our house growing up was built in the 40's , and in the stairwell there was a huge exhaust fan that vented into the attic and out.....this thing sucked the air outta the house so well..my dad would turn it on open a couple windows and booom!! instant relief. now get this..my mom and dad didnt have air conditioning at the time..with 6 kids in the house in the 60's....this thing is magic i would recommend anyone to do this..its a great thing to have
I am a licensed HVAC/R contractor. In the early part of my career, there were older homes that used attic fan technology to help cool the entire house. Somewhere along the way, as time progressed deeper into the modern era, that practice was gotten away from. Those attic fans really made a difference and consumed less energy than a compression cycle air conditioning system. On less hot days, the attic fan could cool the entire house without needing to run the central air conditioning system. I used to wonder why modern home builders went away from using attic fans.
I installed mine by myself in 2.5 hours. A world of difference in the early evenings bringing in the cooler outdoor air. I wanted to do the past few years and finally got it done.
Yeah. My grandparents had one, but no house we have owned or rented ever had one. Live in the Midwest and wonder if the humidity is the reason. TBH some nights it just does not cool off.
@@timothywertin7423 Midwesterner here. We had them growing up too (called them "attic fans"), all post-WWII tract houses.. but then those houses were all built before central AC was a thing. I agree, especially in the 2000's ... it hardly cools off enough at night to use one for most of the year.
My Dad installed twin attic fans in my childhood home circa 1968. It hummed but wasn’t annoying. It was a gentle cooling system that made perfect sense .
How do you dehumidify your entire home? I bought an expensive dehumidifier and it would work only in a single room and the humidity would go back up within 10 minutes of switching off the dehumidifier.
@@papabear8253 Most people do it through a whole house AC system. The nice thing about that is, humidity tends to go up at night while temperature goes down, so I crank down the AC at night time, but put it back up again during the day to compensate and balance between the humidity and heat factors. There are also passive, no electricity dehumidifiers (chemicals like calcium chloride, which are NOT really all that "dangerous" as some stupid sites claim) that can be put around the home, and if you're good at designing/building things, you can make a nice, efficient solar oven outside that can "regenerate" these (by driving off/evaporating the water), and then rinse and repeat as needed. Point is, there are different ways. No way works perfectly if you live in a consistently high humidity environment though. You'll never get 10% or even 30% RH inside if it's constantly between 70 to 100% RH outside. But, if you can knock it down to around 40 to 60% RH or so, it makes things much more tolerable. I just had my AC worked on. The HVAC guy gave me an interesting tip that I had never heard before. He said don't run regular fans in the house when trying to cool things down. The reason why he said, is because it changes the air pressure in the house and AC units are designed with a certain amount of air and pressure in mind. Basically when you run a bunch of fans, you change the pressure differential and create more of a vacuum that sucks in humidity from outside. Don't know for certain if that is completely objectively accurate or not. He said he was initially skeptical of it himself, but tested it and found it was true. Though t I would at least pass it on for consideration.
Or humidification if your area is dry. This is all dependant on what kind of home you have. A newer home has less airflow in it, which relies on the HVAC system to do the work. So a dehumidifier or humidifier would work better in it. The older style homes? There's not much you can do to lower humidity.
Even in the south in mid summer. You come home to a hot house. Run the fan and open doors 20 minutes. Close up and A/c has a much easier time. And the border times of early summer and fall, you can enjoy the cool nite air without high bills.
20 years ago in my current home, I installed 2 Quiet Cool fans 1500 CFM for each. One is at the top of the stairwell and then other is further into the upstairs room. They are so quiet! I love them. The design has been improved, the dampers are now on the house side and the drop down to close. Mine, which are an earlier design, the dampers are on the fan side - in front of the fan.
when i was younger i lived in a house with one and we really loved it. lots of air and helped get rid of cooking smells like when my mom would cook chili peppers
I live in dry climate SoCal and installed a WH Fan when we first moved into our current home 40 years ago. It is quiet and has been wonderful. We have days when the temp range can be from !00+ to low sixties at night. Sometimes have to turn the fan off in the middle of the night because it gets too cool in the bedroom. Keep all the windows closed from early morning and only need AC starting in early to mid afternoon. Then we power it down and go back to the fan once the outside air temp falls back into the 70's in the evening. Don't know why these are not and have not been required by code on all new construction.
Oh this brings back memories. When growing up we had an "attic fan" and it was life saving since we had no A/c. We made frames for each window and stapled filter material to them. They helped keep out the dust. But my grandmother would spray these filters with water during the heat of the day. The water would evaporate making the air cooler.
I've been using a WHfan for a few years. It works well for us in the Pacific North West. Some observations. 1. A WHFan works best in temperate climates where evening Temps are a few degrees cooler. 2. I find it best to start the fan early in the day well before the attic has any chance to heat up BECAUSE IMPORTANTLY the ceiling sheet rock absorbs a tremendous amount of heat and then radiates that heat thru to your living space. It will continue to radiate heat until it equalizes with the ambient temp. 3. The inside temperature can never be less than the outside temperature. But remember don't let your attic get hot and then radiate that heat into the ceiling sheet rock and thusly slowly releasing that stored heat into your living space. 4. If you want to cool or freshen up a particular room then close all other windows in the house and exterior doors etc. Except the window of the room you want to cool.
I have a whole house fan and love it although ours is a very different design. Our fan sits right above the ceiling and just pushes air into the attic which then flows out the existing openings (mostly ridge vents). There are a couple things you have to keep in mind when using a whole house fan though: 1) It pulls in humidity with the air so be wary of humidity levels. This is especially true in the south east and north east during the summer. I'm about to go turn mine off because even though it's nice and cool outside, a rainstorm is coming so it's pulling in a LOT of humidity too. 2) It has an upper limit on how much air it can pull. If you open every window wide, it won't have the same impact as opening specific windows in specific locations to create flow through the house.
I'm in the south east and the my attic is super dry though like 20 percent humidity. Wonder if that would balance it out? Also would going to crawl space then to the attic make more sense?
