I live in San Diego, so I’m sure for many of you my complaints aren’t that serious but I was pretty miserable last summer. Even if the temp outside is only mid 80s, the temp inside and especially upstairs is so unpleasant.
We didn’t run the AC at all last year because it’s so damn expensive. It seems like the climate is perfect for a whole house fan: cool at night and hot during the day? And it doesn’t seem that expensive to install or to operate.
Does anyone have any experience with whole house fans to push me one way or the other?
I had one in a house I bought and it helps. It’s not a/c nor is it a replacement for it, but can get a in home breeze going, remove heat buildup in the attic, and draw in cooler air quickly deep into the house as the temp drops. Now truth be told I would not have installed it myself, but the house came with it. A/C does most of what the fan can do that I wish to accomplish. But since it was preinstalled it did get use and fan motor replaced once.
I had one in the the house I bought here in Ohio. I read a lot about it and it seemed like the right science.
But humidity here in Ohio is oppressive. Fucking oppressive. No amount of air circulation was going to combat the swamp air I experienced here. And since I work from home, it was an all day battle. I lasted half a summer before I got A/C and now live in a permanent bubble.
SD is pretty dry though right? I don’t see a problem with a whole house fan if you don’t have humidity. Just make sure you get louvered vents in the attic. They’re supposed to pop open when the fan turns on (so there’s a source of outdoor air) and close when not in use.
I have one here in North Georgia. It’s cheaper to run than AC, and on hot days and cooler nights it helps flush out the hot air in the attic that would otherwise eventually radiate into the living area.
I use mine a lot in the Summer.
Note that the cheaper ones are quite loud. Quiet ones can be had, but they’re pricey.
We had them in MA, and they worked real well. They should work even better in the CA climate, with the dryer, cooler nights. You need to make sure that your attic is vented properly, though, or they won’t work so well. The ones we had when I was a kid were loud as hell, but the newer ones are pretty quiet, relatively speaking.
My folks’ house had one.
They lived just north of Washington, DC, and could get away without using the AC for most of the early summer and early fall. I always liked the breeze that the fan created in the cool evenings.
Theirs was built into the attic, and you had to lower the attic stairs to use it. It was a monster, and could create a breeze in every room of the house if the windows were only opened a few inches.
We had one in NJ, and it worked great. We had a two story house with a nice attic, and so had good airflow. Our house in California is not suited to it, so we use floor fans in each room and cool at night and close up during the day.
It works until we get three or four hot days in a row, Which we never used to have but had last summer, so I know what you’re talking about.
It’s bad enough that we’re thinking of getting AC.
The following is my worldly experience with whole house fans.
In high school I would sit with my buddy in his basement late at night eating frozen pizza, and smoking pot. His parents were in bed upstairs. Sometimes the pot smell would get pretty strong, and we’d open a window, even in winter. Then one day his dad installed a whole house fan in the upstairs hallway. We thought it was awesome because when we turned it on, the basement never smelled like pot no matter how much smoke we were blowing around! Years later, as adults, we were informed by his parents that the smell was just being lifted upstairs, which if we weren’t so stoned we might have figured out.
In 1955 my parents bought a house in the Philadelphia suburbs that had a whole house fan. It was wonderful. This was the days before home AC was a thing and we certainly couldn’t have afforded it. The house had three floors and a previous owner had put in this fan, which I recall was close to 40" diameter at the top of the stairs to the third floor and boxed it in. There was maybe a 15’ run to the rear window of the third floor, but it didn’t seem to matter. Even though we had loads of hot humid weather as soon as the temperature cooled at night, it cooled the whole house. Except for the third floor room that my brother and I slept in. The fan didn’t cool the house if we opened the door to our room and the room’s windows. So we kept our door closed and put a strong exhaust fan in one of the two windows and cooled out area that way.
Of course, it didn’t do much during the day, but even having a constant breeze was helpful. While not being AC, it was extemely helpful.
I once inquired from a contractor about installing a whole house fan here in Montreal and he claimed it would violate code. I can’t imagine why. We don’t have AC and we don’t get that all much very hot weather, so it would seem to be ideal. We do have a window exhaust fan and it helps.
Basically in a climate like SD I strongly recommend it.
I owned a home in PA without AC but with a big attic fan. I’d arrive home to a house that was like an oven. Walk upstairs, pull the fan cord, open a few Windows, and five minutes later it was tolerable.
It was too noisy to leave on for long, but it improved things quickly.
I have one in my house, connected to a thermostat instead of an on/off switch. I love it, the wife doesn’t (allergies). Unfortunately, the only time it is very helpful here is during the spring and fall - prime pollen season. Summer gets too hot and humid for just a fan.
Kansas City - we use the attic fan in the spring before it gets oppressively hot, and in the fall when it starts to cool down.
Reduces the cooling season by quite a bit. No one is home during the day (other than the animals), so even though it heats up then, the house cools down fine as long as the nighttime temps are low 70s or below.
St. Louis area. It’s great during certain parts of the year. One extra expense may be more attic vents. A neighbor installed one and the first time he turned it on to max, his roof started to ‘inflate’.
Mine home’s fan was already installed when I bought it. The previous owner had installed 3 turbine vents plus the fan’s rheostat has a limiter to keep it from going full speed.
My parents had one in the two houses I lived in for most of my childhood. I don’t have one now, and find the time in the spring where it’s not warm enough overall to put the A/C on but warm enough to be uncomfortable trying to get to sleep nearly unbearable. It would be a huge help for those few weeks in the year, but otherwise the A/C works just fine. If you have one, you can save on A/C, but I can’t imagine having one totally replace the A/C. As mentioned, eventually the humidity here is the real killer, and you need the dehumidifying aspect of the A/C to really help the situation - drawing in slightly cooler but still very humid air doesn’t help much.
Do you have vaulted ceilings in every room or something? Where we live (you and I are not far from each other) is pretty much the perfect climate for these fans. Just curious.
We had one in our family home in Kansas City. It was located in the ceiling of the central stairway, and was pretty effective as long as everyone had their bedroom door open. I don’t think we ever had central air in that house.