Anybody Have A Whole House Fan?

[patandchickens]

I also like that it is reversible... speaking of which: Anybody a master of aerodynamics? Everything being equal (i.e., other doors / windows being open) would a fan "pulling" air from outside and "pushing" it into the house (and out other windows) move the same volume in exactly the opposite path / direction as a fan "pulling" air from inside and "pushing" it outside?

I am *by no means* an aerodynamics wonk. However, I have had a similar discussion with my husband, who isn't an aerodynamics wonk either but tends to have a better grasp of physics and engineering than I do, and he says that the answer is Not Really, on account of the pitch and shaping of the fanblades being designed to maximize how well air is pushed in the 'usual' direction, at the cost of reduced performance when running in reverse.

You should find an actual aerodynamics wonk to check with for *sure*, though

Also you should consider that it might be a bad thing to run it in reverse (blowing into the house) in a normally furnished house unless you want all loose objects less than 20 lbs to get jetted to the far end of the house or the nearest window <g>

BTW, thank you for the link to the product -- I did not realize there was something like that on the market (powerful window-mount fans), and I think I may have to see what's available in that genre up here, as the house gets real hot during the day but the outdoors always cool off well in the evening... hmm...

let us know how you like it!!

Pat

 

[Nifty]

Pat, I should have been more clear... Let's assume instead of hitting the "reverse" switch that you turn the fan around. I don't expect to ever blow 3,500 CFM's into a room (unless I want my 3 year old to kite surf in the house) but I was more curious in theory what would happen cuz my brain just rolls like that.

Here is the AirKing page: http://www.airkinglimited.com/airking/default.asp?action=read&art_id=465

And here is the PDF instruction manual (limited info) http://www.airkinglimited.com/airking/admin/article_instructions/9166.pdf

 

[amarook]

We had one in the house where I grew up. Pittsburgh, Pa.

Summers get REALLY humid sometimes. For humidity, you need the ac... (At least my mom did. )
But on days when it was just hot, and not too humid, the fan was wonderful.

 

[Nifty]

Well, my father-in-law, the engineer, came by for dinner on Sunday and we got to talkin' about the window whole house fan I bought. He mentioned the benefits of evacuating the warm (hot) air from the attic in addition to the air in the house.

He pretty much got me to convince myself that a ceiling mount may be the way to go... but now I've got this window mount new-in-box in my family room and I doubt I can return it.

I'm wondering if I could mount it into the ceiling where we have attic access hole (probably just the right size). My only concern is that the fan is obviously built to run vertically and not horizontally.

I guess I could have the window fan at one end of the house and the ceiling fan at the other.... exchange the air in the whole house 20 times in 2.5 seconds!

 

[patandchickens]

Indeed the house will be cooler if you cool the attic as well as the living space. OTOH, you *could* just install a big-league attic fan to do that, separate from the living-quarters fan.

In principle I suppose you could box in a 'bump-out' of the ceiling up into the attic, between joists, with the window fan mounted in the side of it. Depends what kind of insulation you have up there, though, don't want to be blowing it sideways.

I would buy the window fan off you in a New York minute if I lived closer or in the correct country

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Nifty]

Hahaha... maybe I'll buy a ceiling mount and hold onto the window one and sell at a premium when we get one of those huge hot spells and sell it at a premium.

 

[solarkate]

Whatsa 'whole house fan'?

 

[miss_thenorth]

http://ca.search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafee&p=whole+house+fan

 

[Nifty]

Did you do a search on google? How about this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_house_fan

With temps already going to hit mid 90's this week (crazy huh?) I decided to give this window one a try. I'm having to do a bit of creative building inside a sliding glass door to get this to work (since none of our windows will accept it) but I think it will work well enough for me to run some tests and keep things cool until I decide if I'm going with a ceiling mounted one.

 

[Okiemommy]

Has the fan been working out for you Nifty?

I have been wanting to use a fan to cool the house as well, and didn't know there was such a thing as a whole house fan. I'm not sure it would be beneficial for us here with this climate, but I imagine even if we could keep from using the AC 5-7 days out of 4-5 months it would pay for itself. hmmm