Where I live in California, single family homes don't have AC. However there are a few weeks (about 6 or 8/year) that we really could use one. The thing is that those weeks are not all consecutive. A week or two here then a few months later a few more weeks is a common scenario. I got sick of those weeks after 15 years in my house. So I installed (by myself) a QuietCool system that I saw at a home improvement show. Boy was that the best thing I ever did. I did go two sizes up from the recommended size which was also a best choice on my part. I put it at the top of the stairs on the 2nd floor. I open the patio doors, and the upstairs windows from the other side of the house. I never have to use it for more than the 1 hour (up to 12 hours is possible) setting because it does such a great job. I usually run it before the sun comes up or late in the evening so I don't draw in hot air from the outside. I'd highly recommend it. I also bought the remote system with a second pad (one on each floor). It was a devil getting it up in the attic due to the fact that the vent tube was already attached to the fan. I tried to take it apart to install, but was too difficult. I realized that if I did, I'd never get it back together in that small cramped attic space. That's my only complaint. Should be easier to manipulate the tube on both ends to attach to the fan and the vent. Otherwise I think it's a 9.5/10 system. Highly recommend it.
I just recently moved into a new home that has one and I absolutely love it, I use it more than I use my A/C. As soon as the temp outside gets cooler than the temp inside I open a few windows and turn and let it run on the timer and go to sleep while it's running.
The house I grew up in had an attic fan, but it never worked. But mom had insulation sprayed into the attic, and as part of that project, they offered to fix our attic fan. And so, for a glorious few days, I got to see what the long-idle device was capable of. It was glorious! There was a shockingly strong breeze throughout the house--perfect for times when the outside air is cool but stagnant. The only downside is that plenty of dust gets drawn in, as well. Sadly, I'm guessing that the belt was properly tensioned, because the fan died, again, in just a few days, and it never ran again.
This is a perfect solution for homes in Southern California where the air is usually cool enough to cool down a home but when there isn't a natural breeze in the area.
So far, so good! I installed this fan yesterday. ruclips.net/user/postUgkx7yWIKcrbA9KMHkGSfcgxW2lsjHT6B8Sh I've been watching a continuous radon monitor in my house for about a week, and the levels have been running between 4.5 and 7.9 pCi/L. Shortly after I installed this fan, the radon level started dropping, and in less than 24 hours since I installed it, the level is now 1.9. My basement is approximately 2,000 square feet. Total home square footage above basement is approximately 4,000 square feet. The noise level so far is very quiet. Mine is installed indoors, so I had to purchase a cord and connector. If I have any problems later, I'll update my review. But for now, I'm very pleased with it.Update after 48 hours: Using a constant monitor, my radon is now fluctuating between 0.38 and 0.45 pCi/L. I've moved the monitor to my basement and am getting a constant 0.43 reading. After 24 hours, and when I know the weather will be safe, I'll place the monitor outside for about 12 hours. I'm thinking that the 0.38 to 0.45 may be the outside "ambient" radon level. I'm using this monitor (purchased from Amazon): Corentium Home Radon Detector by Airthings 223
We had an earlier version of a whole house fan in the last 2-story home and it sounded like an airplane taking off when on. Good to hear they've improved on that one drawback. Good step by step install video. Awesome👍🏽
Many years ago these whole house fans were all that people had to cool with. No AC. They were huge and when turned on they sounded like a tornado was taking the house apart. They worked though.
good luck with the cleaning of the house letting the air enter to your house without a filter!!! Cool down the attic is enough to keep your house with a reduced use of the AC
Ive done painting in a home with one of these, middle of summer, no ac and the house was comfortable to be in. Pretty sure they designed the house with air flow in mind. Great video
These are great for brick or stone houses. A/c will usually run all night because the brick or stone absorb heat and let it radiate into the house at night. You can eliminate most of that electric use by pulling in the cooler night air with one of these.
Many of the older houses here in Texas have old school versions of this except that the fan is easily 4 times the size of the quiet cool. The dampers are horrible and the fan lays flat on the attic floor blowing straight up. The fans are normally belt driven so you get that signature belt squeal when they turn on. Back in the day (1940's and 50's) this was Air Conditioning. Those old beasts moved a crap ton of air and according to wily grandparents, uncles and older cousins would suck you up to the ceiling if it came on while you stood directly underneath it. (Those stories sure kept us grand kids from playing in the hall near grandpas bedroom.)
I lived in Kansas City in a house with both central air and a pair of huge attic fans over the central stairs. We never used the AC because the fans did such a good job of pulling the used, sticky and sweaty air out of the house. In a two story house with a full attic and a central stairwell these work marvelously. In other floor plans not so much.
As a kid , I remember our house being very hot . We didn't have AC or an attic fan . We did have a large box fan that fit into a window . Dad mounted it on the hot side of the house with it set at exhaust. At first we just opened windows at the other end of the house and drew the air through the entire house . It worked but we found that if we only opened a couple of windows 2 or 3 inches , it forced a large volume of air through a small space and it cooled the air when it expanded back into the house . That worked very well . Like window vents and floor vents in cars , they work better than opening the entire window .
I did a similar project with my van. It didnt have ac so I put a radiator fan in a roof vent blowing up. It worked so well that the breeze from was like drving 30mph when at a standstill. Huge help with the Florida heat.
Excellent video - Qq the fan exhaust doesnt need to be piped out of the roof? Its ok to dump the air into the attic? (Wondering if that would cause too much pressure in the attic).
Ya, these kinds of house fans are great in situations where there is a 20 degree or more difference between the daily high and low temperatures. They come standard on most homes I looked at here in the Midwest. Just need to be careful to open enough windows or it will blow out the pilot light on your gas water heater by sucking air in through those exhaust points.
I feel that you covered the installation of the fan and how it works extremely well. My only question is how much of a difference did you see in ambient temperatures after installation?
There is a really noticeable difference. I'm not the creator of the video but I can answer your question after noticing it's been 8 months without an answer. The one I have tested at home is smaller, DIY, repurposed, when I need it I just close all the windows and doors to allow only one air input and one output just like on this video, then the air starts flowing and it takes about 10 minutes in general to show the difference, and this takes WAY LESS time for the setup I have on the main bedroom, in that case the sensation of cooling becomes instantaneous sucking fresh air from the balcony and pushing it out via the bedroom bathroom. Is it guaranteed? yes and no. If somehow the air is hotter outside, then you are sucking hot air into the house, if it's fresher outside, then yes it works. Yes, that sort of thing can happen, under those circumstances: keep the house closed to avoid the hotter air coming in. If you are interested on a report with measurements (celsius/farenheit), I don't have it as I don't currently own a digital IR or ambient termometer, but it's something that I will buy eventually. You can use this approach at whole house level (needing a more powerful fan), or you can do the same at single room basis. Initially I read tons of articles regarding out-fan vs in-fan with diverse reports on what's better, you can find lots of information on the web, but honestly the best approach is having them both, one helping to suck fresh air in, and one helping to push the hot air out elsewhere. The one who explained this to me in simple terms is an African engineer from Ghana, specialized in cooling systems and AC. Want a tip? the air in fan should be as close the ground/floor as possible, and the air out fan should be at the highest place of the room/house. Why? thermodynamics, the hot air always goes up, you will always find cooler air close to the floor (except if the floor is hot).
