To find the best attic fan for your needs, make sure the fan is high-quality and fits with your preferences. You might prefer whole-house fans or solar attic fans, but if you don’ t want a hole in your roof, there’ s an answer for that as well.
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There are a couple of different fan styles homeowners can use to help control the temperature of their attic space. However, their functions differ somewhat. Depending on your layout, your home may be better suited for one of the following types of fans.
Whole-house fans are installed into the ceiling of the highest point in the finished space— typically in an upstairs hallway. When running, they pull heat and moisture from inside of the house and force it into the attic space. They’ re ideal for homeowners who like to open their windows at night, as the cool nighttime air replaces the hot air built up during the day.
The issue with a whole-house fan is that the hot air needs somewhere to go. If your attic isn’ t ventilated well, that humid, moist air will build up in the attic space and can cause mold to grow. Therefore, whole-house fans are best suited for homeowners with spacious, open, well-vented attics.
Attic venting fans serve a different function, removing the hot and moist air from the attic and leaving the space below the attic floor alone. These fans circulate the air within the attic, pulling fresh, cool air from the vents (like the ones in your soffit) and pushing hot air outside.
Attic fans can serve a year-round function. In the summer, you can drastically reduce the temperature in the attic, helping to lengthen the life of the roofing shingles and sheathing.
In colder months, attic fans can help you avoid damage caused by ice dams as well. The fans cool the attic, equalizing the temperature between the attic and outside of the home. This prevents snow from melting on your roof and freezing when it hits the cold gutter.
When installing an attic fan, it’ s important to consider how well your attic is sealed off from the rest of the home. If your attic door or hatch is particularly drafty, turning the fan on will pull air-conditioned or heated air through the gaps. You don’ t want to be heating or cooling the neighborhood.
Here are some helpful tips to keep in mind when choosing an attic fan. You’ ll want to understand the different capabilities and functions of models, as well as the material they are constructed from. And most importantly, there are some safety considerations to keep in mind before you set out to install a new attic fan.
Your attic fan must be built from material sturdy enough to survive the excessive heat that can build up in an attic. Cheaper fans with plastic compone nts may begin to fail over time under these conditions. In the winter, plastic often becomes very brittle, making it easy to snap the fan blades under normal use.
Instead, choose a fan with metal construction. The body and the fan should both be constructed of sheet metal and steel, galvanized, or painted if possible. These materials are far more stable than plastic in fluctuating temperatures and hold up well against moisture.
Attic ventilation does you no good if you find it too much of a hassle to turn on or off. Many whole-house models now come with remote controls, which allow you to turn the fan on from the floor below and customize its settings with the touch of a button.
Attic fans are great for homeowners who want to be able to forget that their fan is there. Most either come with a programmable thermostat or can be wi red to one, which will turn the fan on when the attic reaches a set temperature— no need for flipping a switch or monitoring the attic’ s temperature yourself.
One very important aspect to consider when deciding if an attic fan is right for you is safety— particularly around furnaces installed in an attic. An attic fan can create enough draft to blow out a pilot light on a furnace.
If this happens, the furnace will empty gas out into the attic. At first, the fan will alleviate most of the danger by forcing the gas outside, but once it shuts off, it’ s a different story. Your attic can fill with gas, and then seep into the rest of the home, posing a danger to you and your family.
Whole-house and attic fans are also capable of pulling carbon monoxide back into the home through a damaged flue. Be sure that your flues are in good o perating condition, and that your furnace, oven, fireplace, and other appliances that use fuel are ventilating properly.
Understanding the venting requirements for the attic fan you choose is important for a few reasons. If you choose an attic fan that requires more venti lation than your attic can offer, it will begin to pull air from inside the conditioned space. This negates whatever energy efficiency you were hoping for. Too much ventilation, and you may find the fan doesn’ t work efficiently at removing the hot air from the entire attic.
If your whole-house fan doesn’ t have the proper ventilation, it’ s not going to work very well either. It’ ll fill the attic with hot air, which will stop it from pulling more air into the space through open windows.
