Whole house fan?

[Dragster Racer]

What is the current thinking on them? They pull air up from house, into attic, and out through attic venting. This creates a negative pressure inside the house, bringing in air from the windows.
Sounds great, but
What about insulating the fan area during the winter?
What about all the allergens that are sucked in during the summer?
I have heard of folks who run them during the night to cool off the house, then shut up the house during the day to keep it cool.

 

[nate379]

I'd be worried about drawing air from the garage into the house if you have an attached garage.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

You need good tight fitting screens and don't want to do this in a dry dusty environment. Otherwise its a great idea. We had one in the house where I lived till I was six years old, down on the Texas coast, and it was great. People are allergic to many things nowdays simply because they are not exposed to them. They live in a controlled environment rather than being exposed to all of those "outdoors things".

Charles

 

[Dragster Racer]

I know you have to open enough windows for them to work, and not to draw from where you don't want them to. Our shop is a good distance from the house. I wonder how to really insulate them in the winter. After all, you don't put in R40 insulation, and then try to insulate a 2'X2' or larger box in your ceiling with just a piece of foam board. Maybe many pieces of foam board? I dunno.

 

[TheShrine]

I grew up with one on the TX Gulf Coast. In fact, we had two, one in the window (3' window fan) and a 3' attic fan. We used the window fan more because it was quieter. Both got the job done. The "job" was to get hot inside air out of the house and cooler outside air in the house. It stands to reason that what ever is in the outside air will be drawn into the house. We did not insulate the attic fan in the winter.....we just didn't turn it on. As for the window fan we just closed the window. Those that are sensitive to outside stuff shouldn't consider this.

Simple, easy, effective, and cost virtually nothing.

 

[JohnMcD348]

I grew up with one in Central Florida and it worked pretty good, even in the hot Florida summer days. Insulating during the winter wasn't bad. We had a shutter system that opened and closed when the fan was on. I think I can remember my dad just taping heavy plastic sheeting to the vent when we were heating the house. Back then we had kerosene heaters for heat.

 

[crankshaftdan II]

It might be a Radon hazard if you have a un-sealed sump pump crock in the basement. Radon gets sucked into the basement and upper floors of the home by the negative pressure from the fan whether you have windows open on the main or second floors!

 

[Torque1st]

I have had one in use for 30 years. It works well in that intermediate season where heat or AC is not needed. I have mine hooked up to the main thermostat thru a relay so I can use the thermostat controls to turn it ON/OFF with temperature or just run continuously.

 

[Burl]

Like Torque, I use mine in those times when AC doesn't work well, early spring and fall. Mine is a direct-drive Lomanco unit, I just remove it from its place in the attic in the winter and throw in some insulation, its all aluminum, very light.

 

[bhays]

I have one in the ceiling in the garage, really helps in the summer with the doors open. With them closed it will **** the pilot light out on the water heater in less than 30 seconds

Of course, when it gets really hot, just open the door into the house for a second and kick it on... ***** all the cold air conditioned air out the door into the garage... wife then yells at me.

 

[tdkkart]

We've got one in our multi-level house, works great. We turn it on in the evening as soon as it starts cooling off outside, by the time we go to bed it's really cool upstairs.
The upper level of the house gets really warm, but we rarely need a/c in the rest of the house.
The previous owner has the fan stuffed full of insulation from above, probably no the ideal situation, I'm considering building a box over the top of it.

Outside stuff coming in?? Well, I guess if you have those kinds of problems you may need to look at another solution. Fortunately our family has no issues that way.

 

[Dragster Racer]

I don't know if I should be that concerned with allergens or not. All three of us have nasel allergies, but all year long we are beating around in the 24 acres of grass and weeds, stirring up sawdust, and breating methanol fumes from the racecar. I guess having the sniffles shouldn't suprise us!
The house we are building is a story and a half. Two bedrooms and a bath over part of the house, with greatroom and loft area in the other part. The upstairs hallway would be a good place to stick one of these I think. We could even draw through the basement since it is exposed in the rear, and we can open windows down there. I may just have to get creative with the insulation.

 

[mdoolittle]

These fans are awesome. I had one in the old house and I installed one in the new garage and it really moves air.
I take the louvers off and place insulation sealed in plastic into the opening. I can get about 6-8 inches if insulation up there before it starts to compress.
Also, stuff the pull chain up in there before you put the louver back on so ya don't turn it on with it stuffed full of insulation.

 

[tdkkart]

I may just have to get creative with the insulation.

Something to look at when installing would be to mount the fan housing higher than typical, and then setting it up so that the louvers can be hinged down and insulation can be put in from the bottom.

The fan frame on our's sets down on top of the 2x6 ceiling joists, only allowing a small amount of insulation to be installed under the fan in the winter. If you stacked another 2x6 and raised the fan 5.5" it would allow more insulation. Hinge the louver panel and you'd be able to get a bunch of insulation in there in the winter.

Put the fan on it's own breaker so that it can be disabled easily in the winter.

 

[Dragster Racer]

I really like the suggestions! Thanks!

