The Top 5 Reasons to Get a Whole House Fan

It’s hot. Like, seriously hot. You know… that sweaty, uncomfortable, stick-to-everything kind of hot. Of course, there is a relief. The old standby is air conditioning. However, the thing about standbys is that they are, in fact, old. And that usually comes with the downside of technology that’s stale.

Ready for something new? (At least new to most people as it continues to gain popularity from its best-kept-secret status.) It’s a Whole House Fan, an attic-mounted fan that does exactly what the name implies: it cools your whole house.
But that doesn’t quite tell the whole story. Here are 5 key things that make a Whole House Fan an effective and economical ventilation solution:

1. Quick Cooling With Fresh Air

Let’s start with the basic concept of how a Whole House Fan works. In your attic, a powerful fan sits at the end of flexible ducting that mounts to a centralized vent in your home’s ceiling. When the outside air is cooler than the air inside your home, you crack open some windows (or doors) and turn the Whole House Fan on. It immediately pulls the hot air from your living space and pushes it up into your attic and out its venting, while at the same time bringing cool air into your home through the windows. Within minutes, your entire house is cooled down with fresh outside air, rather than continually recirculating stale indoor air (as with air conditioning).

2. Reduction of Air Conditioning Costs

Thanks to the quick cooling of a Whole House fan, you don’t have to keep your air conditioner constantly running, which is a far more expensive proposition. The cost of running a Whole House Fan is extremely low… like pennies per hour. And because it is so effective at cooling your home and attic quickly, it can be used more intermittently than air conditioning. This means up to a 50-90% savings on electricity costs related to air conditioning.

3. A Healthier Home

When your house is closed up, especially during the winter months, all kinds of nasty things get trapped in. Bacteria, allergens, pet dander, odors and more. Yuck. (In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that indoor air may be 2-5 times more polluted than outdoor air). Luckily, Whole House Fans do a lot more than just cool your house. One of their greatest benefits is that they whisk away all the pollutants trapped in dormant, stale indoor air and replace them with fresh outdoor air, dramatically improving the air purity and health in your home.

4. Quiet Operation

While many house fans can be so loud that you can’t hear yourself think, Whole House Fans provide a perfect alternative. Since they are located in the attic and suspended away from the floor, they can barely be heard. Plus, models with noise-dampening ducting and brushless fan motors are extra quiet. So, you can focus on the things that are most important without background noise.

5. Keeping the Core of Your Home Cool

It’s one thing to cool the air in your house, but if the mass of your home (the structure, contents, attic, etc.) stays hot, it’s harder and more expensive to cool the home the next time. By cooling all the mass of the house, Whole House Fans allow them to stay much cooler  (by as much as 30 degrees) the following day, known as the principle of Thermal Mass Cooling. So overall costs to keep the home cool are dramatically reduced, especially as compared to air conditioning.

One of the leading Whole House Fan solutions on the market comes from Solatube, whose focus is on bringing outdoor elements into your home. If you want more information on their ventilation products and easy installation, visit Solatube.com/whole-house-fans.