What a WHF does is quickly replace your indoor air with outside air. Needless to say, if you don’t want to bring that humid outside air in, don’t get one. Where I live in Northern California, the outside temperature drops rapidly as soon as the sun goes down. Even on a hot day, the night air is cool and dry. A WHF is a great alternative to AC in this situation. I feel bad wasting energy on AC when all I really need is to pull cool air in.
I live in Southern California just under 20 miles inland from the beach. I installed a whole house fan in my property 20 years ago and it was a great investment and more than lives up to all the hype. In the region I live, with all due respect I could rebuttal most all of your points.
To live in SoCal and it has saved me a lot of money this past summer. I never have to use my air conditioner overnight and with the dry weather that we have here drawing in humidity is not an issue. My house remains about 30% humidity. My only question is how do you know how many windows to open? I've noticed that times that air is being drawn through bathroom exhaust fans which could be drawing in air from the attic. In addition to that does someone know of some sort of filters you can place on the windows that would prevent dust and pollen from entering? Also does anybody know if a whole house and causes condensation to build up the attic?
Im in san diego 4 miles from the beach.. was looking into getting a whole house fan and found out my neighbor has one and stopped using it due to some points stated in the video. Bought more solar instead and run the ac
@@Fakingittilimakeit The air is polluted with AC, I have solar panels produced 50 KWh daily on average, I also have and using both AC and whole house fan. I can tell you that we need all of these to maximize our comfortable. Without whole house fan the air is polluted and doesn’t feel good at all. You still need AC and solar panels. I believe in my case, whose house fan is the best purchase of my life in regards to home appliances. It’s only $2300 labor included, do your family a favor to install it ASAP.
They work great in California when there are large swings from the night to the day and it is a dry heat (zero humidity here, except after the rain). 4am-6am, before the sun rises, typically 20 degree deference from outside to inside. It really depends day to day on the weather. We also have pollen during huge the spring blossom; but fortunately it's not hot yet to need a whole house fan. After the whole house fan turns off, we close the windows, and run the HVAC on "Fan" for an hour so it filters the air. Our goal in the summer is to "tough it out" and not run the A/C with a couple of tricks: we have hallway curtains we close to partition the south facing (hot) part of the house and hang out in the north facing cooler part of the house; and we use indoor osculating and ceiling fans. Then, usually about 30 minutes after the sun sets, we can open the windows and start getting the cooling outside air. About an hour after we've opened the windows we'll run the whole house fan on Low just to flush out the upstairs and attic heat. We'll typically run the whole house fan on Medium for a couple hours when we're heading to bed. Then about 3:30-4:00am (depends on how far into summer we are at) I get up and kick on the whole house fan for 2 hours on High, then about 6am close the windows, run the HVAC on "Fan" for an hour. There are only two situations that cause us to run the HVAC: when it doesn't cool off enough to have a 5 degree difference outside and inside, and when it just gets to those baking 110F+ days and there is just no way the house will keep cool until after sunset. We'll rung the HVAC on A/C mode, but try to taper it off so that we can still get the windows open before bed.
I live in the Colorado mountains. I don't have A/C but it does get hot occasionally. Our humidity is never high and pollution is basically non-existent. Believe me, a whole house fan works here. Couldn't live without it.
I lived in Sacramento California for about 5 years. It would be 86 to 96 degrees during the day, and drop to 52 at 10PM when the fog from San Francisco would get there. The house I was in did not have an air conditioner. It did have a whole house fan. It was 3 feet square and drew 30 amps at 220v. When the fog arrived we would walk around the house and open all of the windows. Then turn on the whole house fan for about 15 minutes. During this time there were several air exchanges, but all of the furnishings etc were hot by then, and letting the wind blow across it cooled down our furnishings too. It would often keep the house cool till between 3PM and 5 PM. Then we would find something interesting to do elsewhere in the evening, and come back and run it again. Eventually we got a window unit to keep one room at decent temperatures. I am considering getting a 2000 cfm attic fan to cool the 1000sqft attic(3 minute complete air exchange). There is a 2ft by 3ft gable end vent on each end of the attic. Last time I measured the temperature up there it was 160F. The next step is a few inches of blown in insulation once it gets to be a reasonable temperature.
Here in southern California we don't have humidity. My whole house fan makes a noticeable difference and I really like it. Our chimney flue is closed so that's never an issue. I'm a big fan of these. Pun intended.
The central valley here and I agree. We are in near ideal condition for whole-house fans. Hot days and cool nights. It's pretty rare for temperatures to be above the '80s at night time even if it was 110 outside during the day and low humidity. I know Sacramento now requires all new houses to have them built-in because of much they can save on energy costs.
I lived in a giant warehouse loft that had a huge belt driven exhaust fan that could evacuate the air in the building very quickly and it was awesome. It had to be operated with a large window opened to provide supply air, and was mostly run in shoulder seasons and at night in summer. It did instantly cool the house, dramatically reduce air conditioning costs and the river of air moving through the building felt great. Because the fan would eventually equalize the interior temperature to the ambient exterior temperature, I'd have to remember to turn it off at bed time in the heat of summer or the house would just be too cold in the mornings. Super useful to quickly remove and replace interior air made bad from cooking mishaps, paint projects, industrial solvents or whatever. The supply air was not filtered with anything more than an xtra fine mesh screen and so it obviously brought outside contaminants in, but as long as they are run carefully with adequate supply air, I think many of the downsides (and dangers) of negative pressure whole house fan ventilation are largely overstated.
We deliberately do t have AC. We live in Northern Michigan and want to outside. AC sucks and too many people use it to cool a house to temps they try to heat it away from in the winter (70 in the summer. 72 in the winter). We had whole house fans as kids. We preferred them. Sure, they oversold the benefits. But to me this video oversells the “dangers”.
"It's gonna flood your house with humidity" "it'll bring in the smell of someone smoking outside and pollen" Dude... you have to use common sense. If it's hot and sticky out or smoky outside, that's not when you're gonna want to use one of these. I grew up with one of these in our house and it was awesome. Not for super hot humid days. Not in the winter... common sense. Just helps bring outside air in. If I have the windows open all day and it cools down at night, it can be 60 outside and stay near 80 inside because the walls, floors, furniture, everything stays hot for a long time. Run one of these for a little while and it'll cool it down much faster. And once again, common sense. If the neighbor has a smoldering fire going, you're not gonna want to use it at that time. These things are great but they won't replace ac on blazing days like people think that's what they're advertising. Common sense. There's a severe lack of that these days.
What you said at the end- there’s a lack of common sense. So the marketing that’s trying to sell one of these to every home is irresponsible. My point exactly.
