Whole House Fan

Chairman

New member
Has anyone in any of the new home developments (east of 5) install a whole house fan? When I used to rent in Irvine I lived in a 2-story home and a 3-story home. Both homes would be super hot in the early evening summers on the second and third floors. The homes would stay super hot all night and have stale non-circulating air. I always dreamed of one day installing one of these puppies in a home I might own one day.

Has anyone done this in their home? How much did it cost, is there a recommended installer for Irvine, did you need to get an HOA approval, and how effective has it been in cooling your house?
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,20305509,00.html

Thanks.
 
Chairman said:
Has anyone in any of the new home developments (east of 5) install a whole house fan? When I used to rent in Irvine I lived in a 2-story home and a 3-story home. Both homes would be super hot in the early evening summers on the second and third floors. The homes would stay super hot all night and have stale non-circulating air. I always dreamed of one day installing one of these puppies in a home I might own one day.

Has anyone done this in their home? How much did it cost, is there a recommended installer for Irvine, did you need to get an HOA approval, and how effective has it been in cooling your house?
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,20305509,00.html

Thanks.

Hey Chairman,  you were the one that told me you wanted an "Attic Fan" not a "Whole House Fan".  What happened??
 
Hey ZL,

I wanted a house fan. Don't know anyone who has done it yet. Would like to hear how well it works and see a demo before I went ahead and did it. Why is it so hot over here? We need more mature trees. :p
 
Doesn't the fan/circulate blow air into the house? I believe the whole house fan pulls air from the interior and forces it into the attic.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
Doesn't the fan/circulate blow air into the house? I believe the whole house fan pulls air from the interior and forces it into the attic.

Yes, exactly.  However once all the hot or cold air is in the attic what then?  That's where that attic fan comes in.  But the attic fan is the tricky part of this entire install project.  Most whole house fan installers don't install attic fans.
 
Chairman said:
Hey ZL,

I wanted a house fan. Don't know anyone who has done it yet. Would like to hear how well it works and see a demo before I went ahead and did it. Why is it so hot over here? We need more mature trees. :p

I was the demo for the water softener.  You get to be the demo for the whole house fan with the attic fan project.  Thank you very much Chairman.  Text me when I can swing by to see the demo.  ;D

But just a thought ... Won't they have to install more air ducts to make this happen?  Or can they tap into existing air ducts and vents. 
 
Me personally, I would not cut a whole through my roof. The integrity if the structure of the roof might be altered.
 
ZeroLot said:
irvinehomeowner said:
Doesn't the fan/circulate blow air into the house? I believe the whole house fan pulls air from the interior and forces it into the attic.

Yes, exactly.  However once all the hot or cold air is in the attic what then?  That's where that attic fan comes in.  But the attic fan is the tricky part of this entire install project.  Most whole house fan installers don't install attic fans.
The way it's suppose to work is thermodynamics.

By drawing all the hot air into the attic, the positive pressure is supposed to take over and the air will vent out to the lower pressure air surrounding your home.

At least that's the theory.

I guess if it doesn't vent out fast enough... you will be a real life "Up".
 
thatOSguy said:
ZeroLot said:
irvinehomeowner said:
Doesn't the fan/circulate blow air into the house? I believe the whole house fan pulls air from the interior and forces it into the attic.

Yes, exactly.  However once all the hot or cold air is in the attic what then?  That's where that attic fan comes in.  But the attic fan is the tricky part of this entire install project.  Most whole house fan installers don't install attic fans.

The air has to go somewhere, no? All (recently constructed) attics are vented - ours have these 3" portholes running around the rim of the house, plus a few of the lifted roof tiles. There's no obvious place for an attic fan. But still, I think the point of a whole house fan is circulation, and I'm not sure an attic fan improves that factor when used in tandem with a while house fan.

That's an interesting point that new construction should already have an attic vent to release the hot air build up.  Now how many does my roof have will be a factor if I will need an attic fan.

But doesn't a whole house fan create a vacuum if the windows are not open?  The whole point of new construction homes is they design the homes so we don't need to open up the windows because everyone is so closely built together.

During walk thrus they advertise the house is so well insulted with great air circulation that we don't need to open our windows.

So it seems that a whole house fan is counter-intuitive to the original design of sardine packed new cookie cutter homes.
 
All attics (new or old) are usually vented.

What the whole house fan does is draw the hot air in the home (absent of using the AC) into the attic where the pressure difference will cause it to vent out.

No home is 100% sealed, so no "vacuum" will occur. Your normal HVAC system pulls air from the inside of the house (hence those large vents that ps9 changes the filters for), cools/heats it and recirculates it.

Typically, if it's hot outside, you don't want to use the whole house fan with the windows open because you will just draw hot air into the home. You want to use the fan to vent the hot air out of the home into the attic which helps drop the temperature without having to use the AC. The whole house fan is not strong enough to oxygen deprive your family. :)
 
irvinehomeowner said:
All attics (new or old) are usually vented.

The whole house fan is not strong enough to oxygen deprive your family. :)

Thanks IHO.  Now I can sleep better at night.
 
Had an AC guy come over for some maintenance and I talked to him about attic fans and whole house fans.

He highly recommends whole house fans over attic fans. He said that for interior cooling, you will notice it more with a whole house fan than an attic fan.

So there were some posts on the attic fan thread about a whole house fan installation costing about $2k and I think that's correct based on some of the sites I have been looking at.

This one for example:
http://www.comfortcoolfans.com/whole-house-fan-products/comfortcool-2-7/

What I like about their product is unlike the ones I've seen where the fan is right over the vent, this one installed away from it to reduce noise.

Might go with a company like this:
http://www.directelectricco.com/

They do whole house fans and general electrical work (so I can do cans and fans too). Good Yelp reviews but no online pricing.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
All attics (new or old) are usually vented.

What the whole house fan does is draw the hot air in the home (absent of using the AC) into the attic where the pressure difference will cause it to vent out.

No home is 100% sealed, so no "vacuum" will occur. Your normal HVAC system pulls air from the inside of the house (hence those large vents that ps9 changes the filters for), cools/heats it and recirculates it.

Typically, if it's hot outside, you don't want to use the whole house fan with the windows open because you will just draw hot air into the home. You want to use the fan to vent the hot air out of the home into the attic which helps drop the temperature without having to use the AC. The whole house fan is not strong enough to oxygen deprive your family. :)

What's the diff between this fan and the fan Ribeye posted here:
http://www.talkirvine.com/index.php/topic,11931.msg240478.html#msg240478

The design looks about the same.  Ribeye says installation is about 300.00, so the installed price is about 500.00 less with quietcoolfan.com.
 
The one RibEye posted is an attic fan. It vents air from the attic to the exterior via the attic vents.

The whole house fan pulls warm air from the house and puts it into the attic.
 
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