Whole house fan install tip?

[Industrial Toys]

Same here. My Attic has rafters and boards for roof sheeting, built fifty years ago. Yes, you can still smell the wood!

 

[Diggin It]

OP is using this in a barn, not a house.

 

[CADplans]

OP is using this in a barn, not a house.

I understand,, the issue is EVERY time this type fan discussion pops up,,,
someone will state the motor uses more electricity to cause cooling than the electricity air conditioning would consume,,,

I have two 48" fans that simply circulate air in my shed,,
those fans create a LOT of comfort,, as I do not have the ten+ ton air conditioner my shed would require to create a dent in the heat..

 

[CADplans]

Same here. My Attic has rafters and boards for roof sheeting, built fifty years ago. Yes, you can still smell the wood!

OH, I forgot about the roof sheathing (plywood, in my home) ,, that may be the source of the "wood smell".
Surely,, the plywood is the hottest wood,,, due to solar gain,,

 

[Industrial Toys]

I did not state that. I am looking for the facts. Many people don't have a clue about energy and wattage. Too many people for instance state, they heat their hot tub for pennies! People would be surprised at the accumulated cost of running a 100 watt bulb.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Yes this is for a horse stable. Heat rises so I'll have it on a switch and thermostat (they make inexpensive thermostats that is simply a bimetal switch).
We have woods all around and on top of a hill, there's almost always a breeze blowing here.
I've always thought it's much healthier to have the house temperature close to outside within reason. We have friends who have their woodstove roaring in the winter, their house is like 80 degrees. In summer they keep it cool, a.c. wide open, 60s inside. They're always sick.
I think it's too much shock to your system.
We open house at night, close it in morning. House stays nice temp, we almost never run a.c. units.
Any of us who remembers the 50s remembers no a.c. Cars the windows down, fans in house. In church everyone had those hand-held paper fans with a funeral home ad on it.

 

[MossRoad]

The pulleys I used cause the fan to rotate slower than the recommended speed,, therefore it uses VERY little horsepower.

I am not pushing air into the attic,, I am pushing air out of a louvered gable vent., no living space air is moved by my fan.
Air in at the eves,, air out through the gable mounted fan.

And,, if there is no wind,, you can stand on the ground 20 feet from the house,, and smell the "attic wood" smell.
I am amazed that wood still gives off odor after 40 years,,,

I think the attic fan concept where house air is pushed into the attic only functions further north than where I live.

We have an attic vent fan in one gable end and if its on, you can stand under it on the ground outside and smell that attic smell as well for several minutes. After a while, though, the smell goes away as fresh air is pulled through.

 

[MossRoad]

For that open ceiling house, maybe put the whole house fan venting to outdoors from the laundry room, or even from the garage to outdoors. (with some kind of shutters for winter). Leave the door open to laundry room/garage when the fan is in use. It will still pull air in at every window that is opened. It doesn't need to be at higher elevation than the windows it draws from.

But a whole house fan is only useful if overnight you get lower temperature and humidity outdoors, that you want to pull indoors!

Laundry is in the basement. The way the house is laid out we'd have to leave several doors open to get from the main room to the garage. It would not be aesthetically pleasing to leave a door leading to the basement and garage open all day, as it's not a finished area, and, the dog (and my father in law with dementia) would head into the basement and/or the garage). There's no room in the ceiling anywhere in the open room. We could put the vent in the side of one of the interior gable walls that faces the garage attic. Then we'd have to find a way to put more vents into the attic roof to let that air out. There's soffit vents at the bottoms, but only a couple square vents through the roof on the backside of the house.

Some things to think about. Thanks. :thumbsup:

 

[California]

When we first bought the house in town, every summer I laid a cheap box fan

flat, in the attic access hatch above the clothes dryer. That made the house interior temperature/humidity track downward the same as outdoors, after sunset as things cooled off. And later, before dawn, this chilled the interior to start the next day pleasantly cool. That plus a single 110 v window A/C was sufficient - except for the few days over 105 when we stayed close to that window A/C.

Then when we built the second story addition I put a proper 30" whole house exhaust fan in the upstairs hall ceiling. This isn't ideal, you can hear it from the upstairs bedrooms. I wish now I had designed something to have that fan at the other end of the house downstairs, away from the sleeping rooms. Whatever the location the effect will be the same, cool outdoors air pulled into any room with a window open.

 

[CADplans]

This isn't ideal, you can hear it from the upstairs bedrooms. I wish now I had designed something to have that fan at the other end of the house downstairs,

The main reason I purchased the pulleys and belt to slow down my fan was to reduce the noise.
IIRC, I mounted the motor on some sort of vibration absorbing mounts,, to also reduce vibration noise.

Other than a quiet, low frequency "drone" noise,, I can hardly hear mine.
Actually, we have had the fan so long, we have to think about it to even notice it.
It is kinda like background noise, rather than a specific sound.