Whole house fan

[ls02]

I am looking for whole house fan with insulated cover.Anyone has one of thse installed in house and can recommend?

[willshak]

ls02 wrote the following:

You can buy the cover separately for any whole house fan. You can also construct one from foam panel insulation.

[zek]

Don't go for one of those generic fans they usually use. I have installed two. The last one I was able to install a green plug to slow nit down so it was fairly quiet. The current one I only use to flush the house. I have also been known to turn the fan on high and use a motorized blower to clean the house. Do you like the sound of an airplane engine? That's what the fan sounds like.

Go with a lower cfm Panasonic fan. They should do the job. I think they have a 400 cfm or thereabouts. Check noise levels of specified fans!!!!!!

Greg

[zek]

I don't know your layout. I usually call these attic fans because they are usually in the attic sucking interior air out. I would install two of these for my application, and the motor is not at the opening further reducing noise.

FV-40NLF1

Greg

[willshak]

Mine is in the ceiling of the second floor hallway between bedrooms. It's the kind that has louvers on the bottom that open when the fan is turned on. Besides sucking air from the living area, it also ventilates the attic above and I have used it many times in the summer when I had to go into the attic to search for something, or do repairs, or make alterations. It is a lot cooler in the attic than if I went up there without using the fan.

[Ed Pawlowski]

"zek" wrote

400 cfm will barely clear the farts out of the bathroom. My 30" fan is about 5000 cfm and really cools it down. Variable speed, of course.

[zek]

I measured the dB in the hallway with my slightly reduced speed fan.

85 dB. Typical bath fans are 100 cfm. My attic fan is probably rated about 3000 cfm. True, I need more than 100 cfm for the bath, but I up the cfm by using a bigger online fan which is installed in the attic. That's the only way to get a nice quiet system by moving the fan away from the port.

Greg

[John Grabowski]

I am looking for whole house fan with insulated cover.Anyone has one of thse installed in house and can recommend?

[mm]

We had one of those when I was in JHS and HS. It seems to me it is only useful after the outside has cooled off, and that can be pretty late 8 PM to 1AM on a hot day, depending on how hot the day was and other things.. Otherwise, when you turn the fan on it draws hot air from the outside through the open windows making the house warm or hot, maybe hotter than it was.

If you ran the AC during the day, it sucks all the cool air out of your house, replacing it with hot outside air.

It probably does cool off the attic, but you dont' care aobut that, do you?

I have a roof fan (though a gable fan would do the same thing). It goes on maybe between 10 and noon, and blows the hot air out of the attic, replacing it with outdoor air, which won't be as hot usually. It turns off betweem 5 and 8 Pm, or 4 and 9, when the attic cools off to some preset but adjustable temp.

It keeps the attic as cool as possible which lowers the amount of heat ing the atttic which can go through the insulation in the floor of the attic to the occupied floor below. Maybe it's possible to have enough insulation that no heat makes it from the attic to the floor below, but i'm not there yet.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I guess the ideal would be to have both or an either/or option. Could be done with dampers. Cooling the attic space helps with keeping the heat down so the AC runs less.

On days you don't need AC, but want to cool the attic and suck the heat from the oven out of the kitchen, or otherwise change the house air quickly, a whole house fan is ideal. Fans don't remove humidity either.

[ls02]

My understanding the whole house fan is not run continuesly. It is turned on for some time late at night when outside temperature is cool so together with opening windows downstairs it sucks warm inside air out and sucks cool air in. After that it is turned off. So the noise level is not of such a great importance.

[ls02]

How do you construct the cover that covers the fan when it is not operating and opens up when it is turned on?

[krw]

I installed one in our first house (no AC). In hot weather I'd leave it running from sun-down to when we got up in the morning. On really hot days we'd turn it back on after the house got hot enough to open back up (to keep the attic "cool"). It was fairly loud but at a rather low frequency so wasn't obnoxious, like a bathroom fan.

[krw]

Exactly. It was a raised-ranch (never have that style again).