I would like to be able to turn it on and off and maybe select speeds from an app or Google/Alexa. Bonus: automate it to turn off after a specified amount of time. I’ve seen threads for this but they’re old and I’m wondering if there are commercial solutions available.
I am interested in installing a whole house fan in my home, I've used them before in other places with great success. I'm checking out a window model (Air King 9166) and plan to install it in a window in my attic where there is currently an old attic fan. The idea is that I would open the door to my walk up attic (unfinished, used for storage, with plywood over blown in insulation), open the windows below and crank it on when needed.
I could potentially turn it to a low setting to vent the attic only on hot days, but that would require me to go up to the unit when I need this done. I had thought about installing a separate, solar powered attic vent in addition to this if needed. The house is a 2300 sf split level.
Does anyone have experience with this type of setup? Thanks!
Is it safe for the hardwood? It does draw air from the outside and not sure if dust and pollens will end on the floor. It is ok on a brand new floor? We do have mesh nets on the windows but i guess dust can still come in.
Live in Colorado.
Isaac
Is there anyway to make it not smell when the exhaust is off in the tent? I dont have any other fans pulling air in or out, just some circulating the air. When I setup my fan to exhaust air to turn on and off based on humidity and temp, the fan will probably be off more than on, and oh boy does it smell good to me, but reeks to everyone else in the whole house if the fan is off, so just looking to find a solution. I was thinking maybe one of those ionizing fans inside the tent to filter the air a little in there. Thoughts?
So I'm looking into whole house fans. Electrician brought it up while doing a different project and got me thinking. Obviously there's a tradeoff and payback period that depends on how much you normally run the AC and the local climate.
Midwesterners - how much are you actually able to use your whole house fan? Is it just in the spring and fall? Too humid most of the time? Getting some use over 6 months rather than 3 months could make all the difference.
A year and a half ago my husband and I bought a house with a whole house fan. Essentially it’s a giant vacuum. You open windows in areas of the house you want to cool down, turn the dial on the fan and it sucks fresh air from outside, in a very strong wind. Our house is currently 76 degrees, we’ve turned it on and it’ll take less than an hour to get it comfortable again. It uses 10-15% of the energy that an air conditioner would use, and we only need to run it for short amounts of time.
We haven’t seen them in many houses, but god is it a treasure.
I have a window fan attached to a Z-Wave switch and I want to activate the fan when the outside temperature is cooler than the inside temp in order to cool the house faster and help the A/C unit. Sometime in the evening the temp drops to 68 f (for example) but my A/C unit still takes a couple of hour to bring the house from 72 f (day mode) to 68 f (night mode)
About 2 months ago now, I installed a QuietCool ES-7000 whole house fan in our 2 story home. I wanted to put it through some hot days and nights before posting up.
First off, installation was pretty easy. The installation video QuietCool provides is pretty much what needs to be done. Took me about 3-4 hours to complete in total.
I opted to wire in a timer plus high/low switch since my model supported 2 fan speeds. Audibly, low speed is near silent. On high, it's great white noise that is quickly forgotten.
Performance is stellar. If you're in a climate that can accommodate a whole house fan, I highly recommend. Even on low speed, with strategically cracked windows, you're getting a blast of fresh air from outside and nice breeze throughout. One thing that we noticed is that even when ambient temps are a bit higher outside than what we'd like them to be inside, we'll still opt to kill the AC and turn on the house fan.
Overall, it has significantly reduced our AC usage. We typically keep the home around 74 degrees. So even on hot days where the AC may be operating for several hours, we'll now opt to turn the house fan on as soon as ambient temps get down to about 78-80. Prior to the house fan, we'd bump the AC down to about 68-70(we like to sleep colder) and it would be churning away most of the night.
There are claims that whole house fans reduce energy consumption up to 50-90 percent. Much of that depends on your comfort level but we've definitely seen a reduction in total kW over last year. Going by stats, low speed uses 164 watts, high speed 727 watts. Compare that to our heat pump, 22 running amps @ 240v equates to about 5280 watts.