Not buying one. Just was in recommended but great video dude. Awesome quality and you are easy to listen to. Don't even know why I clicked on it but I did.
Our HVAC company doesn’t want to install one for us, which is so dumb, we live in the perfect climate for a whole house fan - dry summers with hot days and cold nights. Thanks for the install walk-through, I’ve been looking at this same brand. I think I’ll need to add more venting from the attic crawl space to the outdoors first though.
New age homes are all about efficiency with energy. Seems like your fan does a nice job in cooling. In my area (Michigan) my issue would be heat loss in the winter. How is this closed up for the heating season. Nice job!
My grandparents house had no ac or swamp cooling but it did have a huge attic fan in the hallway. It was as wide as the hallway and in the evenings would open the windows and turn that sucker on and cool the house. It never failed never broke never had any issues is at least 50 years of usage.
Was gonna say...thought i was the only one who noticed the droppings. granted my job in fountain beverage service, those such things stand out to me. Especially when a customer says theyve been getting constant leaks.
Lots of old homes had these in the South. A few still around but once ac became a thing they died out. Old idea made new again. I guess in some climates these would be good to have.
We had a whole house fan in our last house in Columbus OH. Honestly, I felt it was more a gimmick or something that would have worked better in a cooler climate. We only really used it occasionally in the spring and fall, and the rest of the year we just had the vent closed.
Yep. here in the northeast it would be completely retarded stuff: the summers are very humid and hot as hell and the rest of the year is cold or freezing.
@@MrRich6505 Thank you for the advice, I absolutely hate humidity ! I like dry weather... In America other than deserts I don't see to many options, I'm thinking about buying land and starting a homestead, what would you say about Texas (it's a huge state the weather has to vary a lot I hope) ?
I had someone give me a large fan used for a gym. Instead of throwing it out, I remember being at some friends house that had a WHF. It wasn’t like yours, it had a large fan mounted in an area that you cut out leading to the attic and had flaps that would close it. I took my large gym fan and mounted it into a piece of plywood that I cut to fit the entrance to my attic as well as a large circle so the fan can blow air through it. I don’t have the levours to close it up (so ya, in winter, there is some cool air that comes through, but I am in SoCal and doesn’t get too cold, otherwise I’d figure out a way to seal jt. Maybe not exactly like the pre built whole house fan, but works fairly well and it was free.
We had something like that in our old house in GA. Reminded me of the tin buildings we did basic training in at Ft Leonard Wood MO. There were 2 large dia fans in the roof so if you wanted air you turned those suckers on. Nice breeze and suction but with it came dust so we never turned them on. My GA house had one that was about 3 foot dia. Turn it on and it would suck all the air in thru the doors and windows into the attic and out the soffit. Great if you burned something on the stove. LOL It was nice if you had a cool night and it would suck in that cool air, constant breeze. Yes pollen and dust as well but we used air filters in the windows. This seems nicer because much quieter.
Being from the HVAC/R Field I was skeptical until I saw the dampers, being able to cool the house if it’s hot outside you definitely need the dampers. Well engineered/thought out!
Nice video and tutorial on it. I presume that side of the house doesn't have smoke detectors and patio cooking outside with sliding doors/windows open and fan pulling. Seeing it pulling in that much might set off the detectors or alarm system. It is impressive with summer heat.
This is old tech back from when they didn't have any A/C. Why would anyone be skeptical of this working whos not young? I'm 32 and I even got my glimpse of an old none a/c house from back in the day. My great grandma's house had a very large whole house fan in the hallway right at the top of the steps that sounded like the whole house was transforming when you turned it on. But really it was just the crazy old dampeners opening up. It always scared the mess out of me lol. They most definitely work to get that hot air out from the top of the house. but once that hot air is out you need to be turning it off and closing the windows to hold in your conditioned air. But if you are the type who prefers not to use the A/C and rather use fans this will definitely keep you much cooler than just fans alone.
I think it also depends on where you live and the temp/humidity. At my parents house in San Jose, it worked great in the morning or late at night to cool the attic and house down. They don't have AC. In San Diego, I tried it using a box fan on the attic access hole, it cooled the house down but it also brought in the humidity. Then the AC needs to remove the humidity. It's hard to analyze the electricity use of AC and whole house fan vs AC only because there are so many factors (humidity, outside temp, etc). With the cost of the whole house fan and the work to install it, I decided to just to use AC since I wasn't sure if it would ever hit the break even point. I think whole house fans work great when there are high temperatures swings and your area has relatively low humidity.
I did that on the stairs to get a fridge to second level. I could use that fan in my room. I remember people strapping those to chairs when I was a kid. Pulls western shirts right off get close enough.
I have this installed too, noice level is okish we got used to it, ours run 5hrs everyday for last 7/8 years And it's still running fantastic Not a single penny on maintainance, Yess but it do gets dirty as like ceiling fans (i live in over populated part of city{Dhaka})
@@epicoddgamer2900 oh yes yes see my family cant afford AC and its also isn't efficents for use because we have to change a lot of things so this really worked for use
Good video. Especially helpful in 2-story homes. Make sure, though, that your attic can exhaust that cooler air, or the attic will become a limiting factor.
I’ve been wanting to add one of these but wasn’t looking forward the noise and running electrical down to a switch to turn it on and off. After seeing this and the fan isn’t right in the vent opening (less noise) and it has a remote switch I’m definitely going to add this to my to do list! Great video and review!!
I basically cobbled together a ghetto version using multiple small fans working in concert, intake and exhaust. Moves air a lot slower and more haphazardly than in op's video - but air does flow, and by providing specific intake and exhaust points it gets the job done. It's a dusty tropical suburb and I've been annoyed by smoke from random trash burning from god knows where, so I slapped on a bunch of filters over the intakes and exhausts. They do need to be replaced regularly - am looking into longer lasting filters.
