How Does a Whole House Fan Work?

If you live in the U.S., you’ve likely experienced summer heat. Not only is this unpleasant but it also results in increased electricity bills. So, what do you do? One option is installing a whole house fan.

A whole house fan is a great way to circulate cool air throughout your home. It’s not as common as your traditional air conditioner, but it’s actually much better at controlling how cool or warm your air is. It can be a practical one-off purchase that will help you save money on your electric bill for years to come.

In this article, you’ll learn how a whole house fan works.

Whole House Fans: How Do They Work?

A whole house fan is a large fan installed up in your attic connecting to vents around all areas of the house.

You’ll need to open your windows at cooler times of the day. The ventilation system pulls cool air in and circulates it throughout your home and eventually through the attic, where it is then released into the air outside.

So, what happens when you turn a whole house fan on exactly?

Here’s a quick run-down of how whole house fans work:

1. Through your windows, a whole house fan draws in cooler air from the outside using a motor. The motor then pushes this air through ducts throughout the house, pulling warm air into the attic and pushing it through the venting system.
2. When hot air rises into an attic space, some of it passes through vents in the roof on its way out through upper-story windows or skylights. Most of the hot air goes straight up into an attic space where it can build up over time if there aren’t any fans present to move it out again quickly enough.
3. The fan draws in cool air from the outside until the temperature inside is as cool as desired. It stops drawing air in and turns off so that no more cool air is wasted.
4. The cooled air then travels through a duct system to another vent at the back of the unit. From there, it’s pushed through various vents throughout your home’s living areas by way of another motorized fan blade that sits inside each vent opening.

The fan is powered by electricity. You can turn it on with a remote control or an app on your phone. When you’re not using it, it’s designed to shut off automatically after a certain amount of time.

This process can lower temperatures by around 10-20 degrees Fahrenheit when running at total capacity within just five minutes.

As temperatures rise, so does the humidity. The hot air rises into the attic space, mixing with cooler air coming into the house through open windows. Consequently, moisture is drawn from under the roof decking up to the area above the fan blades where it can be ventilated directly out of the building via a vent at the top or side.

Why Whole House Fans Are a Great Choice

Compared to previous generations, modern whole-house fans are more efficient. This efficiency has been achieved through improved vacuum and lubrication systems.

With the help of airflow sensors, these systems can reduce the energy consumption of your air conditioning by up to 20%. A whole house fan also produces less noise when operating than other types of cooling equipment since it is directly connected to the cooling unit.

With whole-house fans, you can enjoy nearly continuous cool air in any room of your home or building.