How to cool your house on the cheap
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
- Hi guys,
I had a couple of requests to show this neat trick I have of keeping the house cool.
first, some theory.
Everywhere the sun hits, it gets hot, which is why closing your blinds to keep the sun out is helpful. You'll notice the wall still getting really hot, though, because the sun is still hitting it.
The same heat buildup is happening in your attic, although you might not realize it. The heat builds up in the attic, and especially if you live in an older house with poor insulation like I do, the heat transfers down through the ceiling into the house, making things really hot.
So if you could push air into the attic, it could cool the attic, which would keep the house from getting too hot. If you open a window on the cool side of the house, you can help cool things even further.
The hot air leaves the attic via vents under the eavestroughs or on the roof. This happens normally, but you can help force airflow to go faster using this trick.
So where can you find a place to push air into the attic? Well, in my house, it's right in the hallway. sometimes attic access will be in hallway, or bedroom, or closet; if you don't know where yours is, you'll have to look around, but you probably have one.
It's usually pretty easy to get into the attic; just get a stepladder and push the board up.
Warning; if you do this on a hot day, it'll be crazy hot in the attic.
Next you need a box fan. These are pretty cheap from Walmart or the hardware store.
Mine comes with a switch with 3 different settings.
However, if you were to try fit the box fan into the space, you'll likely find that it doesn't work; the space is too large for the box fan.
What I had to do is take some scraps of wood and build an inset. It's pretty flimsy; just held together with staples; but it doesn't need to carry a lot of weight. I also put a bit of weather stripping on it to keep the air from escaping too much.
So you put the insert in, and then the fan. Remember that you can rotate it to get it to fit the now-tight space.
You'll need to find a plug for the fan. Take a look around in your attic; often there;s an outlet, and you can use a short extension cord to get the power to the fan.
And that's all there's to it. in the coming weeks, if there's a heat wave coming, just climb on a chair or stepstool, turn on the fan, and start cooling down your attic!
Although this approach isn't as effective as Air Conditioning, it's a fraction of the cost and uses way less electricity.
Thanks for watching! Keep cool! don't forget to subscribe!
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Good job. it is the classic concept of a professional installed attic fan, which can be very expensive. I liked the drawings you uses, explaining the heat concept at the beginning as well.
I been doing this for 8 years. I opted for a high velocity 21 inch Lakewood fan. She puts out about 7,000 CFM that's Cubic Feet per Minute. The fan in the video only puts out about 1,200. I saw one Whole House Fan at a local hardware store that only puts out 3,500 CFM and was $350 compared to the $60 I paid for my fan on sale.
I don't use mine during the day. During the day I close my attic access and use another fan to blow air from outside into the attic all day. If you were to use the fan as he suggests during the day hot air from outside would be sucked into the house.
It is better to wait till the outside temperature is lower than the inside temperature and then open up all the windows and use the attic access fan then. I also use a few box fans similar to his placed on the window sills facing in so they suck cool air from outside and blow it inside. This helps cool things down much faster.
If I can get my house down to 65 degrees before heading for bed I then shut all the fans off and close all the windows. If not I will sometimes let them all run till 8AM and then shut everything off and close everything including the attic access.
Even on a 100 degree day if I can get my house down to 65 the house only gets up to about 80 to 82 degrees by 5:30PM.
If I know it won't get down to 65 even by 8AM I will shut everything down and close everything before I go to bed. I then have my air conditioner set to come on at 5AM and cool the house down to 65 for about 45 minutes.
Thumbs up just because you did your diagram in crayon. :D
i opened my attic and a bunch of roaches fell on me. some of them were dead. when i went into the attic there were so many roaches i had to call someone to stop the infestation because all the roaches crawled on me and they had a nest and im trauamatized
The motor bearings on a window fan are not designed to operate in a horizontal position. The bearings could overheat, seize up the motor and start a fire. UL testing of window fans is only as upright fans.
Good idea! I'm just about to do that in my newly purchased house here in Japan. What I'll do is install a fan in the attic on the west side to draw air from the east (cool air). Our house is old and not well insulated so I'm working on that but the fan will be effective right away as the heat wave will be here in a couple of weeks.
