Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Texas > Austin
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 10-05-2010, 02:27 PM
 
Location: Back home in California
589 posts, read 1,812,584 times
Reputation: 292

Advertisements

New and improved thread to gather information on Whole House Fans in the Austin area.

Are they used here? Can anyone recommend a reputable installer?

In case you are not familiar with what a Whole House Fan is, I found this definition at "ask the builder dot com."

A whole-house fan is a fixture that is often located in the ceiling of a home. In rare occasions, they can be located in a wall. This fan might be in a hallway or some other central location of the home. The fan is always located on the highest ceiling or wall and oriented so that it blows air directly into an attic space.

A typical whole-house fan moves vast amounts of air. The blades of the fan can be large, and they can have significant pitch so they can move thousands of cubic feet of air per minute. Turn one of these bad boys on inside an average-sized ranch home that has 2,400 square feet of finished floor space, and you can replace every bit of stale, hot inside air with cooler outside air in less than five minutes.


Whole House Fans and Austin-Do you use them here?-whole-house-fan.jpg
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 10-05-2010, 02:31 PM
 
10,130 posts, read 19,874,683 times
Reputation: 5815
When I lived in Dallas as a kid, we had one of those whole house fans... but I have not seen one in Austin. It was really good at getting fresh air in and stale air out, but didn't really cool very much. The problem in these parts is always the humidity more so than the heat. But certainly from Oct-May, it would be a nice way to cool or get out stale air on the semi-hot dry days.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-05-2010, 03:28 PM
 
Location: NW Austin
1,133 posts, read 4,186,005 times
Reputation: 174
We had one in our last house in Atlanta. It sure did bring in some dirt too! I did enjoy sleeping with it on and bringing cool air in at night. It also was pretty darn loud. I think I prefer ceiling fans.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-05-2010, 03:36 PM
 
Location: Austin
7,244 posts, read 21,802,928 times
Reputation: 10015
There are some in the homes built prior to 1960, but I can't recall ever seeing a house built after that time that had a whole house fan. Back in those days, it was before people used their ACs all the time. Now, people rather just open a window and get a cross breeze going through the house.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-05-2010, 03:40 PM
Bo Bo won $500 in our forum's Most Engaging Poster Contest - Tenth Edition (Apr-May 2014). 

Over $104,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum and additional contests are planned
 
Location: Ohio
17,107 posts, read 38,101,062 times
Reputation: 14447
Waste of electricity, IMO. You're replacing the 130-degree air in your attic with ~100-degree air from outside. If your house is insulated adequately, it shouldn't matter what the temperature is in the attic.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-05-2010, 04:03 PM
 
Location: Austin
7,244 posts, read 21,802,928 times
Reputation: 10015
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bowie View Post
... it shouldn't matter what the temperature is in the attic.
It's not about the attic. The whole house fans blow air through the entire house instead of turning on an AC unit. It's less expensive when used correctly.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-05-2010, 04:09 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX
16,787 posts, read 49,052,964 times
Reputation: 9478
Whole house fans are really only useful in this area at very limited times of the year:

- When its not too cold out.
- When its not too hot out.
- When its not too humid out.
- When its the pollen count is low.
- When the mold count is low.

They are much more useful up North.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-02-2012, 06:08 AM
 
2 posts, read 9,360 times
Reputation: 10
I think Bo is confusing "attic fans" with "Whole House Fans". I do believe that attic fans are effective, but them alone will not make your house more comfortable. Radiant Barrier and attic fans working with your A/C can keep your power bills lower and your house comfortable. I am confident that "sufficient" insulation, alone, will not keep that 130F attic temperature from entering your home. Before I added radiant barrier & attic fans, my A/C would run on days when the temp only reached 80F outside; now it doesn't. If it 100F outside, the A/C will definitely run; but not as often with a cooler attic.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-02-2012, 07:51 AM
 
Location: central Austin
7,228 posts, read 16,097,872 times
Reputation: 3915
I grew up in the midwest and we had a whole house fan. Useful. But CaptnRn has it exactly right. Too often in Austin, we go straight to AC (even this week) instead of opening windows (or using a whole house fan) because of cedar pollen or mold spores or the fact that in the winter when it is warm it is often too humid.

The idea environment would be a desert with cold, clear nights. Then a whole house fan would be useful and $ saving.

In Austin, a better investment is more insulation, better duct work, better windows, and a higher R value AC unit. Solar screens too!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-02-2012, 08:01 AM
 
Location: Chicago, IL
1,343 posts, read 1,371,357 times
Reputation: 2794
We installed a whole house fan in our 1956 ranch in Allandale when we moved in, in 2002, and it was WONDERFUL. (We have since sold the house.) On spring and fall mornings, especially, it was SO lovely to open the patio door (to the screen door), and other windows throughout the house, and turn it on, and move all the good, cool, fresh air through the house. It was rather loud, so after a while we'd decide we had enough of the noise and turn it off, but I just loved being able to use the whole-house fan in those times of the year.

Also, if you burn something in the kitchen, you can have the smoke OUT within about 2 minutes!

Unfortunately, I don't have the name or contact info anymore for the person who installed it for us. We special-requested it, though - I know that much. No one suggested it to us, we had to come up with the idea on our own.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Texas > Austin
Similar Threads
View detailed profiles of:

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top