whole house fan (Colorado Springs: construction, inspector, cost)

[bustergomez]

Does anyone have a whole house fan and would anyone recommend a certain bran and cost to install one? Thanks

[Charles]

Originally Posted by bustergomez

Does anyone have a whole house fan and would anyone recommend a certain bran and cost to install one? Thanks

I installed a whole house fan in my home in Thousand Oaks, CA.

I bought mine at Home Depot. I think I paid $200-$250 in 1997??? I forgot. I installed it myself. It is not easy to do alone. It really helps if someone works with you. If you understand romex and junction boxes you can do it without an electrician. The fans are around 1/3 HP (~250 watts, 2-10 amps peak??) so they don't draw too much current.

Here's what I learned:

Make sure you don't violate the housing construction: joists and beams, when you install it. In TO, you need a permit. When you sell your house, the inspector can tell if your joists are within engineering specs.

Install it far away from where you are sleeping. Most of them are loud. I read somewhere that newer quieter ones are available. Check them out. Whole house fans are often used in the early morning when everyone is sleeping. You don't want a loud fan.

Also consider installing an attic fan which runs on a thermostat to keep your attic from getting hot.

Get a helper when you install it. Like installing a ceiling fan (which I did too), it is much easier when two people are working together. In TO you need a permit for a ceiling fan.

[Katarina Witt]

When I saw this thread, I said "they are loud". Even though Charles already said it, it bears repeating. We thought ours was just noisy b/c it is old, so we asked at Home Depot and they said the fans are still noisy. Over-rated, IMO. We haven't used ours all summer b/c I can't stand the noise. We call it "the train" b/c that's what it sounds like.

[Vision67]

I have a Whole House Fan that I had installed when the house was built.

Our house is a two story design, so the fan is located above the stairs.

I bought it from Graingers, it has 36" diameter blades, it's 2 speed, and it will move 7900 cu ft per minute. I added about 15 square feet of exhaust vents to the roof soffits to improve air outflows.

At the low speed, it's not too loud. The key is to get the bigger blades. The smaller ones fit between joists but they are loud. Mine sits in a box above the joists in its own plenum.

Do not cut any joists.

As you can imagine, they are much easier to install in a newly constructed house. The key is to have sufficient attic venting to the outside to allow easy airflow. Bigger blades and sufficient venting = quieter operation.

Colorado Springs had a good climate for this type of cooling because it alway cools below 60 degrees at night.