The system assembles in three sections making it easier to carry into the attic. After considerable real-world testing in my own home, I can say that I would absolutely recommend a whole house fan if you live in an area that has comfortable outdoor temperatures at least a couple of months each year. The question that remains is how much of an impact can a whole house fan have in your particular region. One of the biggest benefits of using the best whole house fan is the fact that they provide ample Even if you can't always use it (during rain, high humidity, high temps), it should be standard equipment for every house. Whole House fans have been study by a ton of different sources that say it is the most cost effective way to cool your home. By exhausting air into the attic, it results in a cooler attic space which in turn helps cool the house. I knew if the whole house fan was loud and annoying we would never use it. Ventilating it throughout the whole night will help reduce your need to use your air conditioner the next day. But in case you’re still wondering whether these fans are worth a shot, here are a couple of reasons that’ll definitely convince you to invest in these fans. Can I Use MDF As Underlayment? I am extremely satisfied with the Quietcool whole house fan and, if I were to ever need to purchase another whole house fan I can say with absolute confidence that this would be the one I would purchase again. Don’t let over-analyzing stop you from doing something that makes common sense. Smoke did get into my daughters room which has air ducts. Added decorating style: With so many different kinds of ceiling fans on the market, it’s easy to find the perfect one to complement any decorating style. Whole house fans can save homeowners hundreds of dollars each year in mild to hot climates. That’s all there is to it. Using insulated ducts, and optimized motors, QuietCool whole house fans are the quietest systems available with sound levels that vary from 43dB to 57dB depending on the size of the system. The whole house fan cools the house by both pulling fresh air into the home and by cooling the attic as it exhausts cooler air into it. Learn all about the amazing convenience, security, and money-saving possibilities that you can gain by incorporating smart home devices in your home. How to Install QuietCool Whole House Fans, link to Can I Use MDF As Underlayment? If it feels nice outside, if it’s one of those nights when you would enjoy sleeping with the windows open, then it makes perfect sense to run a whole house fan. Generally speaking, attic fans are not worth it. The Difference Between Attic Fans and Whole House Fans The first important distinction to understand is that whole house fans are not the same thing as attic fans. Ready to save more? It works best on those days when you want to open up the windows and let the fresh air in because it feels so good outside. Over the past two decades, my family has rehabbed houses and contracted new home builds and I've learned a lot along the way. They compare the cost of running a 2 two, 10 SEER central air system in Atlanta Georgia, averaging around $250 per month, to a whole house fan operating at 1-5 cents per hour. You want to cool the whole house. this report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The goal of this website is to share with you all of the helpful tips and solutions that I have found so that you can ensure an energy efficient home for you and your family. I studied their downloadable spec sheets and installation manuals. Installing a smaller fan on the roofline 1 or in the gable is easier than putting a much larger fan in the ceiling of the home. Here in Colorado Springs, it really doesn’t get all that hot and simply exchanging the inside air with outside air can make the house feel a whole lot cooler. For comparison, this is similar to a normal oscillating fan on low or high. There are tons of websites that “review” whole house fans. The system included a wiring diagram and I just followed the instructions. Whole house fans are one of the best products you can add in your home from a cooling, comfort and indoor air quality perspective. Are these claims more fact than fiction? The company’s YouTube channel also has short videos demonstrating how to wire the fan for single and dual speed use. Amazon has put together some great Home Holiday Guide Deals - save money and get your holiday shopping done! For an hour or two, the conditioned air remains cool enough that the indoors are comfortable but as soon as the outside air temperatures are more comfortable than the indoor air, I turn on the whole house fan, making sure to open a few windows throughout the house and let it go to work. The only drawback is that the whole house fans only work when the air outside is cooler than inside. It’s not hard to see how I save hundreds every year! A/C can make up 60-80% of your utility bill during the warmer months of the year. The Quietcool whole house fan that I purchased includes a 10 year motor warranty and a damper system to prevent air leakage when not in use. This is a common misconception but the answer is no. That’s great. All whole house fans should be