Definition of "attic fan" where you live

[LVSteve]

Discovered that this can mean different things depending on where you live/come from. Here in Vegas I understood it to mean a fan that would pull out the hot air from the attic to reduce the heat load on your A/C. You have an extractor on a gable end and cooler air is sucked in via the soffit vents. I say "cooler", because 105°F air is better than 150°F air in your attic next to your A/C system and ducts.

I was discussing the merits of this with a coworker when he suddenly says "Attic fans are great for refreshing the whole house". Do what now? He explains that in his home (and in his home back in the Midwest) there is a large return register at the top of the stairs and above it a huge fan. "I open the windows and slap on the fan and pull the fresh air through the house" he said.

Uh, just NO! This is Vegas, so WHAT fresh air? It's variously full of dust, mold spores, non-desert pollen and if the screens don't fit tight (they won't) provides an entry for roaches and scorpions. My coworker was VERY unhappy at this news(?) and was adamant that the practice would continue at his home. I have NEVER seen this in another home in Vegas in 20 years, and even he admitted he had only seen it once elswhere in town, WHICH HE FOUND BAFFLING. I reminded him again of the mold, pollen etc and he got a little sullen.

Soooo, what does "attic fan" mean to you?

 

[Ray1970]

Your coworker described what I knew as an attic fan growing up in southeast Texas.

I was talking to a friend because I am thinking about putting a similar setup in my current house here in Colorado. His definition of an attic fan was pretty much in line with your definition.

Around here, what I call an attic fan is referred to as a "whole house fan".

Whatever you want to call them, I know the setup that I want. We have about four months out of the year here where AC isn't really necessary and having the fan to pull cool, fresh air into the house would be awesome.

 

[Ozark Marine]

My house in S/W Missouri has the whole house exhaust fan.
Never heard of or saw one in Chicago.
Cool down the house or clear out smoke. (from cooking or friends who smoke)
I really like it. 3 speed motor makes the curtains dance.

 

[bigwheelzip]

In NY I had the big fan in the return register on the 2nd floor at the top of the stairs. It was supposed to push air into the attic, where it was supposed to find it's way out through the myriad vents.

Problem was it pressurized the attic, so besides the vents to the outside, the attic air also pushed through recessed ceiling lights, wall switch covers, and electrical outlets. This bypass air brought enough dirt with it that there were black streaks on the walls and ceiling every place it re-entered the living space. Only used it once.

In Lynchburg VA, I rented a house with a fan the size of a Cessna's prop, mounted in the gable end of the attic. When you turned the fan on, it opened powered louvers in the second floor ceiling. This system was able to pull a strong breeze through every room in the home and keep a comfortable environment during the summer.

 

[Tyrod]

Back before A/C became affordable here in Florida, like the 50s or 60s, whole house meaning attic fans were very popular. Folks back then weren't so wussy about contaminants getting into their homes. Of course, most of those houses don't exist anymore. They were eaten by termites.

 

[arjay]

Definition of "attic fan" where you live

Yep, whole house fans,or attic fans, were very popular in Colorado into the 90s when new housing began including a.c. It works fairly well in a dry climate until the temp tops 90°

 

[Onomea]

I looked into this a couple of years ago.

Whole house fans, also called attic fans, pull air through the entire house and out the attic. You need to leave at least a window cracked downstairs. They replace hot, internal air with fresh air from the outside.

I think what LV Seve is talking about is a powered roof vent, or powered exhaust vent. With these the idea is to reduce the temperature within the attic, which will help keep the house below cooler. (And help reduce mold in the attic in humid environments.) But they are not intended to pull air from the outside through the house below and then out through the attic.

That's my understanding, anyway.

 

[Watchdog]

I love my attic fan. It's located in the hall ceiling. Has a powerful motor. The vanes are 36"x36"...you turn it on, they open up. It's great for airing out the whole house. Open the windows and turn it on...it has two speeds. It sucks the musty-dead air out and pulls in fresh air. I run it in Fall and early Spring (before the pollen comes into play). If it's running when I come in through a storm door, it'll literally suck that door closed in a hurry.

