Attic fans. Does this work?
 

Do you this thing would work? Thanks.
Active Ventilation 365 CFM White Powder Coated 5 Watt Solar Powered Roof Mounted Exhaust Attic Fan-RBSF-8-WT - The Home Depot

that thing is pretty small. I can't see it doing much on a house/attic of any real size.

I installed a "whole house fan" in our house years ago. That really works! I can't imagine living without it.

Just to give you an idea of how much air that moves, the vent fan in my bathroom is rated at 1100 cfm.
That one would put out a very gentle breeze you might not even feel.

There is no way a 5 Watt Solar panel will move 365cfm.

Also without a battery it won't work at night, just after its been sunny and hot outside.

Get one of these:

Whirlybird 12 in. Weathered Bronze Aluminum Externally Braced Wind Turbine-BEB12WB - The Home Depot

http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pro...f090b9_400.jpg

When the time comes to replace my ceiling exhaust fan in the main floor bathroom, I am going with as much CFM as is possible. At night, I can open certain windows and completely replace the air in various zones of the house.

An attic fan does the same for an attic. A low output fan, if the operation cost is minimal (such as solar-powered) will be beneficial because it can run full-time in day-light hours.

I've often thought of placing a whole house fan right above the toilet. Just because!:D

Thanks guys. I felt that it is too weak too.

McLovin,
What is the "whole house fan"? Is it just named diff, but also mount to the attic vents to pull in and blow out air?
Thanks.

If it is cheap enough, would 2 or 3 or 4 of them work? Even if you hit the hardware cost for a "real" fan, the solar aspect would still save you money.

Whole house fan is the droid you are looking for, especially if you live anyplace where it cools off at night, like, not Arizona or Texas. It mounts between the ceiling joists and moves a LOT of air. Like you would use if you were painting airplanes in your garage or something.

In Sacramento, there is a nice delta breeze most nights. My parents put one in when they remodeled, and it is shocking how much it reduced their A/C bill. You get up early, open some windows and start the fan. It blows air from the house into the attic. This draws cool air in from the windows you opened, and blows the hot air in the attic out the vents. If it is 60* outside, you can get it to 60* inside in about 5-10 minutes, including the air in the attic. As it warms up during the day, the air in the attic has to warm up quite a bit before it warms up in the house, especially if you have the place insulated.

I was watching their house a few years ago. Went over in the morning, ran the house fan, brought in the paper, closed up the house. Went by in the evening to bring the mail in and move the cars around a little so it looked like someone was home. Thermostat was set to 80* and it was well over a 100* every day they were gone. The air conditioner did not even come on at all most days.

The whole house attic fan can be great. My parents had on in their house. On the days when it is getting cool in the mornings it is useful. It gets to be a real pain to go to each room with a window and open them all. If you don't like dust it will make you crazy. If you have many allergies it will make you miserable.

Yup, I installed a whole house fan so that it pulls cool air at night from the side of the house that catches the night time breeze and pulls it through the house, pushing hot air out through the attic vents. It also pulls hot air from the garage if I leave the door open. The intake slats open automatically with air pressure, and then close when the fan is turned off. Pretty slick setup.

The issue is that the solar panel can in no way give you that much power to run that much fan. When the power is low, the fan will run slower. So they are giving you the full flow rating of the fan, not what you will actually get.

A 1500 CFM fan uses a 1/5 hp motor. With a 1.85 service factor, it will run about 275 Watts (2.5 Amps) @ 110VAC). How is a 5 Watt solar panel going to provide enough power to flow 350 CFM?

The 1000 CFM fan uses a 1/9 hp motor, which would be 153 Watts. A 350 CFM fan will need about 50 Watts to operate. A 5 Watt solar panel isn't going to do it.

Let make sure if my terminologies are correct.

Attic fans: are fans that mount at the vents on the attic (above the ceiling). These fans are pulling in air from the out side at one vent and pushing out air at another vent (all up in the attic). Purpose is to have air movement in the attic (not under the ceiling).

Whole house fans: are fans that mount at the ceiling to pull air from under the ceiling up into the attic. This is the same as bathroom fan.

Did I get it right?

^ Yes, and another nice thing about the whole house fan is that you don't have to cut a hole in the roof. I think a bathroom fan uses a vent tube that goes through the attic, not into it.

^ Correct on the bathroom fan.

If your house has gables with vents in them then a whole house fan would push air through those.

Vent your bathroom fan into the attic so the residential vermin will be in for a suffer fest after you relief yourself

Ventamatic Whole House Fan — 30in., 7,800 CFM, Belt-Drive, Model# CX30BD2SPD | Whole House Fans| Northern Tool + Equipment

This sucker is a whole house fan, Ron. It works and will keep temp down a few degrees. I would also recommend you install a power vent on the gable somewhere is possible. Its on a themoswitch you can set up. This way there is air movement to keep the attic cool, thus the temp will be kept under control in the house. The trick is to col the attic.