@@HomePerformance I think every or most homes should have these. So many people in the comments, not just on this particular video but all of them. "It's 200 degrees at night here in Misery, AZ and this is supposed to replace my air conditioner?" Uh no, obviously this isn't for you. ""It's great if you want to bring in all the humidity" ....Well uhh, don't use it when it's humid? It's not a replacement for air conditioning. It's a guaranteed, breeze from outside creator. Nothing more. "Oh great so I can breathe the smoke from the tire burning factory next door".... People are ridiculous.
I live in Central Florida, our old house had the old style attic fan. (Noisy) But it was in the laundry room and you couldn’t hear it from the bedrooms at night. We moved and electric bills have been crazy, so we are installing a Quiet Cool WHF next week. We absolutely loved the old fan, we could crack windows at both sides of the home and we would all stay frigid at night (2 adults and 6 kids) in 4 bedrooms. My kids loved to get under comforters and they would sleep like a baby. We never had a problem with pollen, since we ran at night and the dew took care of that. My kids never had allergies. The outdoor air is so much cleaner than the inside and yes we have A/C and UV lights in both units, and I bet the air flowing thru a WHF is just as clean or cleaner than that. We also have woods around us and it’s the best fresh air ever. This new type of fan is so much quieter. Look up the man that compares the decibels on here. We sold our 1986 home in 2009 and the inspector who spent 4 hours there said the house was the best built/maintained house of that age he had ever seen. So it doesn’t do anything structurally. I’m wondering if this guy has ever had a WHF…doesn’t sound like he has any real experience from using one.
If you burn dinner nothing will clean out the smell as fast as a whole house fan it's amazing. Definitely in any dry climates will greatly benefit from one.
@@HomePerformance I've only owned one home out of 12, that had an exhaust fan that actually vented outside. Most are part of the microwave above the stove that vents right back into the kitchen.
Good Day Mr. Lunsford, Your disclaimers notwithstanding, I hope you will grant a humble manufacturer an opportunity to rebut what we consider to be several misleading statements you have made about whole house fans in general, and about the marketing issues you set out to “pick apart,” in your video captioned, “Whole House Fan Mythbusting.” To be clear, we are not “upset” that you used our “visual” (graphic pulled from our website), but rather that much of your analysis is faulty, selective, misleading, and in some cases downright incorrect. In reviewing the totality of your statements in this video, about a dozen fall into one or more of the above categories. Normally, we let these types of “educational” videos just pass us by. But you do seem to have a decent size audience and it is to their benefit that we challenge many of your assertions, and invite you re-evaluate some of your conclusions. For example, you totally ignore the science of “Thermal Mass Cooling,” which is the premise upon which whole house fans achieve the claimed savings of “up to 50-90% off A/C costs.” A second example is when you talk about a whole house fan creating negative air pressure in a home, that can lead to back-drafting carbon monoxide, while ignoring the science of atmospheric equilibrium that negates the risk of adverse negative air pressure, that is achieved with proper attic venting relative to the size of the system and volume of open window air intake. There are many more examples. The point is that in your mission to “debunk” whole house fans, it appears that you have done little to no research to understand how whole house fans work, why they work as well as they do, and when they should be used during the course of a day or season. It may be that your bias is due to your location in Georgia which, correctly noted, has a high humidity index and climate properties that make a whole house fan less utilitarian in Georgia than in some other climate zones throughout America. Factually, whole house fans, and in particular modern-day ducted whole house fans, have an extraordinarily strong consumer acceptance. Moreover, the trades themselves (Electric, HVAC, Roofers, G.C.s, Energy Experts, HERS raters, etc.) love selling and installing whole house fans for their overall enhancement of IAQ and home comfort. And finally, whole house fans have achieved a degree of government endorsement such that whole house fans are today being installed by new home builders in thousands of new homes, pursuant to government building codes. For example, since 2014, Title 24 prescriptively mandates the installation of whole house fans in 8 of California’s 16 climate zones, and are a newly approved home appliance with the national LIHEAP program in 2021 and beyond. As countless happy customers state, “We love our QuietCool… it’s amazing… we don’t know how we lived without one this long… my A/C bill is one-tenth what it used to be,” etc., we believe that, within the next 10-15 years, QuietCool advanced whole house fans (or other manufacturer brands) will be as common a home appliance as a ceiling fan is today. We respectfully submit that, as an expert in home systems, you have a duty to accurately represent the products you critique. Usually, this entails a call to the target of your critique to double check your facts, clarify ambiguous or misunderstood information, or at the very least allow a target of critique to respond to any criticism. To this end, I invite you to call or email me to schedule a time when we can review this entire video, point by point, and I can provide expert analysis from a manufacturer’s point of view. I invite you to email me at Andy@QC-Mfg.com or call me directly at 951-325-6309. Respectfully, Andy McIntosh Director of Sales QC Manufacturing, Inc. Inventor, Patent Holder, Manufacturer of QuietCool brand Advanced Whole House fans Temecula, CA www.QuietCoolSystems.com
Andy, thanks for your very polite comments. I will tell you in this brief reply that as a home diagnostics expert of 12 years, former HERS Rater, Provider, and Quality Assurance Designee, BPI Trainer and Superprocter, and as the author of the book ‘Home Performance Diagnostics: the Guide to Advanced Testing’, your arguments that I don’t have enough data is wrong. I know what your product is doing in the home as a system, not just in Georgia but across the country. The main thrust of my counter argument to your marketing is on your claim that it is an IAQ improvement. That’s where your assumptions are crazy to me if we’re talking about California, which you explicitly are. Forest fires and smog are not healthy to suck into homes. If this is the only conditioning machine in a house, you depend on the outdoor air being healthier than indoor air 100% of the time for you to claim it’s always an improvement to IAQ.
hi. i'm not a pro, just a joe blogs home owner from the other side of the world. just like to add a bit to this conversation to give a different perspective. here we don't want to run to much exhaust fans in our homes, otherwise you suck up damp smelly air from under the house which is bad enough without use of fans. which is why all ventilation systems run positive pressure. of interest, a few days ago we had a case of a lady whose home filled with smoke, while she slept, that was sucked out of the fireplace due to a fan system creating negative pressure. we also have lots of pollen, huge big clouds of it at times. sweep it off your car. so all air going into a home really needs to be well filtered. so we don't want open windows (we also have high Asthma rates) btw for those who don't know pollen is protein and it rots. its makes a vomit inducing stench. one of the big reasons for ventilation systems is so people don't have to have windows open for security and wild life reasons. so any house fan must have its own secure inlet so windows are kept shut. in a previous house i used to use a fan to blow hot air out of the house, with all door windows open,(commonly done) but i found it never worked well, but it was better than nothing. these days i can cool the house down in 30 min with the air con. yes the fan was cheaper but you where also hotter. this actually gets into one of the reasons we have so many moldy homes over here. people will put up with crap to save a few pennies, to cheap to use heating and that has very well researched and documented effects on our health.
part of my comment has gone. one other issue is that negative pressure systems call pull smells from the rooms into the rest of the house. i notice with positive pressure the smell goes straight outside, not into the house then to the outside.