These work awesome. There are two drawbacks that people need to consider though. If you have allergies or an aversion to constantly dusting don't get one. It would be cool if someone made a filter instead of a screen for a sliding glass door so all the incoming air could run through that huge filter.
Don’t forget to clean the pollen off your screens and furniture . Put a cardboard blank cut to size above the magnetic grill in the heating season to reduce natural draft of warm air flow out of house even though the fan is off . That’s why they are not so popular anymore. Retired HVAC owner contractor.
Thanks for sharing. Curious about the dust inside the attic, during the first runs and if it settled down with time. I have the same insulation material, but was concerned with that.
Good investment that definitely works great. NOTE: Make sure you have enough vent to allow intake. If not enough and have a chimney 😢😢 expect soot thru out the house.😊
This was such an informative video on the Quiet Cool whole house fan and how it works. I'm getting mine installed on Friday and I can't wait to save some money on cooling the house down. The summers are just getting hotter and hotter and having this installed is going to be so worth it. Thanks again for this video!
A big help, in keeping your home cooler, is to air seal the openings in the ceilings, next make sure you have at least r 60 insulation in the attic. If you have gable nents, put the green, quiet cool, 3-speed fan, in the gables, I installed 2 of them, one at each gable. It definitely helps to keep the inside of the house cooler.
Thanks for posting your experience with installing your quietcool. Did you have any advise on what size CFM compared to your house. I"ve heard you need 3 times your square footage. Do you agree?
The house my dad built in 1965 had one he installed. It worked great. The house I bought in 2006 did not have one, so I installed one to bring in the outside air. In my case, I lived near a boggy area. The house would definitely cool down, but the air would be so full of moisture the floors would get damp. It was the weirdest thing. Probably best not to live next to a swamp and expect the wife to like it...
couldn't you show a final pic of the attic fan in place! That is the point of the video. Is the fan suspended in the air like the ducting or is it bolted to an outside wall?
When I first moved to Florida the house I rented had a whole house fan with 5 speed that worked really well, when I built my house I installed a 3-speed whole house fan that I was not happy with as the high-med.-low speed was really high- almost high - and a little less than high, no low speeds.
I have a question I know this is an older video but I just stumbled across it if you turn your AC on won't that push that cool air through that I know the piece with the vent in the ceiling had flaps but won't those open when the AC turns on? Wasting all that cool air
One of these is on my remodel want-list. My mother told me about them years ago when she and my stepfather went to visit his aunt in Oklahoma one summer. She lived in a very old house that had a fan, but no A/C. My mother said the house was tolerable during the day, but could get downright cold at night. I have a stairwell in the middle of my house that's open on one side and goes down to the basement. I want to position it over the stairwell so that it sucks the cooler air up from the basement. Can you reverse it, though, so it blows warm air down from the attic in the winter?
i was actually thinking of using my old ducted heating vents and putting a fan in place so it circulates the air in the hours and filters it at the intake
This thing working like an industrial blower or exhaust fan. In my homeland we put this in kitchen area to get rid odors n smoke from entire room. Its also good for kitchen resto isn't it?
our house growing up was built in the 40's , and in the stairwell there was a huge exhaust fan that vented into the attic and out.....this thing sucked the air outta the house so well..my dad would turn it on open a couple windows and booom!! instant relief. now get this..my mom and dad didnt have air conditioning at the time..with 6 kids in the house in the 60's....this thing is magic i would recommend anyone to do this..its a great thing to have
When I was a kid we had a window unit in the living room and when it got hot we all slept in the living room.
I am a licensed HVAC/R contractor. In the early part of my career, there were older homes that used attic fan technology to help cool the entire house. Somewhere along the way, as time progressed deeper into the modern era, that practice was gotten away from. Those attic fans really made a difference and consumed less energy than a compression cycle air conditioning system. On less hot days, the attic fan could cool the entire house without needing to run the central air conditioning system. I used to wonder why modern home builders went away from using attic fans.
$$$
@@SharkFishSF indeed
Agree 100 percent. My older home had fan installed. Made a Hugh difference in how comfortable we were.
Cause everything is about cosmetics.. no one wants a fan in the ceiling .. but i agree they work great
I believe it was the old fan noise as they were very loud and the vents to open at the ceiling weren't very effective in the winter.
I had a whole house fan in my old house for 20+ years, once you have one you will never go without one !
I installed mine by myself in 2.5 hours.
A world of difference in the early evenings bringing in the cooler outdoor air.
I wanted to do the past few years and finally got it done.
I'm curious how well this prevents cold air from coming into the house during the winter. Have you had it long enough to know?
@@aaronhynes4907
These things are so under rated. We used to have one in my childhood home and it was amazing. Those cool nights with a attic fan was clutch.
Totally agree
Yeah. My grandparents had one, but no house we have owned or rented ever had one. Live in the Midwest and wonder if the humidity is the reason. TBH some nights it just does not cool off.
@@timothywertin7423 Midwesterner here. We had them growing up too (called them "attic fans"), all post-WWII tract houses.. but then those houses were all built before central AC was a thing. I agree, especially in the 2000's ... it hardly cools off enough at night to use one for most of the year.
My Dad installed twin attic fans in my childhood home circa 1968. It hummed but wasn’t annoying. It was a gentle cooling system that made perfect sense .
So it works! The stronger the fan, the more wattage it uses.
That's cool if your area is not that humid, but here in the south east, a big part of cooling is de-humidification.
How do you dehumidify your entire home? I bought an expensive dehumidifier and it would work only in a single room and the humidity would go back up within 10 minutes of switching off the dehumidifier.
@@papabear8253 Most people do it through a whole house AC system. The nice thing about that is, humidity tends to go up at night while temperature goes down, so I crank down the AC at night time, but put it back up again during the day to compensate and balance between the humidity and heat factors.
There are also passive, no electricity dehumidifiers (chemicals like calcium chloride, which are NOT really all that "dangerous" as some stupid sites claim) that can be put around the home, and if you're good at designing/building things, you can make a nice, efficient solar oven outside that can "regenerate" these (by driving off/evaporating the water), and then rinse and repeat as needed.
Point is, there are different ways. No way works perfectly if you live in a consistently high humidity environment though. You'll never get 10% or even 30% RH inside if it's constantly between 70 to 100% RH outside. But, if you can knock it down to around 40 to 60% RH or so, it makes things much more tolerable.
