan plugged in. Each stall has a switch to turn fan on manually and we have a thermostat that turns them on at 78 degrees if nobody is paying attention. If there is no horse planned to be in that particular stall we just hit the off switch, but all the fans of the occupied stalls stay on. Love it!
I have fans that blow down on the horses that are controlled by an on/off switch for each stall. I have thought about thermostats but I have one mare that gets extremely itchy with bug bites and a Cushings pony that has problems with the heat so I leave the fans on 24/7 in the summer. This adds between $10 to $20 per fan to my electric bill for the barn. I am in Alabama and I do not know the power rates where you live so your cost may vary. I only have 3 horses so it is worth it for me to pay $60 more a month. I just try to use less A/C for me to make up the cost.
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Thank you for the responses! Very helpful information. I should’ve mentioned that my horses’ stalls open up to their pastures and that they have 24/7 access to go in and out as they please. I also should’ve made clear that these wouldn’t be exhaust fans.
I thought about the motion sensors but I’m afraid that if a horse camps out in a stall and is still for a period of time, the fans may turn off and defeat the purpose of having them?
I also feel like a bad horse mom because I was thinking to set the temperature at 85+ but I see the suggestions for 70s! Good to get others’ thoughts on this.
Since it doesn’t sound like there’s a reason not to do it, aside from cost (and SusanO has given me hope in this department) I’m going to take this electrician up on his free(!!) offer and see if he’ll just throw in the switch.
most of the motion sensors have time delay on off that is adjustable, most upon to 30 minutes… if there is no movement the timing starts until it detects movement once again… horse would need to be sound asleep without moving for 30 minutes for fan to turn off, but once it moves again fan turns back on.
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The mare that has problems with bugs has her stall door open 24/7. In the summertime she only leaves the stall to pee and quickly returns . I decided I would rather pay the increased power bill than pay a vet bill for her itching to death. And the others would be jealous if she had hers on and they did not.
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I also have a set up where they can run into the stalls from the pasture. I use the thermostat plugs which turn on/off around 78F. I love them. Some mornings, it’s still chilly and I don’t want fans on, but it will be in the 80s in the afternoon. Hot summer days, they are still hanging in the barn after dinner and want fans, but there is no need for the fans to run all night.
Last time, I checked, you could buy the plugs for about $18 on Amazon.
Like this idea. With the smart home wave of new gadgets, they now have similar ‘smart’ plugs that you can program appliances to turn on and off but also turn off/on remotely through an app (perhaps in place of the switch, if electrician is not willing to do). I will run all of these ideas by the electrician to see what he’ll offer gratis. 
I have an 8 stall barn with 8 fans on timers. They come on at 10am and go off at 10pm. My horses come and go from their stalls and choose to stand inside during the hottest parts of the day. My electric bill doubles in the summer from the winter when there are no fans running.
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I love the thermostat since then you are only paying for it when the heat is truly over your set boundary. I think the movement would be cool!
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Most fans use very little power. They are only turning a light weight blade with very little resistance. The specs on all the fans I looked at gave average power consumption. The key number to look for is the amount of air they can move and then their power consumption.
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I think it’s been mentioned, but a cheap & easy option is a “thermocube” plug. On Amazon for $10ish. They turn on at a certain temp and off at a certain temp.
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Unless you can program those cubes with a cut off temp the ones I had looked at would not work in my area during the summer where it rarely gets below 80 at night…they’d never turn off.
I use a ThermoCube in one of my barns. We unplug every night when the horses are turned out, so they don’t run overnight when no one is in during the heat of summer. If you’re already doing the bad thing with extension cords, it’s an easy solution to cool mornings and warm afternoons.
Getting fans hardwired, or at least the stalls wired with outlets for fans, and a proper thermostat is on my dream list.
