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I often hear the fan on my redacted's MacBook Air running continuously, indicating high power usage. Unfortunately, they're hard of hearing, and only likely to hear that when wearing hearing aids. Is there any way to get an alert when power use is above particular levels for particular amounts of time?

dfeuer
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    You could use something like iStatsMenus (paid) or MacsFanControl (Free) to monitor your fan speed (and more), not sure if they can do a notification though. – X_841 Aug 09 '22 at 07:10
  • What model of MBA and what OS version? – benwiggy Aug 09 '22 at 09:28
  • @benwiggy, I'll try to find out in a bit. – dfeuer Aug 10 '22 at 08:05
  • On a 2018-2020 MacBook Air with a fan, it would honestly be weird if the fans weren't running. The Intel chip generates so much heat, unfortunately. There's not really a practical action to take, nor is one needed. – Ezekiel Jan 06 '23 at 17:12
  • @Ezekiel, the trouble is the fan going at high speed and making a lot of noise. – dfeuer Jan 06 '23 at 18:32
  • @dfeuer I understand that, and unfortunately for those models it's normal. I had a 2016 MacBook Pro and the fan ran continuously the four years I used it. That's part of why I've moved to a 2020 MacBook Air - no more fan – Ezekiel Jan 06 '23 at 18:33

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The fans spinning up indicates that the CPU is getting hot, and needs some help to stay within operating temperatures. That is all. It is part of the hardware design and does not require action on the part of the user.

While there is obviously a correlation between power supplied and heat produced, the fans spinning up do not directly 'indicate high power usage'.

If your relative? is doing work, then it is entirely expected and normal for the fans to kick in, and there is no reason that they should do anything in response to that. Higher CPU usage and fan spinning will use the battery faster, so they may need to plug it in sooner.

If the fans are always running high, even under minimal workload, then there may be a hardware problem, like a defective sensor; or a software problem that can be fixed with an OS update or a third-party fan control app.

However, using fan control software to force the fans to spin down when they need to cool the CPU will result in an overheating CPU and potential hardware damage.

Some apps use surprisingly high levels of CPU for their tasks -- the Chrome browser uses significantly more than Safari or other browsers, for example.

benwiggy
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  • The culprit is usually Firefox. I'm not looking to force the fans off or anything; I want to be sure they are aware when they're running hard continuously. There is a very direct correlation between fan use and power use, since CPU power is turned to heat that must be dissipated. – dfeuer Aug 10 '22 at 08:04
  • @dfeuer But what do you want them to do when they get this notification? Stop using the computer? There's no need to do that. – benwiggy Aug 10 '22 at 08:41
  • Try closing some tabs. – dfeuer Aug 11 '22 at 13:03
  • @dfeuer Tabs are more likely to cause a memory issue; they're not going to use much CPU if they are not the active tab. – benwiggy Aug 11 '22 at 13:29