installed with rubber or felt gaskets to dampen noise. For every website that says whole house fans waste money instead of saving it, there is a study that shows the opposite. The goal is not to just cool the air inside. A whole house attic fan is definitely worth it. So much so that you want to bring the fresh, cool, outside air into your home. A whole house fan also has a side benfit. From installing solar panels to planting more trees on your property, there are a lot of ways to reduce your energy use. What I know is this. When the system is off, it has these large, padded slats (damper system) that automatically close to keep conditioned air from escaping. Always. Critical Considerations. This was much simpler than I expected. Always make sure you use the system when the air outside is cooler than inside. Take for example this report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy. If you are looking at the possibility of investing in a whole house fan, you may be wondering if it is actually worth the cost and effort of installation. Direct-drive fans have the fan blade mounted directly to the motor shaft so it … The whole house fan is used primarily in the spring and fall when temperatures outside are, at least in Texas, most pleasant. Examples provided of tested products are actual products owned, tested, and used regularly by the author. One of the biggest is the claim that they literally pay for themselves in the money they save. Unlike a ventilation fan, a whole-house fan — an attic-mounted fan that exhausts air from a home at night — is designed to cool a house (that is, to lower the indoor temperature). An attic ridge vent is what replaced attic fans years ago and they work on the same convection principal without the motor. Consistent Ventilation. Even though one is less difficult, both projects should only be tackled by professionals. It is literally an investment that pays for itself and, depending on where you live, that return on investment can come very quickly. Both types include a heat exchanger, one or more fans to push air through the machine, and controls. One of the features that made the Quietcool brand stand out for me was the innovative approach of not mounting the fan directly to the ceiling. At that point, I’ll turn off the whole house fan, close the windows, and turn the air conditioner back on. In a whole-house system, the particles of dust and pollen are charged as they pass through the unit, then captured on an oppositely charged collector plate. The traditional approach to this is to open up some windows and doors to let the fresh air in. I have used it since it was installed in 2016. You also don’t want to run a whole house fan when it’s raining as the system will pull humidity into your home and attic. As stated above, I run my whole house fan all night very often during the fall and spring when it feels really nice outside. Ceiling fans for kids’ rooms are available in all kinds of themes from ladybugs, flowers, globes, sports, and more. For every website that says whole house fans waste money instead of saving it, there is a study that shows the opposite. If I set it to low, then it is hardly noticeable. Product recommendations not personally owned are based on the author’s knowledge of the company, product, reliability, and reputation. When morning comes, I generally leave the whole house fan running until we are getting ready to leave for work or until the temperatures outside begin to warm. Whole house fans are a great place to start, but there are plenty of other options, too! Whole-house fans generally operate during the summer, while attic fans can be used year-round. I used Great Stuff foam spray and it worked perfectly for this. An attic fan pulls air from your soffit vents and exhausts out of the attic, bypassing the conditioned airspace inside your home completely. More modern systems evacuate hot air out of your attic, making your home cooler for longer. You can set a multi-speed fan to a lower speed when noise is a problem. This is generally in the evenings, at night, and in the early morning. Many people prefer the fresh air generated by a whole house fan vs. chemically altered AC air. It's "fantastic", she says. I'm in the SF Bay area and have been running my fan after 7-8 PM for the past few weeks with the heat. While that does provide a passive approach, a whole house fan kicks this into over-gear and adds a cool, refreshing breeze through the home while simultaneously cooling the attic. Lower Utility Bill Costs. But they don’t actually use them. A woman I know simply will not shut up about her new woodburning stove. Here’s how to know. You really have to stop and consider the logic of it all. You use it as an exhaust fan in conjunction with opening the windows of your home, to pull a breeze through your entire home. If you live in a high humid, dusty area or a pest-infested area these fans may not be the best solution. Landlord already tore down the room that it happened in. Isn’t this also just letting conditioned air out? I took the time to seal around the housing that sits atop the sheetrock. Whole house fan systems are much better for the environment than any other central air systems on the market. I run our air conditioner through the day if needed but as evening comes I turn it off in the late afternoon. 