I dont know about all the scientific stuff you guys are talking about, but I do know that if you have one of these installed in the ceiling of your kitchen, you will no longer have any problems with stinking up your house while cooking, why because these fans suck up more air than those ridiculous kitchen exhaust fans. And no you will not have bad smell stick to your couch, if your couch smells, that is because you sat on it after you went outside and rolled around in the yard playing with your dog. The thing with saving energy, if you open up your windows and run the fan during day, it will keep your house cooler than outside temperature and at night you can turn the fan off and turn your AC on so you can sleep comfortably and that will save you money. Now if your neighbor is grilling outside or mowing the yard, ok, dont turn it on, wait till they are done, I seriously doubt your neighbor mows his yard once a day everyday or grills outside once a day everyday. And about bring in moisture from outside, you know, they do make air humidifiers you can buy and its function is to create moisture in your house. So unless you are planning on using it while is poring rain outside, moisture should not be a problem. So Mr. Home Performance's analysis was not completely honest.
Installed es-4700 whole house fan yesterday, myself, in 5.5hrs. Today, it’s 89 degrees in Richmond, Va. I shut off ac unit, only whole house Fan is on, set the fan as high, inside of my house feels FANTASTIC. Worth the $1,200 + $125 wireless remote. You have excellent points, like pollen, I guess I might need to turn ax back on, idk. I bought an additional carbon monoxide detector based on what you said. At this point, I love the whole house fan and appreciate your comments 👍
I live in Ohio and my WHF is amazing!! My house is huge and was built in 1917 and doesn’t have AC. I have a portable AC unit in the family room for when it gets up in the 90°s. But I run the WHF at night with my upstairs bedroom window cracked a bit and a couple main floor windows cracked a bit. I had to practice with the windows and the flow and the suction to reach that sweet spot where the air is flowing nicely, but doors don’t slam closed. (If you know, you know lol). I run the fan at night and turn it off when it’s about 76° outside. Then I close off everything and by the time the house starts warming up, it’s usually late afternoon/early evening. I know that it’ll start cooling down soon and I can turn it back on. I don’t use it in the winter. Just later spring to fall. I live by the woods, so the air smells so nice. And also about the pollen, any allergist will tell you that pollen isn’t a big issue at night because of the dew. And that’s when you run a WHF.
I live in Utah (very low humidity) and I'm going to get a whole house fan installed next month. We have a three level home, basement, main floor, and upstairs. Basement is always cool in the summer, main floor about 10 degrees warmer, and the upstairs probably 20-25 degrees warmer. Our upstairs does not have air returns, so the AC really is inefficient at cooling it. When we lived in Kansas (25 years ago) we had a whole house fan. Humidity in Kansas can get into the 50% range, but is definitely not as bad as Georgia. In the evenings we would shut off the AC, and open windows at each end of the house, and the fan would work quite well at getting the heat out of the attic.
So I see many in CA, saying it is great. I live in the Pacific Northwest. We has a heat pump installed, and they said we needed a WHF and should not turn it off. They said out house is pretty air tight, and that fan should be on to circulate air. I notice that year round we range from 45 to 70% humidity. Majority 9f the year it's damp and cool. And this fan gets caked on, what I call mung. We deal with damp winters, and last several years smokey summers due some local, and CA and British Columbia wild fires. I am tempted to shut it off and see what happens. I feel being in the 30 to 50% humidity would be much more benificial in the house to keep mildew and possible mold growth minimized. Those tend to DE an issue in WA state.
You're not talking about a Whole House Fan (WHF) such as in this video. You're talking about an HVAC's fan unit being on circulating. Two completely different animals.
Your entire argument is bogus when trying to generalize for the entire country and all climates! Nice clickbait buddy. These work best for people in CALIFORNIA or other coastal areas. We don't have AC at all, so we are already helping the environment. We barely have humidity so that doesn't matter. As soon as the sun goes down, the temps drop 10 degrees outside immediately, right when your house becomes hotter than the outside air. I see your point about pollution, but aren't we breathing that air when we go outside? We do run air filters in the house for pollen and other contaminants, and I would never turn on the whole house fan if there is a fire during fire season! That would be idiotic.
Fire season is summer, fyi, when you’d need the WHF. Also, we don’t disagree- there is no such thing as a generalized solution for every home, even in the same climate. That’s what I’m saying in this vid- I’ve seen, and continue to see, WHF being sold to unsuspecting homeowners in ALL climate zones.
Of course when you use a whole house fan you turn off the A/C. There is hysteresis in temperatures inside a structure. Takes time to cool or heat an object. When the outside temperature is cooler than inside your house, why would you use your A/C to cool the hotter air inside your house when you can draw cooler air from outside. Just be aware that drawing in cooler but more humid air will make the inside uncomfortable. So, yeah, there is a reduced A/C cost when using a whole house fan, because you are NOT using the A/C when using cooler outside air to cool the inside of your house. Hell, installing ceiling fans will reduce your A/C costs. As you yourself stated, a fan blowing on you will cool you down some because of the increased evaporation of your perspiration. Well, a ceiling fan is, um, a fan, too. However, unlike a table fan blowing on you, a ceiling fan is a more gentle air flow. Go to bed at night, it's a cool night, open a window, and turn on the ceiling fan. In fact, you might get too cold and have to turn off the ceiling fan. You have no clue that whole home fans can run in BOTH directions: intake AND EXHAUST (or your looking at cheap crap). If you burnt something on the stove, oh yes, it is so much better to leave the windows closed and not use a fan to expel the smoke or grease vapor to the outside, and instead wallow in the smoke and dust. If the fan can move air out of your house (into the attic and out through the roof vents) then why do you think the air moving out of the house isn't also taking out the smoke that is in that air. By the way, there are lots (maybe half) of stove/range vent hoods that do NOT vent to outside to expel your cooking mistake. All they do is filter using a charcoal impregnated pad the air from above the stove and expel it back into the kitchen. Those just try to filter out the smoke. A whole home fan will expel the smoke outside, just like you opened a window and put a box fan in it that blows outside. Duh! It's easier to install a whole home fan than to break into your walls to install a vent running from above your stove, through the walls, through the attic, and to a roof vent. Nope, outdoor air is not always clean. Having a well-used dirt road by your house means getting dust into your home if you leave the windows open. However, and you're not a contractor to have ever measure this, and it is not rare but very common, indoor air is dirtier than outdoor air. Not only are you trapping the dust raised from your carpets, clothing, and furniture into your indoor air as particles floating around for you to breath, you have the chemicals effusing from your furniture, flooring, carpeting, and, oh yes, that grease floating around. Ever have a fire in your house? If so, when the firemen showed up and setup their high-volume torpedo fans, do you think they're blowing into the house to keep the smoke inside? Of course not. They blow the smoke out. Get a fog machine and run inside your house to see if it leaves the home on its own, or moves out a hell of lot faster when using a whole house fan. Sure, if you're allergic to some pollens that happen to be in your area, then the fresh outdoor air is harmful to you. But you can be allergic to your own pets (just not severe enough to get rid of them) and to dust that visitors bring in, or what your pets and visitors bring inside. There is also the phychological aspect of fresh outdoor air. It is scented. No, being next to a pig or cow farm is not going to bring to you pleasant scents, but the smell of pine, lilac, flowers, rain, lightning ozone, lawn mowings, and other natural scents can invigorate you. I remember before it was banned of how nice it was to smell burning leaves in autumn. Many folks will take a short stroll outside when they start getting drowsy inside because of the stagnant air inside. Is there any air freshener that does not have a scent? Then it is not an air *freshener*, but a disinfectant (and you don't use those to freshen the air). Fresh air is a qualitative perception, not a quantitative measurement. For every one of your counterarguments against their claims, others can find counterarguments to your counterarguments. Either the arguments are generalities, or you get lots in details that escape the point of the conversation. For permanent shut-ins, yeah, I'm sure they don't anything outside coming inside. Hmm, thought about another example. On a hot summer day, you park your car, and go shopping. You come back and your car's inside is like an oven. Do you really go into your car, leave the windows up, and turn on the car to get the A/C working and wait until the A/C brings down the temperature? Nah, you roll down the door windows, turn on the fan, and blow out all that hot air, so then the A/C has a lower temperature from which it can further drop the temperature. Why cool down all that hot air that you can expel before using the A/C?
