The warm air escapes through the attic and to the attic vents allowing the circulation of chilly air from the windows.
How to tell if my attic fan is on.
The downside of attic ventilation fans.
You simply add up the nfas of all your vents and divide that number by the area of the attic to determine whether you re within the 1 150 ratio.
This is done because you need one square foot of ventilation area for every 750 cfm that your fan can push.
If you re running an air conditioner you wouldn t want to have a whole house fan blowing that cooled air into your attic.
Good insulation reduces fan effectiveness.
So if your fan is rated at 1500 cfm you will need about two feet of totally open space in your attic.
Attic ventilation fans whether hard wired or powered by their own solar panels seem like a low cost and effective way to help keep your house cool.
You can diagnose it by plugging other electrical appliances that are working into the same outlet and by plugging the fan into a different power outlet.
The whole house fan is installed inside the attic between the living space and ceiling.
Any whole house fan that you buy should have this figure listed somewhere on the packaging.
If the fan turns on the motor is still good.
Step 2 test the thermostat.
Your attic fan may not be turning on because of an electrical problem like a tripped circuit breaker a blown fuse or a bad connection.
Whole house fans work on the principle of removing the hot and humid air out of the house.
Now take that number and divide it by 750.
Turn your fan off and monitor the temperature in your attic up unitl 2pm or something then turn it on.
Or look at the weather for 2 days with the same weather and monitor temps with and without the fan on each day.
Likewise adjustable thermostats will shut the fan off.
Turn the attic fan off and unplug the motor from the thermostat.
However the utility of attic ventilation fans is actually quite a controversial topic.
When the temperature within the attic reaches a set point the fan will turn on and start venting the heated air cooling the attic space.
Step 1 test the fan motor.