Whole House Fan?

Anybody here running a whole house fan?

Thinking about installing one to draw up cool air from the basement in the summer months.

Would appreciate any lessons learned/useful advice with respect to running one of these devices.

Thanks Much!
G

Don't have loose papers or bags anywhere near the big fan ?

they use to be quite common in Michigan. my ex-inlaws had one and used it at night for 10mins to cool the house before turning on the AC

they work really well... depending on how you install them. you need to ensure the opening has an insulated cover, otherwise in the winter you're going to lose a TON of heat

you really want vented soffits and roof caps, maybe even gable end vents, as well... to ensure the air you're pushing into the attic can exhaust appropriately.

I've got one, and it's great for cooling off the house. It moves a lot of air on high, so like x98myers7 said make sure you can get rid of the air. It keeps the attic cool, too, so you get less heat conducted into the house that way. I live in the Upper peninsula of Michigan, so not as many days of cooling as most places.

I installed one when I lived in Colorado (after falling through the ceiling and needing some matching way to repair the damage, hey don't judge I was hot and sweaty! I reused the square I cut out to patch the hole where I went through. Did it all in an afternoon so my wife wouldn't notice. I put it in a hallway to balance air pull across the house (you can also control it by what windows/doors you open) ; -)

It worked great as we didn't have AC. In the dry air the summer temperatures could soar to 100, but at night it always cooled down.
So, when we got home from work we'd open the windows and exchange the hot air for cool air.

Frame carefully around the fan and I'd use screws and white glue as the inexpensive fans vibrate a lot. The only problem I had with it was my sister-in-law was too short to reach the pull chain and if I put an extender on it then it would bang my head. Should have gotten the type that has a wall switch. ; -)

Update: oh yeah, also had to clean my attic vents, dust had settled on them reducing the air flow.

svetz said:

I installed one when I lived in Colorado (after falling through the ceiling and needing some matching way to repair the damage, hey don't judge I was hot and sweaty! I reused the square I cut out to patch the hole where I went through. Did it all in an afternoon so my wife wouldn't notice. I put it in a hallway to balance air pull across the house (you can also control it by what windows/doors you open) ; -)

It worked great as we didn't have AC. In the dry air the summer temperatures could soar to 100, but at night it always cooled down.
So, when we got home from work we'd open the windows and exchange the hot air for cool air.

Frame carefully around the fan and I'd use screws and white glue as the inexpensive fans vibrate a lot. The only problem I had with it was my sister-in-law was too short to reach the pull chain and if I put an extender on it then it would bang my head. Should have gotten the type that has a wall switch. ; -)

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Thanks, definitely will go with a wall switch operated fan. Been looking at the QuietCool line up. I am in the interior West, so drawing excess humidity into the house isn't an issue.

Bear22 said:

Thanks, definitely will go with a wall switch operated fan. Been looking at the QuietCool line up. I am in the interior West, so drawing excess humidity into the house isn't an issue.

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Nice, with dry air you can couple it with a DIY swamp cooler... you can let the humidity blow directly into the house because the whole house fan will suck it out. On the rare days it didn't get cool at night we did that.

svetz said:

hey don't judge I was hot and sweaty! I reused the square I cut out to patch the hole where I went through. Did it all in an afternoon so my wife wouldn't notice.

Click to expand...

No judgment here. I once cut myself with an AX after my wife warned me and managed to get to a doctor buddies house to get stitches and back without getting discovered.

Are you with SERVPRO?

Bear22 said:

Thinking about installing one to draw up cool air from the basement in the summer months.

Would appreciate any lessons learned/useful advice with respect to running one of these devices.

Click to expand...

Keep in mind you'll have to replace that air in the basement with outside air. You'll be pulling warm moist summer air across the cold concrete floor and might get condensation.

My grandpa would hose the down the bushes around the house and turn on the whole fan. Essentially it was a swamp cooler that surrounded the house. Worked pretty darn good but I was kid.

Edit: just noticed that you are in the west.

OzSolar said:

No judgment here. I once cut myself with an AX after my wife warned me and managed to get to a doctor buddies house to get stitches and back without getting discovered.

Are you with SERVPRO?
View attachment 124473


Keep in mind you'll have to replace that air in the basement with outside air. You'll be pulling warm moist summer air across the cold concrete floor and might get condensation.

My grandpa would hose the down the bushes around the house and turn on the whole fan. Essentially it was a swamp cooler that surrounded the house. Worked pretty darn good but I was kid.

Edit: just noticed that you are in the west.

Click to expand...

I have the opposite problem: Going to sound funny to many, but it's not humid enough here. Typical RH where I live is about 25%.

Used one when I lived in the San Diego area. Ran it at night when it was cooler. Worked great because we would open windows in the rooms we wanted to be cooled and the air would be drawn through them (mainly the bedrooms). In your case the cool air would most likely be drawn straight from the basement to the fan without going through most of the rooms so maybe not much benefit.

Bear22 said:

I have the opposite problem: Going to sound funny to many, but it's not humid enough here. Typical RH where I live is about 25%.

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Right. As crazy is this sounds you should play around with ways to introduce humidity to your basement. When hot dry air evaporates water it takes heat which results in cooler air with a bit of moisture in it. The magic of phase changes.

It's why swamp coolers work so good there and not at all where I am in the Ozarks.

sparrowhawk said:

Used one when I lived in the San Diego area. Ran it at night when it was cooler. Worked great because we would open windows in the rooms we wanted to be cooled and the air would be drawn through them (mainly the bedrooms). In your case the cool air would most likely be drawn straight from the basement to the fan without going through most of the rooms so maybe not much benefit.

Click to expand...

It's more for SHTF scenario/purposes versus the need to lower an electricity bill. I believe that these substation acts of terrorism is just the tip of the iceberg (hope I am wrong).

We've had a rather large old school attic fan since we bought this house in 2011. It was already installed on the south side of the attic. There's a rope pully system with "summer" and "winter" labels for the counterweight that opens the attic door and garage vent. It took us a little bit to figure out how to use it properly but it's AMAZING for the summer. As soon as the sun goes down I can clear out the attic air in a few minutes and not have a hot blanket all night. Then in the morning I open a north window and run it until the whole house is under 70 degrees or sunrise, whichever is first.

I put one in our house two summers ago, it's life changing. Power draw is minimal, during the day it keeps the house 10-15 degrees cooler than without it and as soon as it starts getting cool at night it's like having A/C.

Curious to know where Bear22 resides.
We live in the southwest USA and because of the dryness, air movement makes a big difference when it is hot, especially if one can wear short sleeves and shorts. We have a small exhaust fan in the loft of our small house and that helps, especially when night falls and lasts until the outside air in the morning gets warmer than the interior. In addition to the exhaust fan, though, a ceiling fan and small fans really help when it gets really hot.