I remember I used a small toilet exhaust fan and just fixed it on a ceiling panel, it worked well. Exhaust fans are better for the job, they are designed to operate long hours.
they are called attic fans, my grandparents had one and we would open the windows in the house at night to let air in and it worked really well
i found my attic... ohh its my room :(
Very good...as long as you don't have the air conditioner on.
Very practical... Well thought out. Concise!
aren't soffits for air intake and the other vents on side of house or top or ridge vent for expelling air?
Hey .... it good ,, I'm stay in Malaysia .. so hot .. well I try it and it done .. so thanks ...
Good idea? However, he just added to the Venturi effect. That is pulling your ac/ cool air through your attic to push out hot air. Your intake soffits do this or just bite the bullet and get a solar attic fan👍. I would not follow his instructions though clever, it will cost you $$$.
I would’ve thought a well insulated attic would be the answer
I did this for my garage and works great!! Great job but I would spend the few extra dollars for a solid piece of wood to mount the fan. You could possibly find a free scrap piece at a lumber yard or one of the big box store.
to a certain degree, you're right. If you have a way of forcing outside air into the attic, it might be better.
However, in my case, I don't have an easy way to foce in outside air, so I use inside air.
When it gets warm, the air in the house is warm anyways due to the heat radiating through the ceiling, so I don't lose much heat-wise.
The other thing is that, if I close my upper windows, it pulls air from my cool basement (circulating the cool air).
thanks for the advice :)
Here is a cheaper idea, install a solar powered attic fan. Also, if your roof only has vents in the eaves it is poorly designed as everyone knows heat rises and your home should have been equipped with a ridge vent. Pulling cool air from inside the home and sending it to the attic really does not appear to be cheap nor efficient at all. Just my 2 cents.
I think Duckyistrippin is right. Hot air rises for sure and, from what he says (and from what the scheme bellow also shows), those inlets in the attic are for cooler air to come in, not hot air to go out since they're placed near at floor-level on the attic, which is where the attic's cooler air is. Of course that, if you had a perfectly fan that prevented blow-back of air at any time and was perfectly sealed air-tight around, the air will eventually still leave but not in the best way. If you open the attic door, and you put a fan in there, like you did, unless it is completely sealed all around and has some kind of shutter to prevent blow-back of the air when the fan is not turned on, you will have hot air being pushed from the attic to your top floor due to the pressure differential created by the fan and, also, some hot air coming down through the fan when it's not working, being pushed by hotter air above it. Also, even throughout the night, if you have the fan turned off, some hot air will almost definitely come down, since the attic can accumulate a lot of heat. If you want your attic to cool, what you should do is find a way to expel that hot air through the roof, at the top, and not through those inlets you mentioned, which are at the bottom of the attic, which only allow the coolest of the attic's air to leave first (since cooler air deposits itself lower, near the floor). I don't doubt you have experienced improvements but you can get much better than that.
Watch this video (notice how you shouldn't try to push the hot air out, at floor-level on the attic because it just goes against the natural air current):
Why Homes Need Attic Ventilation
Roof fans, such as this
www.twista.com.au/How-Roof-Vents-Work/
will spin without electricity, using only very few wind, causing hot air to go through even faster than it would without any fan (because it would still go up without any fan). They're basically wind-powered fans. Just make sure it's waterproof and bug-proof (I don't know because I never used one because my house doesn't have an attic or roof). This way, the hot air will go up and away instead of pushed into your house. And, during the night, try having window fans to bring cool outside air to the house. Or open windows on opposite sides to create a draft. Especially on the top floors because cool air will go down on its own. Always mind your security.
www.twista.com.au/How-Roof-Vents-Work/Summer-Benefits.htm
I'm not, in any way, affiliated with this product but it's site is so didactic that it does a great job at proving my point ;) There are lots of different manufacturers for this type of product. Other types of roof fans:
www.google.co.uk/search?q=hot+air+roof+exhaust&tbm=isch&imgil=dVWLT1Q8YpzJuM%253A%253B45vWSH2qxAmNcM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.china-ogpe.com%25252Fcatalog%25252F3%25252Fcentrifugal_fan_50%25252F&source=iu&fir=dVWLT1Q8YpzJuM%253A%252C45vWSH2qxAmNcM%252C_&usg=__DrDwiU1feJyhueEw6OuSJKrETg0%3D&sa=X&ei=kRENVPSII8ztaNT_gJAI&ved=0CCkQ9QEwAg&biw=1527&bih=850#tbm=isch&q=roof+fan&imgdii=_
That’s why they invented a two-story house
You would have been better off just buying a second piece of plywood for the attic access spot and cutting a hole...then use the original one in the winter.