Anyways, thought I'd share.
He texted me “I’m with Yang now”
I'm installing a new whole house fan and in the attic there is not a existing junction box. From what I understand I can splice into a existing circuit in the attic but I'm having trouble trying to find the power cord.
There is a 3 way light switch where I want to install the switch for the fan.
In the attic (picture 1) I see the 3 way switch has 2 wires coming out of it. Black cable connects to the ceiling light and the white wire connect to a different switch in another room that is not the other 3 way switch. The other 2 white cables are the new ones for the fan seen in the picture
From the ceiling light there are 2 black cables 1 from the 3 way switch and the other goes in the direction of the other 3 way switch. (picture 2)
Picture 3 has 2 cables coming from it. The white wire that connects to the 3 way switch and a black cables that goes into the direction of power outlet. The switch in that room controls a power outlet.
So the question is where should I splicing into? If there is anything other info that will help let me know. Thank you.
Hello all,
I’ve got a little conundrum. Bought a TP LINK single pole smart switch. Comes with a a ground, a neutral and two black wires. Everything i read says the neutral is required. I know there’s other switches out there that don’t require it but all of my other smart switches and lights are TP LINK. Just trying to stick with the same environment for simplicity. And they’re the cheapest smart switches I’ve seen :)
My issue is that my whole house fan switch that I’m trying to replace with the TP LINK only had one white and one black wire in the box. Bummer i know. BUT i have a light switch for the hall lights 2 inches away right next to it that’s full of wires and everything i need but in a separate box. House fan is directly above both of these switches in the attic. There is no stud between the two boxes. I do have access to the attic.
Basically I’m looking for the easiest way to either get a ground and neutral from the light switch box over to the house fan box without making it look like shit. It’s not close enough to throw a jumbo plate over and cover up the gap. Or if there’s another way to wire it that i havent found in all my searches, that would be super helpful.
I’m fairly comfortable with basic home wiring but also think if running a new neutral and all that is too much, which it may be, then i may have to just opt for a different more expensive switch. I do understand I’ll only be able to hardwire wire it at a high or low speed which is fine.
I’m always up for a little challenge and willing to learn this with your help as it’ll be knowledge i have for the rest of my life and future projects :) it’s just not something I’ve done before running wire through the house.. only outside of it. Assume it’s the same concept though.
Any guidance is appreciated! House was built in the 70s if that matters.
We just got a Whole House fan. and last night it was able to get the up and down stairs to a good 68 degrees. But within an hour and a half, both nests reported temps of 71 downstairs and 72 upstairs. This would make sense to me if it were hot outside, but during that time the outside temp was still 69-70 degrees and partly to mostly cloudy and morning sunshine.
Is it possible the exhaust from the quiet cool fan is pushing the hot attic air into the walls instead of out of the attic? It just seems off that the temps would rise 3-4 degrees that quickly with it being cool outside, unless the lower temps on the nest were just because of the cooler air passing them, since the 68 temp is what I saw right when the WHF shut off?
Hi, quite and interesting problem I’ve gotten my self into. So the one way flap on the exhaust fan has broken and allowed some bird to make a nest and hatch it’s babies in the vent. The bird were audible a couple days ago but I havnt heard much since. I come home last night and my room smells awful, I have traced it to the vent and presumedly what is bird poop. I know how to fix the one way gate but do any of you know how I would or who would clean the vent from bird shit? Thanks in advance!
I'm looking to install a whole-house humidifier and I've done quite a bit of research on the topic, but this has also decreased the confidence of my choice because of differing opinions with what seems to be legitimate concerns. I called some local HVAC folks and they said they only install their own products, which means I may have to do this myself. One HVAC guy told me that he only installs manual bypass systems because he gets fewer calls back on them.
I'd like to install an automatic, fan humidifier that is connected to my smart stat. I want automatic so I don't have to constantly fiddle with the humidistat, and I'd like that to be my smart stat. I chose fan just based on house size (4000 sqft), and because it is simpler to install. I have to put this on my return (so tapping into softened hot water). I live in the upper midwest.