I just had my AC worked on. The HVAC guy gave me an interesting tip that I had never heard before. He said don't run regular fans in the house when trying to cool things down. The reason why he said, is because it changes the air pressure in the house and AC units are designed with a certain amount of air and pressure in mind. Basically when you run a bunch of fans, you change the pressure differential and create more of a vacuum that sucks in humidity from outside.
Don't know for certain if that is completely objectively accurate or not. He said he was initially skeptical of it himself, but tested it and found it was true. Though t I would at least pass it on for consideration.
Or humidification if your area is dry.
This is all dependant on what kind of home you have. A newer home has less airflow in it, which relies on the HVAC system to do the work. So a dehumidifier or humidifier would work better in it. The older style homes? There's not much you can do to lower humidity.
💯percent correct!
Even in the south in mid summer.
You come home to a hot house. Run the fan and open doors 20 minutes. Close up and A/c has a much easier time.
And the border times of early summer and fall, you can enjoy the cool nite air without high bills.
20 years ago in my current home, I installed 2 Quiet Cool fans 1500 CFM for each. One is at the top of the stairwell and then other is further into the upstairs room. They are so quiet! I love them. The design has been improved, the dampers are now on the house side and the drop down to close. Mine, which are an earlier design, the dampers are on the fan side - in front of the fan.
when i was younger i lived in a house with one and we really loved it. lots of air and helped get rid of cooking smells like when my mom would cook chili peppers
@Francis Martin Galario "Chili* 🌶️ peppers"
I live in dry climate SoCal and installed a WH Fan when we first moved into our current home 40 years ago. It is quiet and has been wonderful. We have days when the temp range can be from !00+ to low sixties at night. Sometimes have to turn the fan off in the middle of the night because it gets too cool in the bedroom. Keep all the windows closed from early morning and only need AC starting in early to mid afternoon. Then we power it down and go back to the fan once the outside air temp falls back into the 70's in the evening. Don't know why these are not and have not been required by code on all new construction.
Oh this brings back memories. When growing up we had an "attic fan" and it was life saving since we had no A/c. We made frames for each window and stapled filter material to them. They helped keep out the dust. But my grandmother would spray these filters with water during the heat of the day. The water would evaporate making the air cooler.
smart lady
I've been using a WHfan for a few years. It works well for us in the Pacific North West. Some observations. 1. A WHFan works best in temperate climates where evening Temps are a few degrees cooler. 2. I find it best to start the fan early in the day well before the attic has any chance to heat up BECAUSE IMPORTANTLY the ceiling sheet rock absorbs a tremendous amount of heat and then radiates that heat thru to your living space. It will continue to radiate heat until it equalizes with the ambient temp. 3. The inside temperature can never be less than the outside temperature. But remember don't let your attic get hot and then radiate that heat into the ceiling sheet rock and thusly slowly releasing that stored heat into your living space. 4. If you want to cool or freshen up a particular room then close all other windows in the house and exterior doors etc. Except the window of the room you want to cool.
It would be nice with a delay timer which turns on the fan at a set time so you don't have to wake up early to do it.
I have a whole house fan and love it although ours is a very different design. Our fan sits right above the ceiling and just pushes air into the attic which then flows out the existing openings (mostly ridge vents). There are a couple things you have to keep in mind when using a whole house fan though:
1) It pulls in humidity with the air so be wary of humidity levels. This is especially true in the south east and north east during the summer. I'm about to go turn mine off because even though it's nice and cool outside, a rainstorm is coming so it's pulling in a LOT of humidity too.
2) It has an upper limit on how much air it can pull. If you open every window wide, it won't have the same impact as opening specific windows in specific locations to create flow through the house.
I'm in the south east and the my attic is super dry though like 20 percent humidity. Wonder if that would balance it out? Also would going to crawl space then to the attic make more sense?
I don't subscribe to anything but...this vid just substantiated what I've been telling my wife what we should do! Tks.
Where I live in California, single family homes don't have AC. However there are a few weeks (about 6 or 8/year) that we really could use one. The thing is that those weeks are not all consecutive. A week or two here then a few months later a few more weeks is a common scenario. I got sick of those weeks after 15 years in my house. So I installed (by myself) a QuietCool system that I saw at a home improvement show. Boy was that the best thing I ever did. I did go two sizes up from the recommended size which was also a best choice on my part. I put it at the top of the stairs on the 2nd floor. I open the patio doors, and the upstairs windows from the other side of the house. I never have to use it for more than the 1 hour (up to 12 hours is possible) setting because it does such a great job. I usually run it before the sun comes up or late in the evening so I don't draw in hot air from the outside. I'd highly recommend it. I also bought the remote system with a second pad (one on each floor). It was a devil getting it up in the attic due to the fact that the vent tube was already attached to the fan. I tried to take it apart to install, but was too difficult. I realized that if I did, I'd never get it back together in that small cramped attic space. That's my only complaint. Should be easier to manipulate the tube on both ends to attach to the fan and the vent. Otherwise I think it's a 9.5/10 system. Highly recommend it.
I just recently moved into a new home that has one and I absolutely love it, I use it more than I use my A/C. As soon as the temp outside gets cooler than the temp inside I open a few windows and turn and let it run on the timer and go to sleep while it's running.
It must be nice to live in less mosquitoes place.
@@elpasemah in the US, most people have screens on their windows.
I honestly wish the fan over my stove had the capability to achieve that kinda power.
Haha serisouly
It can they both run off 120v.lol just need to get a fan with bigger CFM
And in the bathroom
Some hood fans require a make up air to bring in fresh air when it's running
@@adfadgaqgv correct I believe if it's over 100 or 150 cfm
The house I grew up in had an attic fan, but it never worked. But mom had insulation sprayed into the attic, and as part of that project, they offered to fix our attic fan. And so, for a glorious few days, I got to see what the long-idle device was capable of. It was glorious! There was a shockingly strong breeze throughout the house--perfect for times when the outside air is cool but stagnant. The only downside is that plenty of dust gets drawn in, as well. Sadly, I'm guessing that the belt was properly tensioned, because the fan died, again, in just a few days, and it never ran again.
I installed one in my So Cal house and love it- use it way more than the A/C and save tons of money
We just had one installed in our newly built home. It has made a world of difference
This is a perfect solution for homes in Southern California where the air is usually cool enough to cool down a home but when there isn't a natural breeze in the area.
