Attic Fan Vs Whole House Fan

A whole house fan doesn t just push hot air out of the attic it draws it out of the entire house.

Attic fan vs whole house fan.

At first glance it seems that whole house fans are similar to attic fans but the function is different. The results are far more effective than the simple attic fan. It is used to suck warm air out of the living space up into the attic. Unlike the whole house fan which is expensive and difficult to install an attic fan is easy to install and less way cheap.

Attic fan vary by region causing some confusion. A gable attic fan is mounted to one of the gable walls in the attic. The whole house fan would pull cooler air from the house into the attic which would then be pulled from the attic to the outside by the attic fan cooling the house even further. Whole house fans have the most savings but you can save even more by using an attic fan and a whole house fan together.

The fan is used to remove hot air from the attic space in order to limit heat transfer to the living space below. How does it work. During summer the temperatures can rise over 160 degrees an attic fan lowers the heat in the attic fast with less energy compared to an air conditioner. In a nutshell whole house fans are designed to run after sundown using cool night air to ventilate and cool your entire living space.

A whole house fan is mounted in the ceiling between the living space and that attic. While attic fans meet their goal of cooling attic air in any high temperature climate whole house fans are of more use in lower humidity climates with hot days and cool nights. Attic fans are designed to run on hot sunny days to clear super heated air from your attic. A quiet cool whole house fan is installed in the attic along with ceiling mounted grilles.