What to Know About Whole House Fan Winterization
While you may think about your whole house fan mostly during the hot summers, it’s really a year-long feature of your home that can be used in any season. For example, during the fall or winter, it’s never a bad idea to run your whole house fan to clear out the accumulated indoor air pollution and get some cleaner air inside.
What you don’t want is for your whole house fan to become a burden during the winter. A winterized whole house fan should prevent any loud noises from the wind or heat from escaping. Without proper winterization, a whole house fan can increase your heating cost during the winter. Below, we’ll go over everything you need to know about whole house fan winterization.
What Is Whole House Fan Winterization?
When you’re not using your whole house fan, it should be closed. However, the metal louver that keeps the fan shut isn’t airtight and allows warm air to escape, wasting your home’s heat and driving up your energy bill.
Whole house fan winterization is the process of providing an airtight seal on your whole house fan that insulates your home and prevents unnecessary heat loss. There are three main options when it comes to winterizing your fan, which we will discuss below.
Seal and Insulate Your Fan
If you're a DIY person, you can seal and insulate your fan yourself. All you need to do is fashion a louver cover to prevent heat loss from the metal louver. Use insulation board that is at least one inch thick to fashion your louver cover and measure the dimensions of the louver to ensure that the board is the right size.
The insulation board may not be stiff enough on its own to allow easy handling, so we recommend a thin piece of plywood or other rigid material to one side. Once you insert that insulation board over the metal louver, you can paint it to match the color of your ceiling so that it blends in.
Attic Box
If you don’t want your whole house fan insulation visible inside the house, you can insulate it in the attic with an attic box. Fiberglass duct board is a great option to construct your attic box, just make sure that it’s made airtight!
Winterized Inserts
For QuietCool Whole House Fans, all that is required is using a whole house fan winterized insert. You’ll need to choose a winterized insert that is compatible with your model.
Here are some whole house fan winterized insert options:
- Winterized Insert for 6000/7000 Models
Feel Free To Call Us with any Questions 1-661-775-5979.