As mentioned earlier, adjustable thermostats give you the ability to simply set a dial and forget about the fan. 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.
Likewise, adjustable thermostats will shut the fan off when the temperature drops back below the set temp. They’ re not only easy to use, but they also help save you money by not running the fan when it doesn’ t need to be on.
The higher the CFM (cubic feet per minute), the more airflow a fan can produce. Choose a fan that matches your home or attic’ s size for optimal performance. Too high of a CFM and you’ ll be spending more money running the fan than you should be. Too low of a CFM and you’ ll just be spinning your wheels, with little positive impact on the home.
Not all fans will come with CFM ratings emblazoned on the packaging. Instead, you need to look for the amount of square footage the fan was intended for. This detail is especially important in choosing a whole-house fan.
Ah, noise: the bane of all whole-house fan owners since the dawn of whole-house or plug-in quiet fans. But no longer. Newer, smaller, and more efficient models can run at much quieter levels, keeping the house cool in relative silence.
If you have an older fan installed in your home, switching to a newer whole house fan will provide a noticeable change in noise. The newer models have smaller fans, create less turbulence, and their motors are better tuned than the massive house fans of old.
The following products are a collection of the top attic fans for home ventilation. Each of these models excels in its category and will do an excellen t job of reducing the issues excessive heat can cause in your attic. Whether you prefer solar attic fans, gable vent fans, or a whole-house model, there’ s a product here that will suit your needs.
The right attic fan for you primarily depends on the size of your space and the type of fan you are looking for. One of the best solar-powered attic fa ns available is the Broan Surface attic fan which comes with a 28-watt solar panel, built-in waterproof flanges, and enough power to ventilate a 1, 200 square foot space with its 537 CFM. This pick definitely cannot compete with an air conditioning system, but is best suited for smaller attics or crawl spaces.
Alternatively, if you are looking for a gable-mounted fan, the iLIVING attic fan has a sturdy, galvanized steel construction, a 1, 220 CFM rating that can ventilate a 1,600 square foot space, and a programmable thermostat for larger attics and spaces.
Choosing the right attic fan can be difficult with so many sizes, power source options, constructions, and special features included. Many of today’ s attic fans come with solar-powered or electrical designs for your personal preference, most of which are made with galvanized steel, aluminum, or plastic constructions. Since many are roof-mounted attic fans, some come with built-in flanges to prevent moisture and leaks.
Size is also something to consider as most roof-mounted attic fans can fit into a pre-cut hole in the roof, while others may require a new or bigger hole to be cut. Many of the above solar-powered roof-mounted attic fans also automatically turn on when the s un is out, while other electrical options run at their programmed times. Though both come with programmable thermostats, the ample amount of solar-powered picks listed above may require another thermostat for cooler temperatures.
CFM and square footages covered is also important when choosing an attic fan, as such the options above are made for small or large spaces with 537 to 3,126 CFM ratings. Finally, most of these picks run at silent or very quiet noise levels so you will hardly even know they are there.
Most attic fan manufacturers have excellent customer support teams, so if you have questions about the specific models on this list, you might want to give the company a call. If you’ re still not entirely sure how an attic fan or whole-house fan works, or if you have other general questions about attic fans, here are some answers to FAQs that might help.
An attic fan works by exchanging the hot air in your attic space for fresh air pulled through the vents. This will help to avoid premature damage to th e shingles or mold building up in moist, hot attics.
You install an attic fan through the roof and flashed under the shingles. Gable fans are installed at the very top of your gable-end walls and vented t hrough the walls outside. Whole-house fans require cutting through the finished ceiling on the highest floor of your home and ventilating outside.
While it’ s possible for a DIYer to wire these fans, it’ s best to call an electrician for the job.
You can, but the reality is models with accessible fans are usually pretty affordable to replace entirely. If you do want to replace the motor, bring it to an electrical shop and they should be able to match you up with a new one. If not, they may be able to rebuild the one you have.