So far, so good! I installed this fan yesterday. ruclips.net/user/postUgkx7yWIKcrbA9KMHkGSfcgxW2lsjHT6B8Sh I've been watching a continuous radon monitor in my house for about a week, and the levels have been running between 4.5 and 7.9 pCi/L. Shortly after I installed this fan, the radon level started dropping, and in less than 24 hours since I installed it, the level is now 1.9. My basement is approximately 2,000 square feet. Total home square footage above basement is approximately 4,000 square feet. The noise level so far is very quiet. Mine is installed indoors, so I had to purchase a cord and connector. If I have any problems later, I'll update my review. But for now, I'm very pleased with it.Update after 48 hours: Using a constant monitor, my radon is now fluctuating between 0.38 and 0.45 pCi/L. I've moved the monitor to my basement and am getting a constant 0.43 reading. After 24 hours, and when I know the weather will be safe, I'll place the monitor outside for about 12 hours. I'm thinking that the 0.38 to 0.45 may be the outside "ambient" radon level. I'm using this monitor (purchased from Amazon): Corentium Home Radon Detector by Airthings 223
Update?!
We had an earlier version of a whole house fan in the last 2-story home and it sounded like an airplane taking off when on. Good to hear they've improved on that one drawback. Good step by step install video. Awesome👍🏽
Many years ago these whole house fans were all that people had to cool with. No AC. They were huge and when turned on they sounded like a tornado was taking the house apart. They worked though.
These Quiet Cools are a bit different from your normal house fans as they are much smaller than your typical house fans. So they make much less noise.
good luck with the cleaning of the house letting the air enter to your house without a filter!!! Cool down the attic is enough to keep your house with a reduced use of the AC
Ive done painting in a home with one of these, middle of summer, no ac and the house was comfortable to be in. Pretty sure they designed the house with air flow in mind. Great video
We LOVE our whole house fan. Literally is better than AC if the outside temp has a low below 73 during the night
Just watched and I'm completely sold you made it simple thank you for sharing
These are great for brick or stone houses. A/c will usually run all night because the brick or stone absorb heat and let it radiate into the house at night. You can eliminate most of that electric use by pulling in the cooler night air with one of these.
Many of the older houses here in Texas have old school versions of this except that the fan is easily 4 times the size of the quiet cool. The dampers are horrible and the fan lays flat on the attic floor blowing straight up. The fans are normally belt driven so you get that signature belt squeal when they turn on. Back in the day (1940's and 50's) this was Air Conditioning. Those old beasts moved a crap ton of air and according to wily grandparents, uncles and older cousins would suck you up to the ceiling if it came on while you stood directly underneath it. (Those stories sure kept us grand kids from playing in the hall near grandpas bedroom.)
I lived in Kansas City in a house with both central air and a pair of huge attic fans over the central stairs.
We never used the AC because the fans did such a good job of pulling the used, sticky and sweaty air out of the house.
In a two story house with a full attic and a central stairwell these work marvelously. In other floor plans not so much.
As a kid , I remember our house being very hot . We didn't have AC or an attic fan . We did have a large box fan that fit into a window . Dad mounted it on the hot side of the house with it set at exhaust. At first we just opened windows at the other end of the house and drew the air through the entire house . It worked but we found that if we only opened a couple of windows 2 or 3 inches , it forced a large volume of air through a small space and it cooled the air when it expanded back into the house . That worked very well . Like window vents and floor vents in cars , they work better than opening the entire window .
I did a similar project with my van. It didnt have ac so I put a radiator fan in a roof vent blowing up. It worked so well that the breeze from was like drving 30mph when at a standstill. Huge help with the Florida heat.
I'm sold and will be getting one. I used a 30 or 32-inch fan in Texas, what a difference.
A winter project in South Central New Mexico!! 🔥🔥🔥. 👍👍👍
I had this installed in my house 5 years ago, and my family love it. Especially at night, I have on low and it bring cool air into house....
We had these in our house as kids I think I will put one in my house.
this is your first video I watched, and I think you did a pretty good job. keep up the good work.
Homie gonna act like he didn't see all that mice shit 😂
While you're up there, set a few traps lol
Looked more like rat droppings! Yikes!
I cringed. That attic was a damn disaster.
I thought i was the only one who seen that…
He just added a grinder (fan) up in there now, he dont need traps now
@@yourtube4423 🤣
Try to do that here in Houston and see how your house feels after.
Lol I was thinking the same thing. That’s a no-go here in Phoenix when it’s 115 out.
Doesn't beat having AC but it actually works fine
Excellent video - Qq the fan exhaust doesnt need to be piped out of the roof? Its ok to dump the air into the attic? (Wondering if that would cause too much pressure in the attic).
Good question! I have 3 gable vents and a ridge vent. You can find venting area requirements for the fan online
Ya, these kinds of house fans are great in situations where there is a 20 degree or more difference between the daily high and low temperatures. They come standard on most homes I looked at here in the Midwest. Just need to be careful to open enough windows or it will blow out the pilot light on your gas water heater by sucking air in through those exhaust points.
I put a QuiteCool in my single story 1200sqft Ca home…Best thing I ever did!!
Oh wow. The money shot with the smoke at the end is excellent, thank you. Totally getting one.
Cool beard btw
Nice ! I would add a filter to the intake vent to protect the fan.We had one in an old house I grew up in.
I feel that you covered the installation of the fan and how it works extremely well. My only question is how much of a difference did you see in ambient temperatures after installation?
There is a really noticeable difference. I'm not the creator of the video but I can answer your question after noticing it's been 8 months without an answer. The one I have tested at home is smaller, DIY, repurposed, when I need it I just close all the windows and doors to allow only one air input and one output just like on this video, then the air starts flowing and it takes about 10 minutes in general to show the difference, and this takes WAY LESS time for the setup I have on the main bedroom, in that case the sensation of cooling becomes instantaneous sucking fresh air from the balcony and pushing it out via the bedroom bathroom.
Is it guaranteed? yes and no. If somehow the air is hotter outside, then you are sucking hot air into the house, if it's fresher outside, then yes it works. Yes, that sort of thing can happen, under those circumstances: keep the house closed to avoid the hotter air coming in. If you are interested on a report with measurements (celsius/farenheit), I don't have it as I don't currently own a digital IR or ambient termometer, but it's something that I will buy eventually. You can use this approach at whole house level (needing a more powerful fan), or you can do the same at single room basis.