Well said. I don’t think people realize things like carpet, paints, cleaning chemicals, polyurethane on wood floors, and even some types of drywall are constantly off-gassing chemicals into the air. Almost always the air outside is better and more oxygenated than indoor air...it’s why expensive homes have outdoor air exchangers built into the hvac systems. I think having good over the range ventilation is a must but it doesn’t take the place of a modern whole house fan. Love mine. Any temp under 82 or so I just leave it on all day, as I prefer the sensation of having a light breeze to ac.
My whole house fan is fantastic near Sacramento. It has saved a lot. Our climate is hot and dry during the day and tends to be cool and dry at night. Because of our geography, we get this cooling effect most every night. We run the fan at night and seal the house up during the day. We really don’t use our air conditioner much so long as we get that delta breeze. Having said that, I do not believe that a whole house fan would be of much value in the Midwest where I grew up where the temperatures didn’t dramatically cool off in the evening and where there was high humidity. But here in the Sacramento area, you are wasting money if you don’t have one.
Very interesting and informative! I live on both the east coast and west coast for a few years. I also live in Northern California and Southern California and I lived in Monterey California for a few years as well. So what this guy is saying here makes a lot of sense. The fires in northern California is horrible, the air quality in southern California is horrible as well. The pollen season in Monterey CA, the east coast and in both northern and Southern California is a daily dusting of green pollen or “dust”for a few months right after the rainy season until it fades away. This pollen does get inside your house when you open and close your doors. So just imagine how much more pollen will affect you if you use the whole house fan during the spring and summer months??
I get what’s being said. But whole house fans are supposed to be used with discretion. You don’t have it on when you’re cooking inside obviously. You don’t use it when you’re running air conditioning. The purpose is to just exchange the air when your house is uncomfortably hotter than the outside air. In drier climates, it helps to cool the house at midday/early afternoon hours so you can use ac efficiently. I had a place with an indoor laundry that didn’t vent anywhere. Over time it causes condensation inside the walls and it needed repair. Installing a whole house fan helped to vent the humid air and cool off the house since it didn’t have central air. The fan isn’t adequate for every house in every region. But in drier hotter areas with no central air system it works great.
I live in So Cal and a whole house fan works great BUT only once the air outside is cooler.. I just got a new motor so for now in my house around 6pm it's hotter inside than outside. I dont buy into the marketing BS but just to cool the house in the evening it works great. I dont have centrap AC so thr WHF is a god send and also my back den room has a little window unit which helps.
Paul, I think Mixwell is agreeing that marketing tends to way oversell this machine, making it sound like a cure-all. It does have its application though.
Southern Oregon here… I’ve had mine for 7 years now.. I am a HUGE fan of them. We don’t have the pollen explosions out here like Georgia does, but we do have our fires.. so I just don’t use it at those times. You do have to be slightly educated to use it. But as far as power savings, there is no comparison! Today is a perfect example in my house ( in my town) I had a low of 58 last night, opened three windows around the house. Turned the unit on its lowest speed(couldn’t really hear it at that speed). Let it run all night. Turned it off /closed the windows this morning when outside temp started to come up and it’s now 3:30-4 o’clock in the afternoon and the a/c still hasn’t come on and my house is still 70. It’s 85 outside right now. All my neighbors homes around me have been running their a/c’s for hours now. This thing is awesome if you take a small amount of time to understand how to use it.
You make lots of assumptions. Most of the homes in my neighborhood don’t have AC. Of those that do have AC they use them only on the hottest days. Overnight our fan drops the temperature of the thermal mass of the house for very low cost. The hose remains cool for most of the day. All active air processing you talk about take electricity. Expensive and has an environmentally cost.
Hey Bruce, thanks for your pov, but as stated, what I’m referring to is about healthy homes, not efficient homes, and I’m saying that most of the home scenarios, not all, have these side effects.
I totally agree with you on the idea that, in a humid climate, one would be flooding their interior with huge amounts of humid air. In a dry climate, I feel that these fans would serve a useful purpose. Many a night have I walked out of my front door to be greeted by cooler air than what I felt inside. Were I to have one of these whole house fans, and run it long enough to remove the hot air from the second level AND pull cool air up from the first floor, I believe it would be a great help. Correct design and use would be critical. Which windows to open, and perhaps a filtered intake may be beneficial. I am definitely going to invest in this technology because of where I live.
I turn it on every morning when it is 65. Cool the whole house cool the attic. I live in California…so now my A/C will not come on till mid afternoon. Whole house fan is wonderful. In the south no probably not a good idea!
Good points, and generally speaking you're spot on. However whole house fans do have their place. Houses without AC can benefit as a quick refresh, but I think the bigger benefit is seen in homes with improper AC (usually sized too big) or insufficient air sealing, the humidity inside can build up significantly so a whole house fan can help a lot with clearing that out
The problem i see is your sucking out that humid indoor air and replacing it with even more humid outdoor air. I find outdoor air increases indoor humidity way more than human activity in the house. Last thing i want to do is pull in more. Excess ventilation is not always a good thing.
