Whole house fan

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Originally Posted by ray1970

I can't offer any help but I've been considering an attic fan as well. I have central air but having a multi level house means the lower two levels are like a meat locker in order to keep the upper two levels cool. Not to mention the late afternoon sun beats down on my bedroom windows.

Mind if I ask how much the fan cost?

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Out heat/ac has a 2 stage? system, we keep the fan on (not in Auto mode) during warmer months. It really made a difference last summer. Kept ac in use time down to 1/2 of what is was with the old system

We have a whole house fan, professionally installed. It works awesome, but you MUST have enough vents in your attic to exhaust the volume of air that the fan will move!!! This means cutting holes in the roof and/or gables and adding more vents. This is not optional.

Otherwise the fan will overload the venting and pressurize the attic, greatly reducing the efficiency of the fan and air movement, stressing the fan and motor, and eventually the motor will fail.

We hardly ever run our a/c, only when it's just too damn hot. The fan works great, but if it's 95* outside, it'll be 95* inside too. Works best to open the windows on the shady side of the house and leave the ones on the sunny side closed. It's bitchin' on hot nights though! Makes a great breeze through the bedrooms.

I believe ours was installed when the house was built. 3' and auto-louvered intake. Each end of the attic has large wire mesh and louvered vents in the gable ends in addition to the normal roof vents.

If it's really hot, I can turn on one of the back yard sprinkler circuits for a cycle, open the patio door, and it's like a giant swamp cooler.

Key for us is getting the house cool at night, then shuttering it up lie a tomb. It will stay comfy even on very hot days into the afternoon unless the wife starts opening doors. [Bang]

Granted, I do have a window AC in my office, but I also have lots of gear in here.

Here in the banana belt most folks use evaporative coolers. Cheap to run and very efficient. Yesterday as temps hit the 80's I got ours going for the first time this year. In half an hour the house was 65 and the wife jokingly complained that it was "miserably cold in here".

Love our Breezeair coolers! One of the best investments we've made here. When it hits 100 they can keep the house at 68-70. Self flushing and the pads will go 8 years or more.

Thanks to everyone here who did their part to pay our $1000 in Xcel energy rebates! [Beer]

Im your huckleberry