Hey man, its time to run the AC and keep your beautiful wife happy before she kicks you ass outta the house.:p

Jeff

^ That looks a lot like mine. But there is a little pull chain so you can turn it on or off. I have it wired to usually go on with a light switch in the hallway.

Thanks Jeff,
My A/C has been on all the time during the day. It's only off a while at late night. There was a day the pump flood. I was searching for pump at homedepot and also thinking about the attic fans. I thought I only need to mount it with several screws and through the little solar panel out there... I'm also thinking about a small A/C unit in case, window or split unit.
Nothing is easy to do it right.

Sorry. Gable vent. It fits in between 16oc studs. They have some that comes with a spring operated vent covers so its stays shut unless the fan comes on. I install a couple of those at my parent's home. They live in an old Spanish home built in the late 20s. There's a whole house fan, with two gable fans that's on thermoswitch. It runs automatically. when they remember, they switch on the whole house fan. I put in a ton of insulation up in the attic. With their tall ceilings, over 10', the house stays cool throughout the year. They run their AC for only about 2 months out of the year. Its stays pretty cool. Their ACs on for the past few days.

For a few more bucks a mini split system is the way to go. I am adding on a mini split system for an old client of mine right now due to their AC being a little under size Dumb asses who installed it when the house was built (5 year old house:rolleyes:). He's an old guy, retired, and hangs out in the large family room with lots of windows all day.

Doing it right isn't all that hard. Its just people wouldn't tell ya how or want to do that. Everyone bids low so they get the job. Then they cut corners and perform sihtty work. Those attic fans are not hard to install.

Attic fans really work... the more air they move the better they are.

Thanks Jeff, thanks guys. I'll think about the "real attic fans", since it involved with electrical wires. I was thinking of the solar so i don't have to spend time on the wiring.
Thanks again.

look 171,
the advantage of split A/C is that I can run the little copper pipe anywhere I want, while the window unit needs the right place. Anything else beside that?

For those of us up-north-in-the-freezing-cold, that thing would require placement in a pit which can capped/insulated from above.

Still there would be condensation issues where the warm/humid meets the cold/dry.
Leakage happens = Icicles.

I wouldn't trust those louvers one bit to provide an air-tight insulated seal.

Yeah. Others have described it above. The whole house fan is a fairly big fan (mine must be close to 4 feet across), mount it on the ceiling. It pulls a ton of air into the attic and blows it out of the roof vents.

As someone said above, it works in areas that are hot in the day but cool down when the sun goes down. Basically what it does is equalizes the temp inside the house to what is outside.

You open up the windows in the house and turn the fan on. It pulls a tremendous amount of outside air in (you can see the window screens sucking in!) and blows it through and out the attic.

It makes a big difference. A house traps a lot of hot air in during the day. The fan blows it out very quickly.

My last two houses had whole house fans and they were great.
My current house does not, but I don't miss it too much, but I'd still like to have one if I could (I haven't been inspired enough to install one yet).
Like others have said, the whole house fan works well when it is cool at night and warm during the day. In spring and fall here in Virginia it's great.

House fans are also great for evacuating all the smoke from the kitchen if something gets burnt. They are also great if you leave the house for periods of time and want to freshen it up quick!

Where it's not so great is during the summer where temps are high and humidity is through the roof. I was just sitting here in the comfort of the ice cold AC thinking my wife (and I) would kill me if I turned on a house fan. All the cool low humidity air would get sucked right out.

What my house would benefit the most from right now (with the AC on) would be a gable vent fan of some sort, just to move hot attic air out faster.

The final thing is humidity, included is a pic of a mountaintop house nearby that I looked at some time ago. It has no central air, but several house fans. The only problem is that pulling in all the moist air (humid, or damp mountain air) reeked havoc on the interior, especially drywall. Cool house though!http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1470088997.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1470089018.jpg

Yes. Humidity is a problem not resolved by the movement of air.

That's a great point. The fans are usually mounted somewhere near the middle of the house, away from the exterior vents. On the other hand though, does it get really that hot up north?

That's a relative question I'd surmise.
Been in the muggy 90's most of this summer.

But for a month between the freezer and frying pan, I live in the best place on earth. ;)

If you put in a whole house fan, make sure windows are open first, otherwise all the ash from the fireplace ends up on the Living room floor.

+1 Once summer breaks here in SoCal I'm installing a whole house fan (belt drive). We really miss the one I installed in our previous home.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/135630-eram-electric-supecharger-dyno-test-day-invitation-next-week.html

I used to install whole house fans in my homes, but with allergies, it wasn't working in the fall and spring when I wanted t use it. Then when summer comes, it's too hot and humid.

Sorry, the extend of my construction experience is only in paradise. If its wet, hot, humid, snow, temp below 45 or above 99, aint for this weak pussy. :D