@@tweake7175 its a bandaid. I've had several houses that can have a higher humidity inside than outside, high leakage, low air circulation. Also if the ac system is too large it will cool the air quickly, but not dehumidify properly
@@charleyandsarah yes, most certainly bandaid. much prefer to fix the cause. its interesting you guys over there have so many issues with oversized aircon. here ducted systems are rare and i suspect they are undersized a lot of the time. especially as the calcs used do not take air leakage into account (not even a gestimate).
I grew up with one. They're best for fall and spring, and then to briefly suck out stale air in the summer. They're absolutely amazing on a mildly chilly night.
You act like you leave it on for hours. You turn it on in the morning/ evening for min. My vaulted ceilings need it to get the hot out that just sits in the upstairs hallway marinating. It be cool down stairs but that upstairs booooooy. Whole house fan for me.
During "Switch-Seasons" time with the humidity low and your hillbilly neighbors Not burning garbage- these devices do work. I would never use when it is 90+ degrees, raining or during (as previously mentioned) slackjaw burning season. The problem with device-purchasing is the fact that people want a set it and forget it option. Using it manually allows control. Otherwise, I agree that this is a complete waste of money and health.
I have a whole house fan (Phoenix metro) and this is an amazing thing. I get 4-6 weeks before and after summer where I drastically cut the cost of cooling. It can replace the air in my house in 45 minutes to suck out food smell (which I really hate and yes I have a kitchen fan that gets 90% of it). I found this video mostly useless with lots of simply wrong information.
Yeah here in Pennsylvania, these things are only good for either the spring or fall when the humidity is low and the temperature is under 78. Works great also at night. In my opinion if the house doesn’t already have it don’t buy one.
*My whole house fan sucks out ALL SMOKE & SMELLS after cooking, and there is no lingering smells or films left on any surfaces....this guy doesn't know what he's talking about!* I love my house fan, and I don't know anyone with one that doesn't.
Thanks for the video I learned a few things , but it seems you were straightening out a certain companies marketing claims. Please do another video of pro & cons of Whole House fan . I have a electric gable attic fan I've been thinking of switching it to a whole house fan only because when I'm seating next to my sliding door watching TV at 7:30pm I can feel a cool breeze at times from the outside. outside temperature is 72 - 71* hotter ( 80* ? ).
Great video! I just watched a stupid video by Super House that was all opinions and did not discuss logic. I totally agree with the information you provided. If you expect to replace all the air in minutes you’d have to open all your windows and have a circulation fan in each room or just have airflow directly from the window to the fan. I live on a prairie and if I use a whole house fan I’d have dust, pollution and humidity in and take forever to remove it. Thanks for sharing real information and not just opinions. What I’m researching is the use of attic fans.
Every hotel at least in the USA uses Ozone Machines, if used properly they are quite useful. Are you saying people shouldn't utilize hotels? Don't turn the ozone machine on while you're in the the house, and when you do return open windows prior to remaining in the property. I think a whole house fan along with an ozone machine would be great, because you could draw out the ozone faster.
I can see the point about humidity, but in climates like Nevada and Idaho (where I live), it's semi-arid and once the sun goes down, it gets cool. I'm considering a whole house fan--I was going to do an attic exhaust fan, but I worry the motor would catch fire in a space that is hardly ever seen. Can you cover the WHF in a desert climate?
WHF work in your area, BUT you certainly want to install a removable airtight, insulated cover. Like this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jhVIfzIDFxc.html
I’m looking for a fan that I install in the attic that is used to clear the hot air out of the attic. Is this a thing? Nighttime conduction of heat from the attic seems to be the biggest source of discomfort in the summer; I’m in a single floor home with an insulated ceiling. There is no need to pull air through the house to clear the hot air from the attic.
Solar roof fans are excellent to keep the attic from getting too hot. They also have ones that can be controlled with a switch and/or thermostat sensors outside the house and inside the attic.
Mine is running right now! i will say i did sort of a DIY whole house fan so i have little money invested...but...its only useful certain nights, and yes the 69% humid air defiantly is a little sticky. probably wouldn't do it again if i was to build a new house or whatever.
The marketing is bullshit, but this video is like swinging a pendulum to other side of bullshit. A standing fan can be used as a less effective whole house fan as well. Just put it in front of an open window on full blast. People have been doing that for decades and it's great if the air outside is comfortable. You just keep repeating how uncomfortable and bad the air outside is over and over and over again. And you do this while sitting outside being exposed to the oh so uncomfortable air. I don't get it. 🌈
Cooking stove fan. Cant be installed in my open concept type house, the raceway it would be done in sends hvac to the attic and down into the second floor, it also vents the water heater used to vent the hvac system. The heater and water heater can share the gas chimney stack but you can not install a stove vent pipe into it. Idk perhaps you live in a 1 story house. Cant vet out the walls either.
U r absolutely 200% spot on. I doubt anybody would want to use a whole house fan of they lived in hot, muggy, insanely humid places. NO THANKS! I'd rather have a cooled, dry, HEPA filtered indoor air. If i want air from outside, I'll just open my windows! or prop one of those square fans & stick it on my window! There, Problem solved! That's my version of my "Whole House Fan" & the BEST part....IT'S FREE! Whole House Fan is just a bunch of Horse Sh*t.
Interesting question- it is possible, since the attic would be slightly pressurized, the house depressurized, and the air over the insulation agitated.
This video is pretty misleading as you're presenting it as if you live in a humid environment. Realistically, you should clarify that if you live in environments with low humidity, cool nights, and other compatible factors that whole house fans are an excellent idea that live up to most of those points you disqualified. Obviously if you live in a swamp, they're not a good idea.
Kyle, we made this video specifically because there are companies out there pushing WHF for homes of all types, in all regions. I stand by the reasoning in this vid, especially now that people have been dying of heat exposure this month. There is no cure-all, even though you can see that they're TRYING to sell it to people who live in a swamp, just like everybody else. Check this out: www.wholehousefan.com/blogs/wholehousefans/where-a-whole-house-fan-works
@@HomePerformance nobody is saying that there's a cure all. But you're being just as bad as the contractors that you're rebutting. You're saying that you made this video because they're claiming that WHF are a panacea. And I'm telling you that you've done wrong by presenting WHF as a poor solution for everyone. Tell me what's different?
The difference is that the dynamics I’m describing are true everywhere. Maybe you don’t cook at home, or maybe the air outside is always perfect humidity and contaminant-free. But the way physics and chemistry work are not a matter of opinion.
