Whole house fan.. - Page 3

Nonhog · 08-06-12, 01:04 PM

Years back I installed one in a hall closet upstairs and put the switch in there also. That way it was out of site. The doors must be open to turn on and it was loud enough nobody would forget it was on and close the doors.
In our case it drew musty air from the eve vents into the open windows.
To avoid that we opened window downstairs whiched helped.
But also made the cooler downstairs a bit warmer.
Moved before we fine tuned the use of it.

Now I'm thinking I would consider another fan to help rid hot air from our attrium. Thinking............

Neal · 08-06-12, 09:27 PM

As a general contractor, $1200.00 is high. (Must be gold plated.) I bought one for my sis & it ran less than $200.00. 3600 cu '/min. It has louvers, but I also bought a quilt. It has a magnetic strip around the border. ( I am NOT counting on that to hold up, however. I'll use those real strong magnets. 3 for $3.00. I'll be buying a total of 12.)

Now my caution. You must size the soffitt vents to move total as much as the fan pulls. 3600 cubic feet is a lot of air. I'll be looking at having more openings than we have now.

servant74 · 08-06-12, 11:17 PM

I remember my wife's family having a whole house fan. About 20"x20" and took up what seemed like the full width of the hall (in my memory). Turned it on and it roared, had to make sure some windows were opened before turning it on. It did have metal slats that SLAMED shut when the fan turned off, that were
below the fan (at ceiling level). The fan itself I think was above the rafters.

In the semi-airid area (Bartlesville OK, north of Tulsa) it worked well.

In El Paso I had a whole house swamp cooler, instead of refrigerated air. Turn off the water at night to the air cooler to just run the fan and the house got chilly (once the residual daytime heat got carried away), and clear skys allow great radiation of heat to the dark sky) at night. All that to say I didn't have a whole house fan there.

Living in Houston, it was so humid there really wasn't the 'season' that it would work well. Too hot and humid for 9 months of the year. (2 wks of nice fall, 2 months winter, 2 months of nice spring -- at least the way I remember it). -- there I did use ridge vents, soffit vents, AND un-powered turbines on the roof. One friend cut a 4x4 hole in his roof and put a copula on it. I think we should have put a fan inside the copula with a generator on it, since the hot air escaping his roof (about 2500 sq ft) was so powerful. We did leave vents in the side of the copula of about 8 sq ft per side did help a lot.

Neal · 08-07-12, 05:25 AM

One more thing! There is a temp switch as well as a rheostat to govern the fan speed & temp.
I'd say that is rather important. Sorry I forgot to mention it.

Fordguy64 · 08-08-12, 08:27 AM

Well the programming for the arduino is finally making sense to me so I should be posting info up about that soon.. And I'll probably be sealing things up this weekend and making the insulation for winter time

Fordguy64 · 09-18-12, 07:29 PM

Little up date.. Still no controller it's amazing how life can keep you so busy.. Anyways it appears that the fan has cut my electric bill in half!! I went from 1200kwh the month before the fan to 600kwh the month after

so I'm happy

Daox · 09-18-12, 09:34 PM

Woo, very nice! Would you say it is more/less comfortable with the whole house fan vs A/C?

Fordguy64 · 09-19-12, 07:19 PM

Well I think the biggest factor is humidity.. On nights that it's humid it not as effective and I usually left the air on.. But on the other end of it we had a good string of weather high around 85 (low humidity) lows in the mid 60's and I kept the windows open 24/7 with the fan on. Even when it was 85 the house was pretty nice to be in with just the gental breeze. Now it wasn't the same as coming into a house with the ac on but it was comfortable to me. And I think one of the big reasons it worked on the hotter days was because of the constant flow of air in the attic keeping the actual houses temp low if that makes sense (less radiant heat from attic)

Daox · 09-19-12, 08:56 PM

I'd recommend running the fan all night, then just using the A/C for an hour or so to dehumidify the air in the house. I did that this year with a window unit just to keep the humidity down and it worked out pretty good.

Daox · 10-01-12, 12:25 PM

Now that we're at the end of the cooling season (here at least), can you update us?