- What are your personal opinions on M/A and Fan/Bypass (based on experience)?
- What is your experience installing the outdoor temperature probe - placement and wiring route? (or using the smart stat instead while leaving it on manual)
- Is there anything I should be wary about when installing? Based on what I've read here, the main thing is to replace the water line with copper piping.
I’d like to install a whole house fan but am extremely lazy and would like to automate it’s operation. The most manual work is around opening windows...One idea I had was to put vents in the basement that open whenever the fan is engaged so that we don’t have to open the windows. Has anyone heard of this approach or have thoughts on whether it would be viable for a whole house fan?
I got this fan for free and was thinking it might make a nice attic fan instead. Attic is 24' by 22' in Kentucky, which gets really hot. The fan would be activated by thermostat, and get mounted blowing out through the gable vent. There are a couple roof vents. There is a bunch of old rock wool insulation up there, I'm slightly concerned that it could try to suck up insulation and blow it out the vent which would be bad.
In Phoenix, our homes are being built with these gizmos typically attached to a special filter on the return air filter grille plenum (with a small air filter inside it). My builder (EDIT: their vendor) transposed the ducts and so this thing has been blowing conditioned cold air outside on its predetermined schedule. Missed by my own home inspector, the city home inspector, and of course, the builders HVAC vendor. I'll just say their HVAC vendor are a big name in town and bid on (and win) almost all HVAC installs for production homebuilders here.
These vents are installed because our homes are built so tight, they don't get enough fresh air. Typically you can turn off the system from a special switch installed by the ceiling in an inconspicuous place like the laundry room.
If this helps someone else during their 1year warranty I did some good today. Now back to screaming and pulling my hair out at the incompetence I witnessed throughout this entire home build... Nobody gives a rats behind *at all* I didnt spend $1mil plus, and its not their house, so send the newbies out to do these installs, it'll be good for 'em. Which I actually am fine with. Everyone has to learn somehow. But there needs to be some QUALITY CONTROL which I'm yelling at a brick wall because there is NONE. Nobody crawls up in these attics during the summer when the house is being built to double check crap.
https://preview.redd.it/zutj635cytw41.png?width=460&format=png&auto=webp&s=2010c1c4d4b650bfd9073c2c6c802702afcbe844
My 1957 house has an R&M-Hunter whole house fan of the same vintage. The fan stopped working with a loud thud and when I climbed into the attic to investigate, I found that the belt connecting the motor to the fan mechanism (apparently the same age as the fan) finally failed. The belt has what I imagine is a part number (BV-3462) printed on it but that led me nowhere. Any ideas where I might source a replacement?
I've been looking into getting a whole house fan, but wondered if it was just me wanting stuff, or if they actually do anything for your utility bills? Given where we live in the US with our climate and humidity, I think I'd get some use in the spring/fall, but not winter, and only marginally during the summer. Are they worth the cost? If you had to do it all over again would you buy one or skip it?
I recently moved into a fairly new apartment near Portland, OR that has an exhaust fan on a timer in the laundry area. I’ve gathered that it’s a whole-house exhaust fan, and even found little passive vents with charcoal filters above some of my windows. The fan was set when I moved in to run 2x daily for 30 minutes each run, so I changed the times to better fit my schedule, but left that frequency/duration.
Now that I’ve been here a little while and it’s getting toward summer, I’m wondering if there is an optimal frequency/duration for running the exhaust fan for keeping my air fresh, and if there are better or worse times of day for it?
I posted a few weeks ago asking if a whole house fan was worth it https://www.reddit.com/r/homeowners/comments/8xwhdl/is_a_whole_house_fan_worth_it/. Wanted to post an update as i purchased & installed one this week, all I can say is I should not have waited - its amazing!