I wouldn't want to do without it.

 

[LVSteve]

How many of you with the "whole house" fan live in the desert? By the locations I'm guessing many of you live in rural areas with humidity. Keeping dust out of the home is a major problem in this city. The stuff is insidious, like it has a hive mind working out ways to get in your house.

 

[mtgianni]

I have never seen one in Montana but in SE Idaho a attic fan draws air from the attic vents pushing it out a louvered opening in a gable when the thermostat rises. IIRC the factory default is 135 F on temp 115 off.
[Edit] They used to be listed as such in the Grainger catalog. Currently called attic ventilators in their on line catalog.

 

[arjay]

My house that had one was just east of Boulder,co.Very dry,but well irrigated farmland

 

[SC_Mike]

My grandparents had what they called a "Whole House Fan" and no AC. The fan was in the attic yet pulled air in through the windows, up through the attic and out each end of the attic gables.

What I consider an "Attic Fan" pulls air into the attic to cool the attic and it goes out the other end/side.

Just my .02.

 

[vonn]

Never lived anywhere that had A/C until after I was discharged from the Army and whole house fans were pretty good at cooling things off in the evenings. I am outside 9-10 hours a day in some pretty hot humid weather here in Texas and I could live without A/C but I sure wouldn't want to!

 

[snubbyfan]

We have 3 fans in our attic.
A box fan, a tabletop fan and a reciprocating fan.
When the warmer weather arrives we bring them down out of the attic and point them at us to help cool us down.
A/C? We don't need no steenkin' A/C.

 

[snowman]

Like most of the others here, my definition of an attic fan mirrors that of your coworker's. My folks had one mounted in the hallway ceiling of the bedroom wing of the house they built when I was about 13. It functions as already described above, but one needs to know how to use it to avoid the opposite of the desired effect. It helps cool the house only if the outside air temperature is cooler than the inside. This means that it generally is used only in the evening and/or the morning. I used to get on my mother for turning the thing on in the afternoon when it was hotter outside than inside. She wanted to cool the house but apparently wasn't able to perceive that that couldn't happen when the fan was pulling hotter air in through the windows.

I can see what you're saying about the desert creating a problem with such an arrangement. Dust in these parts is limited, as a rule, to spring and fall, when the farmers are doing either tillage work or harvesting. Even then it isn't a significant issue. Mold and pollen don't seem to be a problem, either.

Regards,
Andy

 

[WardenRoss]

I grew up with one of these in the spare room window at the end of the hall. If you knew how to regulate the windows in the house, it worked wonders on a hot night.

I certainly remember the sound of that fan chopping away while listing to the Grand Old Opery on the Philco radio on Saturday nights.

My job was to polish all the shoes on Saturday night to help get ready for church in the morning.

 

[Goldstar225]

I grew up in southern Arkansas with an attic fan, what many are calling a whole house fan. After listening to it run all summer into the fall it was hard to go to sleep at night when it cooled off enough not to run it. Had to get used to the silence in the house.

 

[meaneyedcatz]

My father installed one in the door to access the attic. It pulled air from the house and forced it through the attic out the gable vents. It did a great job. Of course when its hot its hot and the a/c comes on.

 

[hoc9sw]

I grew up with attic fans as your coworker describes. You had best open the windows before turning it on.

We had no A/C. My grandmother had a swamp fan at the end (water cooled with fresh well water).

 

[Whitwabit]

Homes here in the Midwest have vents on the gable ends of the attic .. with a whole house fan when turned on will pull air in through the windows and the hot air in the attic will be exhausted out the vents by the force of the fan ..

A house can be cooled in a matter of minutes in the evening when the outside air is cooler then inside the house .. these fans went mainly out of favor with the advent of A/C .. very few homes are now built with them ..