Been thinking about adding a whole house fan.
I’ve done a fair amount of internet research but I’d like to hear any positives or negatives from real folks.
If anybody has something to share I would be interested in hearing it
We live in the northeast and have had one for about 25 yrs. We have a cape cod style house and heat can accumulate on the second floor, which then impacts the first floor. The key we found is not to turn it on until early evening, when the outdoor temp is lower than the inside temp. It does pull in cooler air and drives the hot air out. Is it perfect? No, but with ceiling fans in bedrooms and in our family room, it generally gets the job done. On a warm night we will put it on low speed when we go to bed, and make sure to turn it off as soon as we get up so we don’t start pulling warm air back into the house. On high speed it’s a little loud, but on low we barely notice it. Of course, there may have been changes/improvements to whole house fan design/technology, etc. since we installed ours in 1995.
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Biggest con….they are very noisy!
We have one which we used to use in the evenings. We have a split and the attic gets very hot so it draws the cooler air from the lower levels up. We could only use it with a lot of windows and sliding doors open (to create the pressure needed.) The biggest negative was that it brought in the humidy outside also. It also brings in the various allergens from outside. Nowadays (mostly because of the allergy issues) we rarely even open windows anymore.
I agree with the whole house fan bringing in allergens and humidity from outside. We also found that when we turned it on it would sometimes blow out the pilot light on the water heater. We however no longer have a pilot light on our water heater so this is not an issue anymore.
I personally prefer air conditioning mostly due to the allergen issue.
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We also have a cape and have used the whole house fan successfully to pull cooler air through - and occasionally warmer air when the indoors is chillier than outside. Other than rainy or very humid days, it’s been a positive for us.
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Do you have air conditioning? We live in the Bay Area in an area where it is relatively cool all year around (for example, it’s July 3 and I’m wearing a sweater!). We DON’T have ACs.
That being said, there are a few days where it can get quite hot and our upstairs can reach temps as high as 97 degrees F. I know of some folks that have reversible whole house fans, and it is incredible how much hot air these fans can take out, cooling the place down almost instantly. Our house isn’t really configured to take one (no attic), so I bought some reversible fans for bedrooms. During the day, these suck out the hot air, and in the evenings, we change the fan direction for cooling. Works pretty well!
I’m not sure what you’re using it for, but for us, they would work really well. Since we can’t do whole house, we are doing it for each bedroom.
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We had one when lived in Sacramento and it worked great. We had central AC as well just in case.
We live in the Midwest, and we use our whole house fan a lot. It’s a great way to cool the house at night, and we can close the windows in the morning & keep the cool air in. It helps cut down on air conditioning costs. We have lived in our house since 1986, and we still have the fan that was there when we moved in. Last year, we replaced the switch because it was kind of dated looking. We added a timer on the new switch, which has been awesome … no more getting out of bed at 2 am to turn off the fan because the house has gotten too cold.
We love our whole house fan and consider it one of our best purchases. We live in the east Bay Area so hot days but mostly cool at night. It can drop the upstairs temps by 15/20 degrees in a couple of hours during the evening. We installed about 4 years ago and had heard the general complaint that they are noisy but we haven’t experienced that. I’d say it’s the same level of noise as the AC.
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We loved our at a previous house. We had AC but in the 2 story house the AC just didn’t do the job upstairs. We would turn the fan on before bed with a few first floor (?) windows just cracked. So much difference!
It was kind of loud but my kids actually liked the noise to sleep! It was always an adjustment in the fall when we stopped using it to go to sleep to quiet!
We had one in our Denver house, set in the ceiling of the second story blowing into the attic. It worked well, but in Denver it almost always cools down after the sun sets and is not humid. We would turn it on and open the basement and first floor windows. Things would cool down quickly. It was pretty noisy but sometimes that was “white noise” that helped our littles to sleep.
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My parents had one in NorCal and loved it. They also had AC, but Dad’s don’t like to waste the utility money if they can just pull in free cooler air. I wish I had an attic instead of cathedral ceilings.
We had one when we moved in 24 years ago and my husband has since replaced it (easy to do). Loved it when the kids were little - white noise for sleeping!
We have central air (live in CT) but find we can get by with just the fan except for during heat waves. Even if we’re using the A/C, we’ll turn it on in the evening to get the hot air out of the attic.
We have on in the northeast and use it often after sundown through early early AM. It cools the house a lot (no need for AC) and brings in fresh air. We,really love it. It’s true about allergens but it also brings in the smell of fresh cut grass, honeysuckle, etc.
If it’s particularly hot or humid, we stick with AC though. Sometimes that’s the only option.
When we built our house in Colorado, where it gets cool in the evening, we had it wired for a whole house fan. Since it is also quite dry, we opted to use a window unit evaporative cooler for the first few years. It could also be used to force evening air through the house, and I will say the pressure changes could make doors slam in the house.
Eventually we installed AC, which supposedly would be better for allergies. Honestly for me the seasonal allergies have gotten worse since then … probably an age thing.
we live in the Sacramento area and love our Whole house fan - self installed and bought at Home Depot. Its a pretty arid climate and we use ours most mornings during summer. Most days, it can easily cool the house by more than 10 degrees or more. We then close the windows to keep it cool and the air doesn’t need to kick on until well into the afternoon.
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