I'm looking to reduce energy consumption. I was reading up on Attic fans and Whole house fans. We have a "fan" button on our thermostat that circulates air in the house. We turn it on when we cook so that we can have fresh air from outside. Is this considered a whole house fan or not? How is Whole house fan different from this?
Another question is, we have fans in the roof that rotate mechanically (no electricity) whenever there's a draft I think. Can we install an attic fan in its place that's controlled by a thermostat so that when the attic's temp goes up beyond certain point it's on automatically?
A whole house fan typically is set up to exhaust inside air to the outside world. The "fan" setting on a thermo typically only circulates the air within the house (if yours actually sucks in fresh air, you've got something like an Economizer setup, which is very uncommon in a residential unit).
Yeah, you can do that, if you have enough gable and/or soffit vents to handle the increased airflow. I think most studies have shown that you burn more $$$ running the attic fan than you save on air conditioning bills, 'tho.
OP here. How do I check what type of fan I have? If I leave the fan on for an hour or so it eliminates the odor from cooking. So I think the air is coming from outside.
Anyways, how do I check if it's "economizer" or just a fan that's moving the air inside the house.
A whole house fan is very powerful and when it is on it will create a breeze, in your house, by sucking air from the outide via your windows. I have one and run it every night in the summer and it is great! I woul dnever own a home without one in the Northeast.
The fan setting on your HVAC system will just cause the blower to run. This will balance out the temps in your house and probably make things seem cooler. It will not bring in fresh air. if you run this with your windows open I suppose it will help move and mix the air including some outside air, around. This is not considered a whole house fan. It is cheaper to do this that to run your AC.
The roof turbines are for venting hot attic air and work by convection. Someone here may tell you about some temp differential between attic and outside and living space, etc. I'm not sure what they are off hand. You can keep your attic cooler, and supposedly, the rest of your house by replacing the roof turbines with powered ones. The roof turbines need a way for the air to come into the attic under the eves. If you do not have vents here then the roof turbines, powered or not, will do nothing.
A whole house fan First learn to do a google search.
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first hit I came up with found this...
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These fans work best with one open window in the basement or first floor and an apropriately sized exhaust vent in the attic. These whole house fans move a lot of air and really make things seem cooler. They WILL pull air conditioned air from your house so do not use one with AC. My grandmother had one in her house. It was installed at the top of the stairs. She Kept all the windows in the house closed except for one per room which was left open only a couple of inches. There was a really nice breeze in almost every room of the house! The fan was so string, as I remember, that it would slam doors closed and pull off you baseball cap when standing under it (Or so it seemed to a 10 year old kid).
The fan in the link above is equipped with insulated louvers that will close when not in use. I remember my father would go into my grandmothers attic and cover up the old fan opening for winter and the open it up again in summer. With the one on the link above you will not need to do that. Also, my grandmothers fan had a speed controller on the wall. I would guess you can get a thermostat for one now.
Know where your return air duct is? Turn on your "fan" and see if the air is being sucked through the duct or not. If it is, you aren't bringing in outside air, just circulating it through the filter (and after an hour or so of doing that, almost any odor will be significantly reduced). This is the most likely scenario.
The fan switch is for the same fan that circulates the heated air in the furnace. While any air movement my help air move in or out of the house, it is not a whole house fan. Thse are generally installed in the ceiling of the upper floor and draws air in and pushes it intot he attic space where it exits through the gables and soffits.
This is not considered a whole house fan because you are just circulating air inside the house. It takes air from the intake vents and blows it out the exhaust vents. Not outside air is involved - unless you have doors/windows open then some of that air will get naturally put in to the mix, but you aren't directly pulling outside air in to the house.
A whole house fan is designed to be put in the ceiling where it can push air up in to an attic and outside that is properly vented with sofit and ridge vents. When doors and windows are open in the house, it will pull fresh air in and vent the stale air out the attic. They do work quite well at making the inside of the house equal in environment to outside.
A couple of big square window fans can accomplish the same thing.
You can retrofit the natural draft vents you describe with motorized ones. They can be either controlled manually or by a thermostat.
We have a whole house fan and yes, it will cause doors to slam! But the breeze and fresh air it generates is wonderful. I have it on right now, in fact. Eventually we'll have to turn it off and use the a/c, but as long as we can avoid having to pay for that compressor running we will save a little $.
Another question is, we have fans in the roof that rotate mechanically (no electricity) whenever there's a draft I think. Can we install an attic fan in its place that's controlled by a thermostat so that when the attic's temp goes up beyond certain point it's on automatically?
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