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Whole house fansWhole house fans, sometimes called attic fans, are designed to pull cool outside air through your home dispelling the hot air through the roof, and so reduce home cooling costs. Whole house fans typically have a diameter of 24 to 36 inches.
Air Vent Inc 5M156-5 Whole house fan. Click for a larger image Whole house fans are generally mounted in an open area of your home in the attic floor, together with an electrically or automatically operated ceiling shutter. They draw the hot air from your home into to the attic, it escapes through attic vents. When the whole house fan is being used leave internal room doors open so all rooms are cooled. 
Whole house fan location, click for a larger image Whole house fans can effectively cool your home in an energy efficient way, they typically use just 4 to 8% of the energy used by air conditioning systems. If the inside to outside temperatures differences are 10° F or more attic fans will cool your home far more quickly than when using air conditioning. 
Attic fan with shutter open, click for a larger image Years ago, when people were far more energy efficient and energy frugal, whole house fans were fitted in more homes than they are today. If your home has a cool basement you can run your attic fan for a while during the day having the basement access door and windows open. This draws the cooler basement air into the house and then cools the warmer outside air as it flows though the basement into the house. Weather forecasts are generally quite accurate, you can use these to plan the operation of your whole house fan to achieve optimum energy efficiency and personal comfort. Whole house fans should ideally be controlled by a programmable thermostatic timer which typically operates the attic fan when the outside temperatures are lowest, i.e. in the hours around dawn. An even better solution is to combine the programmable thermostatic timer with a system that monitors the inside to outside temperature difference ensuring that the fan only runs when the difference exceeds 8° F. The whole house fan thermostatic timer should be set to a temperature a little lower than is comfortable. During the heat of a typical warm day the temperature in a well insulated home will slowly rise, peaking in the evening. If the home is a little cool in the morning it will be comfortable for most of the day and not get too hot in the evening. To be most energy efficient combine these suggestions with this advice on how to cool your home naturally. Be energy frugal, help yourself by reducing your costs and help future generations. By adopting suggestions from this website you will: a) minimize secondary heat generation, b) reduce home energy use, and c) reduce home cooling costs. 
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