2. I finally settled on the QuietCool brand because of their reputation in the industry, their focus on efficiency and quietness, and the reviews that I found online. Whole house fans are not only good for the environment, they’re also healthy for your wallet. A whole house fan pulls fresh air into your home and exhausts air into your attic. Ceiling fans with the Energy Star label can help you save even more. Whole house fans can be very effective in cooling down a house in the morning and evening hours. Certain regions of the country will also have better results from a whole-house fan than others. This is why they are used in the evenings and nights. Whole house fans are very effective in five various ways, and these are the best economical ventilation solution for you. Portable ion filters, which operate without fans, send streams of negative ions directly into the air. “Experts” can go on debating the validity of whole house fans as energy saving systems for homeowners. We do have seasons, however, whe it feels absolutely amazing outside. Past fans had a reputation for being noisy. Quietcools are probably the best whole house fans out there - efficient and quiet. Then small fans placed to steer the path of the air flow through the whole house. Modern density fiber (MDF) is an... How Much Weight Can A Nail In Drywall Hold? Most systems have at least two-speed settings, set your system to the lowest speed overnight so it can run quietly and efficiently through the night. When the temperature inside is more comfortable than outside then you will not want to run your whole house fan. Whole-house fans come in two types: ceiling-mounted or attic-mounted. Whole house fans can be noisy, especially if improperly installed. Whole house air purifier ultra-violet (UV) light systems for central air conditioning units – These ultra-violet light systems are installed into air conditioning systems to kill mold and bacteria. When you turn the system on, the pull of the fan opens these damper slats to allow it to pull air in. You get to keep that conditioned air in the house but you also have to continue conditioning it all night. However, the utility of attic ventilation fans is actually quite a controversial topic. And for me, that’s the bottom line. Attic fans are easier to install than whole house fans because of their location and size. Cooling the home and roof cavity by up to 30oC, and sometimes more, allowing the home to stay much cooler the following day (the principal of Thermal Mass Cooling). As an Amazon Associate this website earns from qualifying purchases. A whole house fan allows me to bring that cool, fresh air into my home and simultaneously save hundreds of dollars compared to running central air. You can download the Quietcool Classic Manual by clicking here. I took the plunge and installed a whole house fan earlier this year. There are some small wall- or window-mounted models, but the majority are central, whole-house ventilation systems with their own duct system or shared ductwork. I installed our whole house fan while building our new house so I didn’t have to deal with working in an attic that was already insulated. In some parts of the country they can be a very inexpensive alternative to central air. Turn the AC off when you are running your fan, you will be blowing the cool air straight out of your home. Your house has been getting hotter all day long. That’s it. There is no denying the impact whole house fans can have on utility bills and energy consumption in certain regions. We love our air conditioning. Instead, it is suspended by straps in the attic and the air is pulled into it through a large flexible hose that connects to a cover mount where the whole in the ceiling is. Your air conditioner costs a LOT more to run than a whole house fan does. Whole house fans have two primary roles. Well look no further than Solatube Whole House Fan, to elevate that feeling within 10-15 minutes. It’s quiet, it saves me money, and it makes the house feel amazing on those days when the outdoor temperatures are right. We let it run all night (remember, it uses only a very small fraction of the electricity that an air conditioning system uses) and then turn it off in the morning when it begins to warm up outside. It can be tricky to hang items from nails in drywall since it is unable to bear as much weight as brick walls, plaster walls, and wood structures can. Installing a whole-house fan is a good day’s work, possibly even a weekend. Are Whole House Attic Fans Worth It August 12, 2020 - by Zamira - Leave a Comment Fans paddle exhaust and whole house i m not a fan qa deluxe 3300 rancho santa margarita quietcool clic cl 4700 advanced belt drive whole house What I have found works best for my family is to turn off my air conditioner in the late afternoon when the temperatures outside start to get comfortable. For your system to operate to its max, you should leave it on all night long. The room that it happened in had no air ducts in it. Yes. 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