I purchased a QuietCool stealth pro 4,8 fan. Installers quoted $4k for the fan plus install - I was able to buy the fan plus wifi hub for $1,200 after tax. I installed it myself, will post a link to pictures.
The fan took about 3.5 hours to install, probably could do it quicker now as I made some beginner mistakes. I installed it in a central hallway in the house. The attic was at peak heat when i installed it, was like being in a sweat lodge.
Our house is an old 1950’s home in Northern CA, poor attic insulation and stucco that heats up during the day. Usually the house stays hot all night and cools in the morning.
First night i left the fan on high all night, my wife and kids said it felt like we had A/C. The house went from 84 degrees inside to 66 by the morning. It dropped about 5 degrees per hour. We were literally freezing cold in the AM which never happens in our house during summer. Success!
I have a home automation system (home-assistant) that charts outside temperature and inside temps via my Nest. I went back and checked other days of similar temperature before the fan was installed and the low indoor temperatures were about 10 degrees higher then with the whole house fan. House never cooled below mid 70’s in the AM on an 80’s+ day.
The breeze that the fan generates is amazing - if i stand near a window or sliding door thats cracked open you can feel a nice stream of cool air. If you turn the fan off, the breeze immediately stops.
I want to automate the fan in the future, looks like some folks have this working with Home Assistant. Ideally the system would notify me when indoor+outdoor temps are ideal to start the fan. Overall very happy with it and its saved me big $$$ on getting AC installed (was quoted $25k).
Only downside is my allergies seem to have picked up since the fan was installed. More outside air in the house. I can deal with that though, nothing more unbearable then sleeping in a hot uncomfortable house, or having no breeze on a hot night.
I live in an area in Northern California where A/C is not common. If you’re in a climate where you do not need AC 24/7 might be a good option. Thanks for everyones inputs on my original post - this was one of our
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Bought my house late 2018 and before moving in the sellers had to do a lot of electrical work as part of the sale, they mentioned that the electrician tried to get the whole house fan in the attic working but after running new wiring from the box to it and the switch their electrician decided it must've been a dead motor. So I have finally decided to deal with it because I figure it may help keep the house a little cooler during the early summer.
Here is the photo of the old label, what do I need to match when buying a new one? What other considerations should I have when buying this motor?
Thanks for any help
Hello! I’ve been in the market for a good fan for a while, long enough that my tiny monthly budgets for cooling solutions have snowballed to over $200.
Based on a suggestion from here, I got an Air King whole-house fan, which seemed like a perfect solution, but the shroud that allows it to for into the window was all bent up, beyond usability. The fan part itself is awesome, but I know that shroud is like 1/3 the price, so we sent it back.
Since then, I’ve read a bit more about the benefits of a window fan vs a free standing / pole mounted fan, and the non-window option seems to be able to move just as much air for a lot less money. Right now I’m eying what I believe is this exact same fan minus the adjustable window parts, and I’m wondering if there’s any better industrial options in my price range (about $200, including warranty extension if there is an option).
For reference, I have two uses — to quickly evacuate heat and smoke caused by cooking, and to suck heat out of the highest window in my house. It goes from 95f to 40f outside in a very short time span, but there’s rarely any wind so it takes forever to cool down the house with no actual AC. It can’t possibly be too industrial so long as it plugs into a 120v outlet and is less than 30” across (so I can get it through doors and whatnot). Thanks!
I live in Northern California and there are typically 1-2 unbearable weeks out of the year temperature wise. House is 1950’s original blown attic insulation, aluminum single pane windows, stucco exterior (which heats during the day and stays hot at night).
I got a quote for AC awhile back and the installer said i should start with a whole house fan and then do AC if i’m not happy with it.
Any thoughts on how these systems have worked out? Installer mentioned last year i should wait since the brand he recommended was releasing more sophisticated controllers to only turn on when outside is cooler then the inside.
I’m curious if they have a big impact on the power bill, and how well they really work. Night and day or just a minor impact? Also wanted to hear if they help in the winter (the house is often much cooler then the outside in the winter).
