How Whole House Fans Help During Heat Waves
Summer heat waves are no joke. They make going outside uncomfortable and even dangerous, so many people seek shelter in their homes. But without an effective way to keep your house cool during the day and night, it can be just as bad inside as it is outside.
Many people use air conditioners to fight heat waves. Air conditioners are effective at cooling a house down, but they require a lot of electricity to run, and they put a lot of strain on the power grid.
This is where whole house fans come in. Whole house fans are a great alternative or supplement to air conditioning. They are extremely effective at clearing hot air out of your house and use 90% less electricity than air conditioning, saving you on your electricity bills.
How Whole House Fans Work
Whole house fans are installed in the attic in a vent open to the rest of the house. They work by sucking hot air up and pushing it out of attic vents. This flow of hot air out of the house brings in fresh, cool air from outside through open windows.
They are most effective when the inside temperature is higher than the outside temperature in the attic or in the rest of the home. They can be used to supplement air conditioning. For example, if during the day it is hotter outside, you can run your AC, and then when temperatures drop at night, you can run your whole house fan to bring in cool air. Or, they can be used to just cool down your attic.
Whole house fans can also be used to cool a home without AC, although if temperatures outside exceed indoor temperatures during the day, or there are extreme temperatures during the night and day, other cooling strategies may be needed.
How to Use a Whole House Fan During a Heat Wave
During heat waves, it may not cool off enough to run your whole house fan at all during the daytime, or even at night. For example, if temperatures exceed 100 degrees, you will want to keep your whole house fan off for the most part. However, even if you aren’t relying on your whole house fan most of the day for cooling, it can still help cool down your home significantly by just running for an hour before bed.
First, you’ll want to run your whole house fan before bed for an hour or so to flush all of the heat out of the attic. Use a non-bedroom window during this time so your bedroom isn’t pulling in hot air. Doing this will drastically reduce the attic temperatures. Without the whole house fan, your AC would be fighting against cooling a house with an extremely hot attic, which makes it work hard and less effectively. Once your attic temperatures have dropped, you can shut your windows again and turn on the AC.
From our energy saving whole house fans, to our Quiet Cool whole house fans, and our most popular whole house fans, we have a wide selection to meet the needs of every homeowner. If you have questions as to which whole house fan is best for your home, call us today at 1.888-229-5757.