08-06-12, 01:04 PM	#21
Nonhog Knows enough to be danger Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Washington state Posts: 24 Thanks: 5 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Years back I installed one in a hall closet upstairs and put the switch in there also. That way it was out of site. The doors must be open to turn on and it was loud enough nobody would forget it was on and close the doors. In our case it drew musty air from the eve vents into the open windows. To avoid that we opened window downstairs whiched helped. But also made the cooler downstairs a bit warmer. Moved before we fine tuned the use of it. Now I'm thinking I would consider another fan to help rid hot air from our attrium. Thinking............ Attached Thumbnails

09-18-12, 09:34 PM	#27
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	Woo, very nice! Would you say it is more/less comfortable with the whole house fan vs A/C? __________________ Current project - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. & To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

09-19-12, 08:56 PM	#29
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	I'd recommend running the fan all night, then just using the A/C for an hour or so to dehumidify the air in the house. I did that this year with a window unit just to keep the humidity down and it worked out pretty good. __________________ Current project - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. & To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

10-01-12, 12:25 PM	#30
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	Now that we're at the end of the cooling season (here at least), can you update us? __________________ Current project - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. & To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

08-06-12, 09:27 PM	#22
Neal Lurking Renovator Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Southcentral KS. Posts: 4 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	As a general contractor, $1200.00 is high. (Must be gold plated.) I bought one for my sis & it ran less than $200.00. 3600 cu '/min. It has louvers, but I also bought a quilt. It has a magnetic strip around the border. ( I am NOT counting on that to hold up, however. I'll use those real strong magnets. 3 for $3.00. I'll be buying a total of 12.) Now my caution. You must size the soffitt vents to move total as much as the fan pulls. 3600 cubic feet is a lot of air. I'll be looking at having more openings than we have now.

08-06-12, 11:17 PM	#23
servant74 Lurking Renovator Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Near Nashville TN Posts: 6 Thanks: 2 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	I remember my wife's family having a whole house fan. About 20"x20" and took up what seemed like the full width of the hall (in my memory). Turned it on and it roared, had to make sure some windows were opened before turning it on. It did have metal slats that SLAMED shut when the fan turned off, that were below the fan (at ceiling level). The fan itself I think was above the rafters. In the semi-airid area (Bartlesville OK, north of Tulsa) it worked well. In El Paso I had a whole house swamp cooler, instead of refrigerated air. Turn off the water at night to the air cooler to just run the fan and the house got chilly (once the residual daytime heat got carried away), and clear skys allow great radiation of heat to the dark sky) at night. All that to say I didn't have a whole house fan there. Living in Houston, it was so humid there really wasn't the 'season' that it would work well. Too hot and humid for 9 months of the year. (2 wks of nice fall, 2 months winter, 2 months of nice spring -- at least the way I remember it). -- there I did use ridge vents, soffit vents, AND un-powered turbines on the roof. One friend cut a 4x4 hole in his roof and put a copula on it. I think we should have put a fan inside the copula with a generator on it, since the hot air escaping his roof (about 2500 sq ft) was so powerful. We did leave vents in the side of the copula of about 8 sq ft per side did help a lot.

08-07-12, 05:25 AM	#24
Neal Lurking Renovator Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Southcentral KS. Posts: 4 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	One more thing! There is a temp switch as well as a rheostat to govern the fan speed & temp. I'd say that is rather important. Sorry I forgot to mention it.

08-08-12, 08:27 AM	#25
Fordguy64 Journeyman EcoRenovator Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Cincinnati ohio Posts: 338 Thanks: 40 Thanked 35 Times in 31 Posts	Well the programming for the arduino is finally making sense to me so I should be posting info up about that soon.. And I'll probably be sealing things up this weekend and making the insulation for winter time

09-18-12, 07:29 PM	#26
Fordguy64 Journeyman EcoRenovator Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Cincinnati ohio Posts: 338 Thanks: 40 Thanked 35 Times in 31 Posts	Little up date.. Still no controller it's amazing how life can keep you so busy.. Anyways it appears that the fan has cut my electric bill in half!! I went from 1200kwh the month before the fan to 600kwh the month after so I'm happy

09-19-12, 07:19 PM	#28
Fordguy64 Journeyman EcoRenovator Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Cincinnati ohio Posts: 338 Thanks: 40 Thanked 35 Times in 31 Posts	Well I think the biggest factor is humidity.. On nights that it's humid it not as effective and I usually left the air on.. But on the other end of it we had a good string of weather high around 85 (low humidity) lows in the mid 60's and I kept the windows open 24/7 with the fan on. Even when it was 85 the house was pretty nice to be in with just the gental breeze. Now it wasn't the same as coming into a house with the ac on but it was comfortable to me. And I think one of the big reasons it worked on the hotter days was because of the constant flow of air in the attic keeping the actual houses temp low if that makes sense (less radiant heat from attic)