How Do Whole House Fans Save Energy?
Whole house fans can be a real boon for your energy consumption over the course of the warmer spring, summer, and early autumn months. In fact, it can help you save a great deal of money by allowing you to consume far less energy to keep your house comfortable throughout the year.
The biggest way whole house fans help you save energy is by relying on lower temperatures outside your home to aid in the process of cooling your home.
How does this work?
Before you even turn your whole house fan on, you open all the windows on the lower floor of your home (but it works on one-floor homes as well). This allows you to draw the cool, fresh air in through the windows. Then, when you turn the fan on, the hot air is pushed up and out of your home through vents in the attic.
Essentially, you’re replacing the warmer air inside your home with cooler air. With this method, nature does a great deal of the heavy lifting and the fans come into the picture to get the air moving, create a nice breeze (depending on the specific type of whole house fan you choose), and eliminate the hot air that can otherwise prevent the rapid cooling of your home in the evening.
The real beauty is that in many situations the fans operate far more efficiently for cooling homes than an air conditioning unit at a fraction of the energy consumption and cost. This means you get the double benefit of doing good things for the planet by consuming less energy — and even better things for your budget.
When should you use whole house fans for the greatest effect?
Whole house fans are commonly used in the early morning hours or the late evening hours, once the sun has set. However, they can be highly effective at any time when the air temperature outside your home is cooler than the temperature inside your home.
It’s true that in some areas of the country people cannot solely rely on a whole house fan to adequately cool their homes all day every day. They can, however, alternate between an air conditioner and a whole house fan to minimize energy consumption while maximizing the comfort of everyone in your home.
That said, people in many areas of the country in moderate temperatures can utilize whole house fans exclusively and run their AC very little, if at all.
With the right whole house fan system in place, you may even consider using judicious zone cooling, only cooling certain areas of the home with the whole house fan, to further reduce your energy consumption. The key is to strike the right balance between energy savings and comfort for the people who call your house home.
If you have any questions about how whole house fans work or our product line, give us a call at 1.888.229.5757.