Use solar exhaust or electric exhaust fan on the roof to suck our the trap hot air, set at 120 & it will work. No need to do like this & the cool air lost to the attic.
Have just tried your same concept on my attic. I have soffits all the way around the house, and plenty of passive vents on the roof. But, my attic just has been staying real hot...obviously the hot attic air is not rising thru the vents enough. Have been comparing various kinds of powered attic fans, but haven't decided yet on which kind. Will probably go solar fan. Until then, your project is my inspiration. Thanks.
The 300 cfm window fan cannot compare to the 3000-5000cfm whole house fans.
AIR CONDITIONER TECHNICIANS HATE HIM!
No good in Lousiana, the air conditioning keep the indoor humidity to about 50%. I let it get to 80 during the day in the summer and then begin lowering the temperature as the attic cools down and by bedtime it has lowering the indoor humidity to about 50% again, ideal. Now a radiant barrier could be interesting.
Fly fart; LOL!
thanks for the comment; you're right -- the modern fans are pretty weak compared to some of the great old ones!
Where would you suggest being the best place to source an older fan?
I've lived in an old house (a rental) for a year now, and I burn up in summer and freeze in winter. Spent a lot of time in bed with my cats staying warm! haha! I think the access to the attic is in a closet, so I don't believe this would do much good here. Love the idea, though!
Yes,very nice video.It works only at arid places..But it doesn't work in sw florida,where the air just so heavy saturated.We can't open windows during summer,because it's like to enter freshly watered green house on a very hot day...winters are fine...
air conditioning for the mice.
solar panel + your fan = full auto ,it switch on if the weather is hot mean the sun is there if rain the fan will not work.... tips
Every 1950's house in my area has one of these that's way more powerful than a box fan. Must have been a life saver in the pre-A/C days, but it's a poor substitute now. And it brings a LOT of dirt in from outside.
right when the video started and i seen the house I thought of blue clue
People have been doing this for years get a attic fan . I would be suprised if the fan you used can push enough volume to push the air
Clever idea truly... but seems like a short term solution as you’ll need to turn it on off, not to mention the noise.
Dude, the eave or soffit vents are INTAKE vents for the roof ridge vents. soffit vents are not for air to exit. ie hot air rises. use whirly birds or whatever. What you have "invented" is a whole house fan. They make then that fit between the rafters, and have an insulated damper to prevent backflow of unconditioned air when not in use.
Funny, I recently measured and found the similar opening was exactly big enough for a box fan... Glad I saw your video to know it should work.
The Wind Tunnel with remote is pretty cheap and puts out a lot of air. I love the remote when I put it where I can't reach easily. Also there are ceiling vents you can now if you have a evaporative cooler. Letting the hot air on your ceiling escape, almost anyway you can, helps.
POOPCORN texture?
Looks like you live in FLORIDA.
Dude - heat rises! Heat does not escape out of the eaves. That vent is there to allow air movement up under the roof and out thru a ridge vent, gable vents, or box vents.
Ill have to try this this summer
make sure you don't have vermiculite aka loose asbestos insulation in the attic the last thing you would want to do is blow it around into the air
First impression - blues clues
Old house way,my house still have a big fan and I don't like it.But him with the small fan only going to get whole house more hot.
So much mouth noise it first my soul 🤣🤣🤣 good vid though 👍
Ewww!! As someone who literally hates roaches, I understand how this could be traumatic. However, it may be a blessing in disguise that you discovered this previously unknown problem so you could get it exterminated. Maybe once the roach problem is eliminated & cleaned up, you'll be able to implement the fan idea! Good luck!
