How Noisy is a Whole House Fan?

A whole house fan can be a fantastic way to cool your home without relying on air conditioning, but some who have never experienced modern whole house fans believe they can be quite noisy. There have been several discussions on noisy, loud fans that sound like a broken helicopter. However, this is frequently due to an antiquated whole-house fan or other factors, such as a poor installation.

Noise is usually the most obvious sign that your fan is getting old. Older whole house fans are noisier than newer models. If your fan noise level is bothering you, replace it with a new model, like the Quiet Cool models available from Wholehousefan.com.

Furthermore, a high-quality brand will provide you with greater energy efficiency and durability. It is fully up to you whether to remove or replace an old whole house fan model, but keep in mind that newer models are extremely quiet.

Besides having an ancient whole house fan, a faulty installation can cause a new fan to make noise. You can possibly get another installer to help out if you don't want to continue working with the original installer. Also, in some cases, you may only need to replace the fan motor instead of the entire system.

If your fan is becoming increasingly loud, it's probably time to replace it or remove it entirely because it's not working properly in the first place.

Noise Levels In The Whole House Fan By Decibels

The decibel range of advanced whole-house fans ranges from 40 to 52 decibels. The sound level of an advanced whole house fan is very similar to that of a standard A/C unit running in your home. The advanced whole-house fans are very quiet, as you can see. This is accomplished by physically separating the motor housing the air register at the ceiling level.

The sound level of domestic fans varies from 30 to 70 decibels, depending on the model (pedestal, floor, ceiling or industrial fans). As a result, large fans are installed in isolated and unused rooms as part of ventilation systems.

Wanted to hear the noise level of Quiet Cool QC CL-1500 Whole House Fan? Scroll down to the bottom of this page to take a listen. It clocks in at 37.4 decibels (A-weighted decibels). To help understand that sound level, a whisper clocks in at 30 decibels and a conversation come in at 60, while a babbling brook averages 40 decibels and a vacuum cleaner averages 70 decibels.

Bottom Line

What’s the takeaway? Whole house fans can be noisy, especially if they are not properly installed or if they are older models. A large-capacity fan operating at low speed produces less noise than a small fan operating at high speed. To reduce noise, all whole-house fans should be installed with rubber or felt gaskets. When noise is an issue, you can reduce the speed of a multi-speed fan.