Whole House Fan versus Insulation?
Been searching the archives. Has anyone had recent experience of a whole house fan as a means of cooling a brownstone? If I’m understanding diagrams, putting a fan unit between the roof and crawl space and then vents in roof to pull hot air out. My layout would seem conducive. Three story house. Heat always…
Been searching the archives. Has anyone had recent experience of a whole house fan as a means of cooling a brownstone?
If I’m understanding diagrams, putting a fan unit between the roof and crawl space and then vents in roof to pull hot air out. My layout would seem conducive.
Three story house. Heat always tolerable on bottom floors. Top floor a bit sticky on occasion.
Heard from this group that insulation can help in both summer and winter. Cooling in summer more of a priority than heating in winter.
Thoughts/experiences much appreciated,
I was told that, properly installed, you can have blown in insulation and a WHF.
It’s also important to make certain that your upper floor ceiling is well sealed meaning “airtight” and/or “IC” rated recessed lighting if you have any.
the reason, I think, you cannot do both is because fan’s air stream will put insulation from one place to another.
I would go with insulation. They will add couple of vents any way. I am not sure that fan and insulation can be combines. In any case you can get couple of $30 dual window fans and put them in the windows of the top floor.
oh and do not forget to put reflective coat on the roof.
Thanks all. Really appreciate it. So for not a ton of money theoretically at least I could do both? I’ll definitely give the insulation folks a call. Am planning on staying and not averse to spending to do it right -just not sure what “right” meant in this case.
I added about 14″ of insulation (R48 or so) to my attic just a month or so ago. I feel it made a instant difference in the second floor temperature–we’re talking a few degrees–nothing major but certainly noticeable. (Interestingly, our house was since then painted white, which may have made even more of a difference.)
The cost to blow in the insulation was about $2/sq.ft. I used Federal Conservation and would definitely recommend them.
I looked at the WHF and decided to put it off for now. I figured the insulation was complimentary to the fan anyway and was a 4-season solution.
The cost of the WHF with installation was about the same price (or maybe a bit more) than the insulation, if I remember correctly.
The fan is a quick and cheap fix. Adding insulation is more of an investment and more money. But it will save money every year for the life of the building. If you plan to live there for years consider insulating as it will help both for heating and cooling and will require smaller A/C units and boilers if you ever replace them. Also a reflective coating on the roof will help in summer.
I don’t know, have the same questions. Anyone know if there is some kind of expert who can advise what to do with moisture, insulation, heating/cooling, vents in a row house with a partial dirt cellar? The dirt gives off a lot of moisture and we don’t have vents in the attic now, and I don’t want to mess anything up.