Not a bad idea...if your eaves have vents. Damn!
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How about a brick house ? Why does it stay hot? Summer sucks at this house I would think this house would stay cooler being brick but it’s not. Inside on a hot day during the day could be 90 but outside could be 65 in the afternoon almost at sundown
Smart
I have an attic door but it has a ladder attached. how do I do the fan thing without my ladder hanging in the hall
sorry; I should have been explicit. :)
The fan blows into the attic (i.e. force the air into the attic, out the soffits and vents). This basically forces the hot air out of the attic (attic becomes cool) so the heat doesn't radiate down through your ceiling.
It also has the benefit of sucking cooler air from outside the house and bringing it inside. Example, if you close your upstairs windows, it will bring air from the lower windows (cooler) into the house.
This is a terrible idea. If anything, a fan should be located in the attic to blow air out, drawing air in through the soffits. The air will be the same temperature as outside, which will still be significantly cooler than the sun heated attic air.
The first improvements a person should make are sealing drafts in the attic (including the hatch), installing rafter vents and roof vents, and then adding insulation. These will keep the attic cooler and prevent hot air from leaking into the house through holes in the vapor barrier.
That's all part of the fun.
I was always told heat rises. Is this a myth?
Neat trick, if you want to burn your house down
So I have the fan blowing into the attic or into my hallway?
I suppose this approach wouldn't work well for your particular house. :(
If there's some other way to force air into the attic, it could help you cool the house.
If it makes you feel better, I've always wanted an attic with a ladder; it's a pain finding the ladder every time I need to go in there.
what kinda screwed up house do you live in that only has vented soffit and no exit ventilation?
We can't do it our one is in the garage
this is called a whole home fan, and it was popular in the 50's 60's and 70's
really you should just insulate your attic properly. then you wont be all cold in the winter
Wow someone popcorned the fuck out of your ceiling
dust everywhere
what does the temp get to when the fans off and on?
I thaught u all like summer heat
I wish I hade that problem
Good grief, POPCORN CEILING!! The FIRST thing you should have done is remove that,it contains ASBESTOS!!! (those lumps). You can find a permanent ceiling fan with closible vents for under $150 and a remote. Makes more sense that climbing up there EVERY DAY!
dont do this your house will be contaminated with fiberglass
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The wet mouths noises...Jesus Christ
The theory is severely flawed so this video is pretty much moot. First off, the vents in the soffit are for incoming air. The vents at the top are for outgoing air. An attic with upper vents but no lower vents means there is no airflow (air coming IN and going OUT). So that part of the video is flawed. However, if you didn't have inlet vents, meaning the house was designed incorrectly, the fan would allow airflow into the attic but you're pulling air conditioned air out of the house and into the attic- essentially the same thing as opening a window. So now your AC is having to run longer and harder to keep up and replace the air your moving into the attic. Normally the return air for the ac would be 72° (if that was your setting). With the AC being pulled out of the air, which could also possibly be creating negative pressure, a vacuum, in a newer house (not so much an older house that is drafty although now you are pulling in heat and humidity) the room is struggling to stay at maybe 76°. So the systems return air should be 72° with a 20° Delta-T (temp drop) and putting out 52° out of the vents but instead it is 76° in the room and therefore putting out 56° air out of the vents. All of that plus the cost and electricity of the fan (although minimal), you're essentially paying to cool an attic and just moving the couch from the left side of the room to the right side of the room.
just install a old school attic fan
It's not a natural way
You use your imagination and improvise.
I hate when people make that nasty ass sound whent hey talk just talk normal for the love of God
DIYonTheCheap, you should edit this video! You can't open up your attic entryway when it's hot and you have the AC on! You'll have a massive conditioned air leak! The electric bill will be astronomical too because the compressor will more than likely never turn off. Someone interested in something like what you're saying in the video would only have to install a couple of exhaust fans in the attic. The way you're saying will defeat the purpose of cooling a house on the cheap if you're running the AC! This would only apply if air conditioning is not used!
This is dumb as it can get...😂yiu coukd burn a house😂
lol your screwed. but i have an attic access like this theres no way in hell id do it. talk about making your spot look like shit lmao