@@HomePerformance ...The dynamics are not true everywhere because there are environments that are different from your personal home. As I stated before, if you live in an environment with low humidity, cool nights, and other compatible house factors, the whole house fan is an excellent choice... do you disagree with this? Take Southern California, heat during the day generally hits 80 degrees during the summer, which is bearable, but hot. And at night, temperatures drop to the mid 60s. If I want to keep that house cool in evenings, mornings, and night, the whole house fan is an excellent choice. It's not more humid outside there than inside - its the opposite. And as far as airborne contaminants go, there are way too many factors to make a solid decision and say the air of a home is better or worse. Someone could have spoiling food left out collecting mold, the previous owner could have not repaired a roof straight away which lead to water damage to the insulation, which lead to mold growth. A carpet could have been soaked through when something spilled, not gotten cleaned up right away, and the pad could be growing mold. You could have a litter box in the house. On the other hand you can live next to a freeway, an airport, a drycleaner, or a factory that produces heavy metals - but you could also live next to the ocean or a lake. You are over generalizing, and doing so leads to poor decision making from your viewers. I feel sorry for them, especially seeing how stubborn you are. If you really want to help people you should present them with the data, give them the pros and cons, and let them come to an independent opinion based upon their actual climate.
If you’d like actual data, you can tune in to many of our other 500+ vids here, or on our PBS series ‘Home Diagnosis’. And as stated in the video’s title, description, and my own words, I do know there is a subset of situations where WHF work well- I am here simply opposing the over-marketing of them in all markets.
Hi Corbett, would having a independently ducted ERV unit for the upstairs help and a return duct plenum mounted HEPA for downstairs air handler unit help? Basically you get both ventilation 24x7 with humidity control and the HEPA filtration as ERV’s only filter out up to MERV 13 typically.
It’s a band-aid that might cause unwanted side effects for the pressures in your home- better to airsel and insulate attic floor so moisture does not build up, and you won’t have to care how hot it gets up there.
Your right and your trying to sell your idea. My humidity is about 87% today we had 1.5 to 3" of rain last night and flash flood warnings. Id rather deal with some humidity the deal with a sewer gas smell. My A coil was changed this morning under warranty. It failed after 7 years. Im pretty sure the hvac system will remove the humidity really fast when I turn it on after turning off the whole house fan and closing the windows. But the smells gone now. I doubt my hvac 97% eff heaters pulling air in the vent. It pulls in fresh air to burn. Polan its late June almost July. Trees are not giving off polan.
Same as here- more complicated than the sales people want you to believe. Some side effects of attic exhaust fans CAN be: sucking air from the home below, depressurizing the home and causing backdrafting of flues snd chimneys. Seen it happen in my testing work. Bigger question is: WHY do you want your attic to be ventilated? Start there, instead of with a specific product. There are always options.
@@HomePerformance thank you for your reply! I was considering a attic fan cause I do have a ridge vent, gable vents, and soffit vents. My thoughts where to push the got air out faster so I can reduce the heat on the top for where our bedrooms are and reduce air conditioner use. The heat isn't extreme but would like to be more efficient.
Again, it's going to depend on the climate. We add solar-powered attic fans put into the near top of the pointed roof. They draw in from gable vents and out the top of the roof. They just turn on when the sun comes up. Makes a night-and-day different with our concrete "Spanish" style roof. Also prevents any humidity problems in the winter as it still circulates fresh air into the attic (but not really a problem here in California).
I’ll start with saying I really like your channel………. With that said I disagree with you on this one. I live in the California Bay Area where it can be 80-90 degrees during the day and 65 degrees F in the evening & very mild RH. During the day our home maintains very comfortable, below 78 degrees even on a 80 degree day. When outdoor temp creep up past 85- 90 degrees we turn on our AC but not until about 2 PM and even then it only we only use it until about 6 or 7 PM. By that time we get that natural AC called the ocean breeze and that drops outdoor temps super fast. Anytime the outdoor air temperature is satisfactory we turn the AC off and turn on the whole house fan on. At night we run it for a few hours and our house and attic actually get cold (I have a temp sensor in the attic) and can get the attic as cool as 65 degrees F most of the time. In the morning we run the fan for about an hour or so just because we love fresh air. The whole house fan along with other energy saving strategies saves me a ton of energy plus we get fresh air in the house without the expense of an ERV. 2400 sq’ home our Home energy score is an 8 and we only pay between $120-$150 a month where most of my customers are paying $300-$500 for the same size home. At night I angle my shutters to hit the my bed if im warm and I get hit with 65 degree almost free air hahahaha it gets so cold I sleep with the remote to turn it off. YES THEY WORK
Hey Boxing Guru, I believe you and that’s why I say right upfront that these do work in some cases, but not in all. The makers would love to sell one to every home in the world, and that cannot be allowed to happen- hence this video.
I have a basement and 1st floor. I have one kid who is quarantined (high risk) and another that works in fast food who occupies the basement now. Goal is a continuous flow of air away from sleeping and living areas. This is for air exchange so I can eliminate the one kid from having to mask up when upstairs. I've had a whole house fan before (California) and when you control or regulate where the air flows, its worked amazingly well. As for outdoor contaminants, I'll be constructing an air inlet and include a hippa filter. May be in a window or I'll build a vent into the side of the house opposite where the fan is. As for cooling, don't count on it so much. Air flow as stated will make you feel cooler but just don't forget you are pulling in air from outside. If its 110 outside, you may actually be making it hotter! Another plus. Attic heat in some cases can affect interior heat. You are also pushing hot air out of the attic.
I just bought a very small (394sf) house in Missouri. We have plenty of humidity. It's on 4 acres so away from others. It has no HVAC, mini split or other way of cooling. There are lots of trees which should help cool. I'm thinking a whole house fan would be a good fit. The whole "pressure " thing concerns me some but we had a WHF when I was growing up. Thoughts?
Without a dehumidifier, it’s almost certain you’ll have serious moisture and fungal issues. Drying is critical if you want healthy air. If you want to live like they did in the 1800’s, nobody’s stopping you I guess, but you should remove the home’s insulation, and any other new technology that affects heat bleed, moisture, airflow and pressure. And you might have a life expectancy like they did back then.
interesting. I just moved into a house with a whole house fan but the listing agent didn't know much about it and didn't know how to operate it either. Sounds like a wasted feature. Plus I keep my chimney flu open at all time as recommended by the home inspector so this whole house fan has no value to me, the house has an AC already. Should I have it removed?
@Garafraxis, testing is what all my work is based on. I wrote a book on testing. You are free to have your alternate facts, but you won’t get away with saying they’re true on this channel.