Initially I read tons of articles regarding out-fan vs in-fan with diverse reports on what's better, you can find lots of information on the web, but honestly the best approach is having them both, one helping to suck fresh air in, and one helping to push the hot air out elsewhere. The one who explained this to me in simple terms is an African engineer from Ghana, specialized in cooling systems and AC. Want a tip? the air in fan should be as close the ground/floor as possible, and the air out fan should be at the highest place of the room/house. Why? thermodynamics, the hot air always goes up, you will always find cooler air close to the floor (except if the floor is hot).
Not buying one. Just was in recommended but great video dude. Awesome quality and you are easy to listen to. Don't even know why I clicked on it but I did.
Our HVAC company doesn’t want to install one for us, which is so dumb, we live in the perfect climate for a whole house fan - dry summers with hot days and cold nights. Thanks for the install walk-through, I’ve been looking at this same brand. I think I’ll need to add more venting from the attic crawl space to the outdoors first though.
I installed a cheap one 16 years ago best thing I ever did put in the hallway in the middle of the house
New age homes are all about efficiency with energy. Seems like your fan does a nice job in cooling. In my area (Michigan) my issue would be heat loss in the winter. How is this closed up for the heating season. Nice job!
My grandparents house had no ac or swamp cooling but it did have a huge attic fan in the hallway. It was as wide as the hallway and in the evenings would open the windows and turn that sucker on and cool the house. It never failed never broke never had any issues is at least 50 years of usage.
Make sure you kill the power while you working, do it at 4am when attic is coolest, and fyi, you have rodents issue in the attic.
Was gonna say...thought i was the only one who noticed the droppings.
granted my job in fountain beverage service, those such things stand out to me. Especially when a customer says theyve been getting constant leaks.
Was looking for someone else to say the same thing. Definite rodent problem.
Thank you for taking the time to make this video for us Very nicely done and very informative.
Lots of old homes had these in the South. A few still around but once ac became a thing they died out. Old idea made new again. I guess in some climates these would be good to have.
Great so you made negative air pressure to help draw outside air in.... Nice!
We had a whole house fan in our last house in Columbus OH. Honestly, I felt it was more a gimmick or something that would have worked better in a cooler climate. We only really used it occasionally in the spring and fall, and the rest of the year we just had the vent closed.
Yep. here in the northeast it would be completely retarded stuff: the summers are very humid and hot as hell and the rest of the year is cold or freezing.
Feels more like an emergency venting system that youd use if youd burn something in the kitchen or someone with covid coughed inside.
@@freedom_aint_free i fyou think the Northeast is very humid and hot, don't come down south. You'll probably die.
@@MrRich6505 Thank you for the advice, I absolutely hate humidity ! I like dry weather... In America other than deserts I don't see to many options, I'm thinking about buying land and starting a homestead, what would you say about Texas (it's a huge state the weather has to vary a lot I hope) ?
Good video/sales tool! You need to include at least some stills of the finished install in the attic.
Thanks Russ! Yeah I should of done that. It looks really good
@@TyeMadeIt yes, you should have done that.
I had someone give me a large fan used for a gym. Instead of throwing it out, I remember being at some friends house that had a WHF. It wasn’t like yours, it had a large fan mounted in an area that you cut out leading to the attic and had flaps that would close it. I took my large gym fan and mounted it into a piece of plywood that I cut to fit the entrance to my attic as well as a large circle so the fan can blow air through it. I don’t have the levours to close it up (so ya, in winter, there is some cool air that comes through, but I am in SoCal and doesn’t get too cold, otherwise I’d figure out a way to seal jt. Maybe not exactly like the pre built whole house fan, but works fairly well and it was free.
We had something like that in our old house in GA. Reminded me of the tin buildings we did basic training in at Ft Leonard Wood MO. There were 2 large dia fans in the roof so if you wanted air you turned those suckers on. Nice breeze and suction but with it came dust so we never turned them on. My GA house had one that was about 3 foot dia. Turn it on and it would suck all the air in thru the doors and windows into the attic and out the soffit. Great if you burned something on the stove. LOL It was nice if you had a cool night and it would suck in that cool air, constant breeze. Yes pollen and dust as well but we used air filters in the windows. This seems nicer because much quieter.
Being from the HVAC/R Field I was skeptical until I saw the dampers, being able to cool the house if it’s hot outside you definitely need the dampers. Well engineered/thought out!
Those dampers don't have any R values. They help but not the best
Nobody in the HVACR industry thinks these are great. You must be a noob.
@@phillmccracken4219 well then go hang out in your attic this summer for a day instead of in your mom’s basement boy.
These are for when the outside air drops below your desired interior set point
@@WisdomInTheWoods That is your reply? Oregon, lol not surprised.
I will stick with my facts you can stick with your childish replies.
THANK YOU!!! Great info about a whole house fan. I'm planning on installing one in AZ in my 2 story house.
Nice video and tutorial on it. I presume that side of the house doesn't have smoke detectors and patio cooking outside with sliding doors/windows open and fan pulling. Seeing it pulling in that much might set off the detectors or alarm system. It is impressive with summer heat.
This is old tech back from when they didn't have any A/C. Why would anyone be skeptical of this working whos not young? I'm 32 and I even got my glimpse of an old none a/c house from back in the day. My great grandma's house had a very large whole house fan in the hallway right at the top of the steps that sounded like the whole house was transforming when you turned it on. But really it was just the crazy old dampeners opening up. It always scared the mess out of me lol. They most definitely work to get that hot air out from the top of the house. but once that hot air is out you need to be turning it off and closing the windows to hold in your conditioned air. But if you are the type who prefers not to use the A/C and rather use fans this will definitely keep you much cooler than just fans alone.
I think it also depends on where you live and the temp/humidity. At my parents house in San Jose, it worked great in the morning or late at night to cool the attic and house down. They don't have AC. In San Diego, I tried it using a box fan on the attic access hole, it cooled the house down but it also brought in the humidity. Then the AC needs to remove the humidity. It's hard to analyze the electricity use of AC and whole house fan vs AC only because there are so many factors (humidity, outside temp, etc). With the cost of the whole house fan and the work to install it, I decided to just to use AC since I wasn't sure if it would ever hit the break even point.
I think whole house fans work great when there are high temperatures swings and your area has relatively low humidity.