 

[C6mongoose]

Funny, I had just been looking at "attic" fans for my garage.

We have spent a considerable amount of money to make our garage nice. Now it is too darn hot, sweltering actually, to spend any time in there.

I am searching for an economical way to just make the garage bearable. I have a Hunter garage fan and a few free standing fans but unless they are blowing directly at you, there is no relief.

The garage is something over 1500SF and is a detached 4-bay building.

Anyone else solved the AC problem at a reasonable cost? I had thought of window units but I don't know if that would be the way to go.

We did have an attic whole house fan in our former house and it worked well especially at night, almost got too cold.

 

[tcianci]

The whole house fans work great and provide a considerable power savings during the seasons when you really don't need full-on AC. I tend to agree with the poster who spoke of living in a too-clean environment, we all need to develop resistance to the things around us. As far as the insulation is concerned, you can either pull the thing out in the winter and replace it with a plug of styrofoam or just stuff some behind the grille louvers, it's not like you are taking all the insulation out of your attic,if you have R-40 in the whole place and R-13 for 4 square feet do you think that is really going to make any difference in your heating bill? I would argue that leaving the door open while you're carrying groceries into the house would cause a greater heat loss.

 

[Torque1st]

...snip...
We did have an attic whole house fan in our former house and it worked well especially at night, almost got too cold.

That is why I have mine on the thermostat. Timers are available also but they do not work near as well as a thermostat.

 

[rburke65]

With all the deaths occuring every year from Radon, I am surprised the Federal government hasn't put a ban on these attic fans.

 

[Torque1st]

With all the deaths occuring every year from Radon, I am surprised the Federal government hasn't put a ban on these attic fans.

Do you have any scientific proof that attic fans cause Radon problems?

 

[musgofasta]

Have one and love it. Parents have one, in-laws have one, and brother just put one in. Great in multi-level house. My parents have 2 A/C's one for upstairs and one for ground level. They run the lower A/C and housefan, and it's cut their electric bill in half during the summer months.

Use it without the A/C most of the spring and fall. With windows open, it pulls the blinds away from the window.

During the summer, run it in the mornings. Then Close up the house, turn off the fan and run the A/C during the day until sunset. Then open up the house and run the fan most of the night.

I cut a square piece of insulation for the hole during the window. Unscrew the louver vent, push up my insulation piece and re-install.

I have allergies pretty bad, and have no issues with it at all. Never heard of any Radon problems.

 

[gcan]

holy ****.......doesn't radon come from the ground not the outside air??

Please!!!

I grew up with one in the house and it worked great!! My dad turned it on every evening in the summer to help cool the house, then turned on the window units. But that was before we developed a 2 degree temperature tolerance and became accustomed to the bubble of HVAC. My wife and girls would die if it got over 70 in the house.

 

[lawfarm]

We have one in our house and love it as well...

Our attic is blown insulation, which gets disturbed if not separated from the fan. I built a 2' tall wall around the fan (plywood), which keeps the airflow away from the insulation in summer. In winter, I disconnect the fan and cross 3 layers of bat insulation inside the 'walled' area over the fan, to insulate it. Works like a charm.

 

[Git]

We have a different type of whole house fan then what you normally see.

Its made by QuietCool and I highly recommend it


Your typical attic fan is a monster and it gets attached directly to the ceiling joists. The electric motor on a QuietCool fans is hung from the attic rafter on metal straps and then a short flexible duct leads to a simple vent that gets cut into the ceiling. You can barely hear them run and there are no vibrations because the way they are mounted.

They are not cheap, but you get what you pay for. We actually have four of these fans in our attic, and when they are running you can really feel it. Another good trick is to create a breeze - only open one or two windows so that the fans **** in the cooler outside area and will flow across where you will be towards the fan

 

[38Chevy454]

I put the whoile house fan in my house and love it. It is great if you live in an area where the nights cool down and you have low enough humidity. Real humid areas get a lot of A/C benefit from the dehumidifying effect in addition to the lower temps.

Back to the whole house fan, I live in a fairly mild winter area and do not even bother insulating that small area. The fan louvers prevent any real airflow, and i just live with the lack of insulation. When you operate it you will pull in outside air, duh, that is the point. If you are sensitive to what is in your air, maybe you live in the wrong area.

I also got a rebate from my utility company that almost paid for the fan unit and the small amount of extra materials it took for me to do the install. Mine is a 2 speed belt driven unit. We typically run iton high first to get the max benefit first, then sometimes leave it on all night. Seal the house up in the morning and the house stays nice until real late afternoon.

 

[bochnak]

I considered getting one with insulated doors like this model:

http://www.wholehousefan.com/PRODUCTS/HV-1000-DB.html

I would only benefit from one maybe 30 days a year (if temp drops at night humidity is still high sometimes). I'll turn the air on instead. I have a small house and efficient ac unit. It would take forever to recoup the savings and work to put one in myself.

 

[hydramatic]

they were first used and invented in montgomery al........been using them for 60 yrs...It`ll make you get a blanket round midnight...amen