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Old 07-20-12, 02:43 PM   #11
Fordguy64
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Yea hopefully that won't be to bad.. They make it look easy.. I'm starting to collect parts for the controller going to run something similar To daox's Arduino based controller

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Old 07-25-12, 05:56 PM   #12
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Well the fan arrived today over all I'm pretty happy with it.. Pretty quiet just paying on the floor running.. And it moves a TON of air.. My only complaint is that it actually draws 116 watts compared to there rated 90watts o well can't win them all.. I'll get a few pics up soon
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Old 07-25-12, 06:16 PM   #13
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If you live in the house in the winter you may want to start thinking of ways to air seal that thing. It is in no way easy. When I run the blower door on a house with a regular whole house fan and then remove it from the equation by sealing it up (I guess a lot of people don't value them???) the air leakage reduction is absolutely stupefying. I'm talking about some really serious numbers with the blower door. On the order of hundreds of CFM @ 50. Sealing one off completely appears to be much like sealing off a plumbing bypass roughly the size of a standard double hung window. When they are removed after the test in for my job there but before the test out the results are even more staggering. It's like closing a door to the outside. I have yet to be able to reproduce such results with air sealing a decommissioned WHF but I always do give it my best. People are tearing these things out left and right here because when the auditor shows up with the IR camera and shows them the register for the fan they cry.

You will need to build a box made of some rigid substance which can be mechanically fastened to the.... whatever it gets fastened to and has a dead nuts tight air seal. That's something I can't do.
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Old 07-25-12, 06:39 PM   #14
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I do plan on going up there and sealing it off in the winter just for that reason..


Also the arduino parts are slowly starting to come in.. So I'll be starting on the controller soon also
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Old 07-25-12, 08:22 PM   #15
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Originally Posted by S-F View Post
If you live in the house in the winter you may want to start thinking of ways to air seal that thing. It is in no way easy. When I run the blower door on a house with a regular whole house fan and then remove it from the equation by sealing it up (I guess a lot of people don't value them???) the air leakage reduction is absolutely stupefying. I'm talking about some really serious numbers with the blower door. On the order of hundreds of CFM @ 50. Sealing one off completely appears to be much like sealing off a plumbing bypass roughly the size of a standard double hung window. When they are removed after the test in for my job there but before the test out the results are even more staggering. It's like closing a door to the outside. I have yet to be able to reproduce such results with air sealing a decommissioned WHF but I always do give it my best. People are tearing these things out left and right here because when the auditor shows up with the IR camera and shows them the register for the fan they cry.

You will need to build a box made of some rigid substance which can be mechanically fastened to the.... whatever it gets fastened to and has a dead nuts tight air seal. That's something I can't do.

I built walls around the whole house fan in the attic using 2 inch polyiso foamed together with GreatStuff foam in a can. Then a 2 inch thick polyiso lid on the walls in the winter and off in the summer. I throw FG insulation batts over all that.

I use weights on the polyiso lid to insure that it sits tightly on the polyiso walls.

It takes all of 3 minutes to do the changeover from summer to winter or winter to summer.

Very easy to build, and it appears to be quite effective.

I can't imagine being without a whole house fan in the summer -- it saves us from needing whole house AC at many times the energy cost.

Gary
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Old 07-25-12, 08:39 PM   #16
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Gary-

Yes. This is the kind of remediation I was talking about. A rigid foam board box held down in some mechanical fashion with air sealing measures on the bottom, such as Q-Lon. In my personal experience it's impossible to make that air tight under -50 pascals or +50 pascals. The Tamarack fans are simply air tight out of the box with a few standard measures. They are only R-38 though. I don't mean to suggest that a WHF isn't a good idea. I think that when combined with proper air sealing, shading and insulation they are basically the answer to the ravenous AC usage in this day and age. The only catch to using WHF is when you have created a living environment which needs dehumidification. And then you are playing with fire to begin with. I think that most basements probably should be partially or totally filled in.
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Old 07-25-12, 09:44 PM   #17
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Would a house with foam ICF basement walls and a properly insulated basement floor have the same level of dew point (say under 55f dew point with exposed concrete) concerns regarding basement mold. ..or at least I think that's what you mean when you say requiring dehumidification(other than comfort).
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Old 08-01-12, 08:48 PM   #18
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Well I've almost got the controller set up (arduino) and the plan is to install the fan in the attic Saturday morning while the attic is "cool" I'll take pictures and update as things happen..
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Old 08-01-12, 09:45 PM   #19
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Woo, looking forward to seeing it.
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Old 08-04-12, 07:49 AM   #20
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well i got bored yesterday after work.. so i actually got to use it last night.. im very happy so far..

ive still got to do all the wiring and finish the controller..


before


after

(pay no attention to the light hanging by the wires)

hole is the ceiling



fan in the attic..


this makes it sound much louder then it really is..
video of it running in the house

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