We have one in our central Texas house and it's great in the Fall and spring. We can even use it some "winter" days.
I loved your video. I’ve been looking into the quiet cool from my home. You gave me a lot to think about thank you
I did that on the stairs to get a fridge to second level. I could use that fan in my room. I remember people strapping those to chairs when I was a kid. Pulls western shirts right off get close enough.
I have this installed too, noice level is okish we got used to it, ours run 5hrs everyday for last 7/8 years
And it's still running fantastic
Not a single penny on maintainance,
Yess but it do gets dirty as like ceiling fans (i live in over populated part of city{Dhaka})
I am from Dhaka too and I want to know does it really cool the house?
How much temperature difference? And cost effectiveness against other things
i dont know about the cost and about the temperature it literally starts to blow the air and you can feel it
@@epicoddgamer2900 oh yes yes see my family cant afford AC and its also isn't efficents for use because we have to change a lot of things so this really worked for use
“Wow … that thing really blows”. Hahahahaha. Thanks for the video!
Need details, how many sq ft is the house, what model did you install, how big was your attic vents?
This was very well done and choreographed.
You should install a radiant barrier on your ceiling beams. It lowered our temp by 30 degrees. It’s important to leave an air gap to work correctly
Good video. Especially helpful in 2-story homes. Make sure, though, that your attic can exhaust that cooler air, or the attic will become a limiting factor.
My favorite is the directions say use any time the air is cooler outside than it is inside. Lol i live in Texas what is that 3 days a year.
I am a 26 year master hvac licensed in multiple states and I have seen a ton of these. They under utilized.
I’ve been wanting to add one of these but wasn’t looking forward the noise and running electrical down to a switch to turn it on and off. After seeing this and the fan isn’t right in the vent opening (less noise) and it has a remote switch I’m definitely going to add this to my to do list! Great video and review!!
Very good demonstration very interesting thinking about doing the same thing
I like the dramatic effect.. love the way u set it up, thnx
did you install radiant foil heat, it helps too? Your vdo helps a lot, i might do it.
The big thing for me is my season allergies make it painful to have the window open but maybe if I invested in good air filters
I basically cobbled together a ghetto version using multiple small fans working in concert, intake and exhaust. Moves air a lot slower and more haphazardly than in op's video - but air does flow, and by providing specific intake and exhaust points it gets the job done. It's a dusty tropical suburb and I've been annoyed by smoke from random trash burning from god knows where, so I slapped on a bunch of filters over the intakes and exhausts. They do need to be replaced regularly - am looking into longer lasting filters.
These work awesome. There are two drawbacks that people need to consider though. If you have allergies or an aversion to constantly dusting don't get one. It would be cool if someone made a filter instead of a screen for a sliding glass door so all the incoming air could run through that huge filter.
Buy some cheap furnace air filters and cut them to fit in your window openings.
The answer is use an input fan with a filter but you'll be changing that filter a ton. Ac might end up being cheaper and healthier for your lungs
Don’t forget to clean the pollen off your screens and furniture . Put a cardboard blank cut to size above the magnetic grill in the heating season to reduce natural draft of warm air flow out of house even though the fan is off . That’s why they are not so popular anymore.
Retired HVAC owner contractor.
Thanks for sharing. Curious about the dust inside the attic, during the first runs and if it settled down with time. I have the same insulation material, but was concerned with that.
Good investment that definitely works great. NOTE: Make sure you have enough vent to allow intake. If not enough and have a chimney 😢😢 expect soot thru out the house.😊
I had a central AC and a whole house fan installed in my home I use the whole house fan at least ten times the amount of time I use the AC
Right same here.
What were your cost savings?
@@pkal244 this is what I wanna know. How long will it take to pay for itself on average?
Now to make simple evaporative coolers without fans to stick in the windows.... 🤔
I made this something with a old window AC fan system and a AC return vent. And I have the 3 speed fan with a remote.
This was such an informative video on the Quiet Cool whole house fan and how it works. I'm getting mine installed on Friday and I can't wait to save some money on cooling the house down. The summers are just getting hotter and hotter and having this installed is going to be so worth it. Thanks again for this video!
A big help, in keeping your home cooler, is to air seal the openings in the ceilings, next make sure you have at least r 60 insulation in the attic. If you have gable nents, put the green, quiet cool, 3-speed fan, in the gables, I installed 2 of them, one at each gable. It definitely helps to keep the inside of the house cooler.
Thanks for posting your experience with installing your quietcool. Did you have any advise on what size CFM compared to your house. I"ve heard you need 3 times your square footage. Do you agree?
The house my dad built in 1965 had one he installed. It worked great.
The house I bought in 2006 did not have one, so I installed one to bring in the outside air.
In my case, I lived near a boggy area. The house would definitely cool down, but the air would be so full of moisture the floors would get damp. It was the weirdest thing. Probably best not to live next to a swamp and expect the wife to like it...
couldn't you show a final pic of the attic fan in place! That is the point of the video. Is the fan suspended in the air like the ducting or is it bolted to an outside wall?
When I first moved to Florida the house I rented had a whole house fan with 5 speed that worked really well, when I built my house I installed a 3-speed whole house fan that I was not happy with as the high-med.-low speed was really high- almost high - and a little less than high, no low speeds.
I wonder if the guy installing the frame that the grill goes on could have pushed the frame over to cover your cut marks? How did you remedy that?
I don't have a house, but what a cool video!
I have a question I know this is an older video but I just stumbled across it if you turn your AC on won't that push that cool air through that I know the piece with the vent in the ceiling had flaps but won't those open when the AC turns on? Wasting all that cool air
Nice thankyou for the video
One of these is on my remodel want-list. My mother told me about them years ago when she and my stepfather went to visit his aunt in Oklahoma one summer. She lived in a very old house that had a fan, but no A/C. My mother said the house was tolerable during the day, but could get downright cold at night.
I have a stairwell in the middle of my house that's open on one side and goes down to the basement. I want to position it over the stairwell so that it sucks the cooler air up from the basement.
Can you reverse it, though, so it blows warm air down from the attic in the winter?
i was actually thinking of using my old ducted heating vents and putting a fan in place so it circulates the air in the hours and filters it at the intake
Good luck
This thing working like an industrial blower or exhaust fan. In my homeland we put this in kitchen area to get rid odors n smoke from entire room. Its also good for kitchen resto isn't it?