| Author |
Message |
    
dgm
Citizen
Username: Dgm
Post Number: 306
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 11:56 am: | 
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has anyone had a whole house fan installed and by whom? |
Michael K. McKell
Citizen
Username: Mckellconst
Post Number: 41
Registered: 5-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 5:43 pm: |
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I did mine myself... But, I'm a contractor. |
AngelaK
Citizen
Username: Angelak
Post Number: 41
Registered: 7-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 7:49 pm: |
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What is a whole house fan? |
Case
Citizen
Username: Case
Post Number: 1845
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 8:47 pm: |
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I'd go with a roofer, even if it will be a 'true' whole house fan (installed in the attic floor). Remember that you need a boatload of attic ventilation to make this work... unless the fan is located in the roof or side of the house, in which case the ventilation is pretty much self-correcting.
A whole house fan is a rather large fan that is installed in the attic or crawl space; its purpose is to draw air throughout the entire house. Usual application is to turn it on in the early morning to draw cooler air throughout the house, then shut the windows to keep the house cool during the day. A whole house fan can also help airconditioned houses by giving the air conditioners a better 'starting point' with cool air. Downsides to whole house fans include bringing in extra dust, moisture and other outside hazards. In addition, you have to be very careful to have the first floor windows open AND make sure you're not literally blowing the roof off your house with inadequate 'escape paths' for the extra volume of air.
So how boring was all that? |
Rudbekia
Citizen
Username: Rudbekia
Post Number: 179
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 8:58 pm: |
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Not boring at all. Very interesting. So then an attic fan is the one you see on many homes on the side of the house? And I assume its purpose is to blow the hot air out of the attic? I'd like to install one of those in my house, I think. Do roofers install those too? |
AngelaK
Citizen
Username: Angelak
Post Number: 45
Registered: 7-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 9:31 pm: |
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Hi Case,
Your response was not in the least boring. I'm just about to get my roof done and the roofer has strongly suggested I install a "power fan" in the roof. The "whole house fan" sounded a lot like what he was suggesting. It seems to me that these are different terms for the same thing. He suggested pairing the power fan along with the standard roof vent that runs along the peak of the roof. Do you think this will provide an adequate "escape path" for the extra volume of air?
If you apologize for being boring, I apologize for being ignorant. This is my first home (and an old one at that!). I am trying to gather as much information as I possibly can on home ownership. |
Kibbegirl
Citizen
Username: Kibbegirl
Post Number: 631
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - 7:34 am: |
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So what's more helpful in the sweltering heat -- a whole attic house fan or central air? We don't have either at the new house and we are totally leaning on installing central air this winter.
Thanks for the information -- not boring at all! :-) |
Case
Citizen
Username: Case
Post Number: 1848
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - 8:43 am: |
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I was kind of kidding... I just decided to write a long, rambling response last night. I cannot answer specific questions about how much venting is required for a particular fan, unfortunately, but I CAN tell you how very important roof venting is for a happy and healthy roof. (If the fan is ON the roof, venting is not an issue - the exhaust goes out of the house immediately... see the article link for details).
Regarding central air vs. the fan... I'd have to go with the central air. The fan is great to move a large volume of air throughout the house, but if its 100 degrees outside and you turn on the fan, you're basically going to have a 100 degree breeze blowing through your house.  The fans are great when used as I described them, but you need to use them properly (i.e. early morning when its cooler outside).
I wasn't able to install a whole-house fan at my place, because I have a full attic and no wall space. What I did was install two power fans; these fans sit on the roof, and they draw hot air from the attic (or the house, if the door is open). The nice thing about that is it cools the attic AND provides some air movement inside the house too... but its nowhere near as powerful as the whole house fan is. Of course, I needed a good attic ventilation strategy too so this worked out for me.
Here's a pretty good link on whole house fans and attic fans:
http://www.atticfans.com/
Note the whole house fan is installed in the attic floor in this article, which is why you need a lot of venting up there! What I did was basically install large roof fans to try and get the best of both worlds.
FINALLY... and I know there are contractors on here that can elaborate... if you let your attic get too hot, you're going to be stressing your roof. Even a simple roof vent will go a long way towards making things a lot better.
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homeowner
Citizen
Username: Nancys60
Post Number: 73
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - 9:08 am: |
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We love our low-cost, low-intervention attic fan, installed by attic fan specialists (think it's all they do actually) Air Control. They're out of biz now but the head guy runss what is now called BreezeControl. 201-385-0360 |
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