You could probably run about 20 – 30 ceiling fans for the same amount of energy that would be needed to run one domestic air conditioning unit. That’s a huge difference in energy consumption!
In hot or humid environments where an air conditioner is considered essential, it makes a lot of sense to operate a ceiling fan in tandem with the air conditioner. By doing so, one can limit the operating time of the air conditioner and obtain the same cooling effect with the fan circulating the already chilled air.