I would encourage you to wait and see how well it works for you. Where you live is important. If your outside air is unhealthy, you live down wind from a dump, live in an area of high humidity, you probably won't be happy. Where I live (CA\SF bay area), it works great. But I can't imagine this helping much in high humidity areas. My recommendation, try it (when it's cooler outside than in) and see how you like it. If you aren't happy, you can have it taken out any time. You may be pleasantly surprised.
Well said, @fstilman, but I think if the operation manual has gone missing it’s a bit like playing with fire, since they keep the chimney flue open as well, and there may be other natural draft combustion appliances in the house. How many windows to open is critically important.
I appreciate hearing the other side, however this doesn't apply to everyone. Oh wait... yes it does! A/C all types are an incubator for mold. If you have ever been overly exposed to toxic mold and you are suffering from mold illness, you can not tolerate a/c. It will literally kill you. That is why housefan are a huge lifesaver for those people that can't have an a/c. especially in dryer climates. So i strongly disagree with you. I think house fans should be considered unless you can handle the mold. many can not.
Hi, I am in the UK and we are having high temps lately. Today it was 30 degrees celsius (86)And tonight, it is 20 degrees celsius (68) You mention in the video that a whole house fan isn't always ideal. So lets say I wanted my bedroom cooler. How would you suggest I do this? I'm open to any way possible. Thanks.
If you’re just trying to cool one room, a whole house fan would be overkill, AND it would flush your house with 30 C air, which is the same basic effect as blowing a fan on yourself with windows closed. Air conditioning is the answer- you can make a terrible A/C with a fan and a bucket of ice if you must.
Someone must have pissed you off or wouldn’t do it for free, my neighbor has one here in Colorado and almost everything you say is incorrect.You have two vents that go from outside to your furnace that do the same thing. His AC doesn’t come on as often now because we normally have cool evenings.and he gets all hot air out so during the day his house is cooler so the ac doesn’t come on as much almost 40% off his bill. You are a nut job sounds like.
Unfair to claim ‘clickbait’ when you yourself said you only use it in the fall. Its application is limited. That’s the point. Maybe you didn’t actually watch the video- try again.
I put two in, but I wish I hadn't They might work well in a dry, high desert climate, where the air is clean outdoors. Otherwise, no. They suck on baseboards and put dirt on the floor that's in the the walls (in a very loose house).
Hi, I like the video and agree with almost all of the comments. The one that I am 50/50 on is the Air-con running at the same time. Now this is not a disagreement (see the ramble below). The design of the general whole house fan is incorrect (for the way they have them for the US). Here in Western Australia I grew up with a whole house fan (not that we called it that it was just an industrial exhaust fan). The heat here in summer is over 100 degrees F (40 Celsius .
Dry heat at 40 C. We use the fan in the Laundry. An inside door and an outside door. During the day outside door open and locked fly screen. Under the eves cooler air blown through the fan into the roof cavity (clay tiles here so lots of gaps for air to escape). I tin (colorbond sheeting) it would need amble ventilation (or US roof with the shingles).
@@HomePerformance So isolation between inside and outside so during the heat of the day an air-con could be used. At night reverse the doors with all windows open. Then as you stated with airflow you feel cooler. If the temperature during the night did not drop below 40 C then you were still hot but you could sleep. Maybe 10 days of summer are like that (with climate change less now).
@@HomePerformance So in summary if designed correctly you can use the air-con. The placing inside the kitchen like one of the videos I looked at was crazy to me. I am looking at if the Whole House fan will work for me on my own home now. 50/50 as to getting one or going with a Hybrid air-con that can run off separate solar panels during the day and if needed during the night via the BYD LVM batter that I have on a Hybrid inverter. Return on investment is the major factor, however some of the point you made also have me thinking if the Whole House Fan (with the correct design) is the way to go.
Haha I had no idea anyone in humid climates would even consider these nor be familiar with them. Only if outside cooler than inside… they should be called suckers not fans. They suck air from 1 window strategically opened in the farthest point up and out the attic fan. Open concept homes are not ideal either as the “sucked” in cool air can go straight up the vaulted ceiling and out without going thru and cooling any rooms. I have to open 1 window alone in each room and rotate or else goes from basement window up stairs and straight out cooling only basement which of course Is already cool hence the choice to open that window
Home Performance there is no science behind your presentation. Hot muggy Georgia weather doesn’t call it a science behind this product, common sense maybe.
Jag, I don’t think you understand the scope of our channel. You’re welcome to explore more, but science is pretty much all we focus on here. If you sell whole house fans, then no, you might not like what you find.
Inside air qulity, vers outdoor air qulity. Well let's see your saying that indoor air qulity is cleaner then out door air? This depends on where you live. Also whats going on inside the house. If you have pets carpets, fresh paint jobs bad oders in your house then most likely your wrong, every so often we get a sewage smell in my house be it a dry drain or some kind of backup, seems to happen after a rain storm. This might clue me into the fact our vent pipe on the roof for plumbing is holding standing water not letting sewage gases escape. The whole house fan is perfect to vent this methane out of the house as it can make you ill or even kill you. Second idea is attics fill with hot air from radiation off the sunlight so bad even with an r45 insulation pass the heat into the house, the attic fan helps cool this down. It would be better if we didn't vent our attics at all and use foam on the rafters and roof deck but we don't. Attic ventilation cant remove all the heat faster then solar gain. A whole house can can help speed this up. But I seldom use mine except on cooler days. Its cheaper to run a fan then an hvac system. Even cheaper then my seer 16 3 ton compressor and A coil. Whats your last points I havnt watched yet. You do know in hawiee they don't use ac system in houses they used to pull cooler air in from under the home this cooler air came in to displace the hot air that moved out the roof vents. Hot air rises, actully cold pushes hot. I'll watch the rest of this but I disagree. You talking about it without proof isnt getting my attention. Oh you say I'm putting humidity in the attic? Well the soffit vents do that anyway.
*Well-made, delivered quickly, and easy to install with **Fastly.Cool** . I may be imagining it, but it seems quieter than the 14 year-old unit that I pulled out. Of course it was noisy at the end due to failed bearings, so hard to compare. :)*
What are your thoughts on the Zehnder ComfoHood?🤔 A kitchen exhaust that is integrated into the ERV. I'm considering going this route. Maybe with added disposable wool grease filters added like they do in restaurants 🤔
After seeing restaurant hvac videos and the amount of grease in their kitchen ac i would always exhaust kitchen air seperatly. However the hrv sysyem may have a make up air built into it.
@@DigitalBenny that doesn't actually make any difference due to the sizing. Home erv is tiny compared to restaurants systems. You would not need to cook much to clog one up.
@@tweake7175 a >1ACH50 house with 1300sq ft and a 350-550cfm ERV would be far from considered "tiny", no? Zehnder is marketing the ComfoHood as able to connect to their own ERV's, so it's not a question as to whether it's possible.
