The adoption of ceiling fans as an alternative cooling strategy to air-conditioning: what can we learn from building sustainability index certified homes?

Ceiling fans have been promoted as an alternative cooling technique to save energy, while their adoptions in the residential sector have yet to be investigated. This study analysed the adoption of ceiling fans in residential buildings and compared their energy-saving potential with that of air-conditioning in Building Sustainability Index (BASIX) certificated single (n = 268,558) in New South Wales, Australia, from 2011 to 2019. Four climate zones were classified according to heating and cooling hours via k-means, based on which predictive models for the relationship between cooling technologies and energy-saving levels were established via machine learning. Dwellers in the hot zone of New South Wales would be more likely to adopt ceiling fans. In the living rooms, dwellers could adopt ceiling fans alone, while in bedrooms, dwellers could adopt air-conditioning in addition to ceiling fans. This study provides empirical evidence on the adoption of ceiling fans in green buildings and helps to map out the low carbon solutions using alternative cooling in the residential sector.