I am going to install a whole house fan. Since I have fairly small house (2 stories, 1300 square feet) I am thinking of installing the airscape 1.0. Does anyone on this board have any experience with this fan? I live in the NYC suburbs and am well aware that a whole house fan will do nothing about humidity and that its main function is to bring cool night air into the house once the outside temparature drops below the inside temperature. Does this fan doe this well and more quietly than the ginormous, thirty-six inch in diameter sounds like you’re at the airport fans I grew up with?
Should I combine a whole house fan with a gable fan? I’ve read the theory that you want to have a gable fan draw super heated attic air out of the attic and not so super heated outside air in. Is there really a point to this? If it’s 95 degrees outside and 120 degrees in the attic, is it that useful to bring in the 95 degree air? I don’t have air conditioning so I’m not helping it out by having a cool ceilings on the second floor and it seems the hole house fan will flush out the hot air when it starts up on the evening.
Thanks for you advice and comments.
Replies
Bump...
I'm interested in a smaller, quieter WHF for my small 1400SF 1-1/2 story in Kansas City.
http://forums.taunton.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=tp-breaktime&msg=87183.3
I believe this will answer your questions. I too am looking at the same model you are I have 1600 sqft under air, Florida.
Hi,
I've had whole house fans in my last two homes and would not be without one.
The one you mention seems undersized for your square footage.
The EERE brochure recommends a cfm that is at least equal to half the volume of your house -- this would be (1300)(8)(0.5) = 5000 cfm for your house. While you might well be satisfied with somewhat less than this, the one you mention is only 1000 cfm, which seems a long ways under the reccomendation.
All things being equal, a large diameter fan turning slowly will make less noise to move the same amount of air as a smaller fan that has to turn faster -- so large is probably good.
I think that having at least two speeds is very important. It lets you use the lower speed (quieter) under most conditions, but to go up to full speed if its really hot.
Our 30 inch Triangle fan is installed in the hall ceiling just outside our bedroom, and while you can hear it at night it is not at all objectionable.
Some whole house fan info here:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Cooling/passive_cooling.htm#Active
Gary
I used the quiet cool fans in So Calif. I'm very pleased so far.http://www.quietcoolfan.com