@@DigitalBenny tiny compared to restaurants. have a look at ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-it8-gWcHtno.html . yes restaurants cook a lot but the equipment is sized for that. just like home erv is sized for your home. even with rangehood filters or commercial kitchen filters, grease still gets through them. i would not want that to clog an erv core. does the ComfoHood even blow through the erv or does it simply connect to the erv system for make up air? there is a few systems around where the range hood tells the erv system to increase incoming flow when the rangehood is on.
This is a bunch of crap. Here in the Nw this is a perfect application. Use it nightly to lower temp to the outside temp which is lower than inside. This video comes across like this gentleman has a wife in the ac industry and he is trying his best to sway you away from an application that works great for a large number of people. Not perfect for all applications but for those areas where it works well it is a low cost alternative to ac. At least pretend to not be so biased in your review.
Yes on occasion we do. Most often winds take the smoke in other directions. Only on an occasion is the smoke ever an issue. Another overreaction on your part as is the entire video.
I really think you should actually get a whole house fan and try one out. I can tell you haven't experienced the newer whole house fans. In your video you fail to talk about how humidity drops significantly outside in the evening compared to the peak of the day just like temperature. There is also pollentec screens you can put on your windows that block out 99% of the dust and pollen. You also failed to mention that most people in the south run their a/c systems almost 9 months of the year and that whole house fans can pretty much eliminate the usage of a/c during the spring and fall. I also thought you were dishonest about the air quality side. The average home is 2x-5x more polluted inside than outside and some cases 100x this is right on the EPA website. Here is a video that really breaks down the science of whole house fans .ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FNPqWao47c0.html I challenge you to put one in and try it out.
I bet you won't really read this, Dane, but here we go anyway: 1. "humidity drops significantly outside in the evening compared to the peak of the day just like temperature"- actually, it's exactly the opposite. All things being equal, when temp drops at night, the relative humidity goes up. Test it yourself and you'll see. 2. "screens you can put on your windows that block out 99% of the dust and pollen"- Pollentec seems like a silver bullet for the window filtration, but it appears to be an electret, or charged, filter media, which loses its potency quickly, as explained in this video (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hSFQQpgvgeo.html) 3. "most people in the south run their a/c systems almost 9 months of the year and that whole house fans can pretty much eliminate the usage of a/c during the spring and fall"- in Atlanta, I'd say 6 months of the year maybe, but in that same interview vid ref'd above in #2, it's explained that typical residential HVAC runs ~20% of the time, and you're still dealing with the fact that in spring and fall you have elevated humidity in many places. 4. "average home is 2x-5x more polluted inside than outside"- yes, WHEN polluting activities like cooking and cleaning are happening, or directly after. But in many places the outdoor air is still a concern, also as referenced by the EPA per the Air Quality Index. 5. Your profile pic is a giant fan.
@@HomePerformance Thank you for the response. I apologize for being so direct in my last comment. I have seen your channel and I think you're doing a great job on educating people on home science. I have been in the industry for a long time and I really feel you're misrepresenting whole house fans. You make some valid points but I really feel that you can use a whole house fan far more often than you think. There have been so many studies on whole house fans nation wide that the evidence is overwhelming on how effective they really are for energy savings and IAQ. In California they are prescriptively required in all new homes and they are being recognizing from the IECC ( Which is the rest of the 49 states) that they give 4-6 HERS Points in every climate zone including the south because of the studies that are out there. They are also part of the biggest low income housing program in the country that is installing them for free in low income house in every state across the country because of the studies and science behind them. The Department of energy recognizes them as the most cost effective way to cool your home. The EPA is working on rolling out a whole section on their website about the IAQ benefits because they understand it. If you ever want to try one out for your home I would happily love to put one in for you.
Thanks for the reply, my friend. I’d say that if we can get homes to be all-electric, and have dedicated external kitchen exhausts, and the homeowner/renter understands when/how to use them, then I might change my tune.
What a bummer.. You made me think too much against my plan to put in a 36" remote fan in the attic to whole house with. Yes I'd have to shut the chimney. Yes we would suck in tons of pollen unless I filter screen a window or two ; hmm 10 sf ft of glass = opened 2' x42"in most remote places 3 bathroom windows about 90 feet fan hole and a nearer 30' away kitchen window, check. the filtering resriction 11 merv or > the annnula ad'l cost. But wait my ac bill is >$230 every month annualized. I am in central California = no humdity. I should get a 10K solar grid up I will save and have free addl small room ac units but $25K in the market instead, can/has done 30- 50% every 3 yrs and solar can not do that. Dilemma at 68 years old. A solar car can be our battery for night
It does sound like you’re an overthinker- I also do it. Don’t freeze up, but I do think predicting the side effects of your decidion is important. Nothing has only pros and no cons.
I think the whole point about the Whole House Fan just goes to show that the original tract builder did not do a good enough job on air sealing and insulating the attic and/or crawlspace in the first place. Energy was cheap back then, however, not anymore. WHF are another BAND-AID on the ROOT cause of all of these HOT people around the country and World! Quit bitching and complaining about WHF. Fix the ROOT cause. What is the ROOT cause? Lack of air sealing the attic/crawl, lack of properly installed insulation to the proper thickness with no gaps or imperfections. SIMPLE! Providing air sealing and installing proper insulation is the most cost effective energy efficient service anyone of these people should have done. But NO, they need a BAND-AID put on their builders booboo. Shame on you uneducated homeowners out there. Do your homework and quit picking on Building Scientists that know what they are talking about. Corbett has been testing and measuring homes and finding the ROOT causes of issues that have been ignored for decades. It is amazing that with properly installed air sealing techniques and insulation levels, we can then design and install smaller HVAC systems that use up to 60% - 80% less energy than the existing HVAC. With no WHF. Then we can take out whole house fans that are causing lots of moisture driven damage to homes that the homes usually don't see. STEP 1: Air Seal. Big Holes, small gaps, interstitial cavities, etc. STEP 2: Insulate. Roof rafters, and on top of roof before roofing is applied are preferred. STEP3: Design | Build | Seal Up | Balance | Test and Measure the new HVAC system. STEP 4: Enjoy perfectly designed airflow into your home for up to 80% cheaper! THOSE ARE THE FACTS! All new construction is being built this way in CA. NEXT!
Well, did you expect it to be Quiet, Cool and work efficiently too ? This, Shirley, can't be healthy for you or your house. Yesterday's technology, recycled for today's suckers. Keep up the good work, you two.
Who in the hell wants the windows open at 9 pm, and suck in 🥵90 degree heat from the outside, along with central valley fever 🤒spores, and 🤧pollen‼Also, the summer evening heat might put you to 😴sleep, and then be woken up by some damn METH🤪HEAD robbing you‼😆🤣😂
