Whole House Fan In Limestone's Airshaft

i can offer something else. i would not pull unfiltered air into a building in the city. yes, the air is cleaner than it was even 20 years ago (and i know this from experience; when i came to the city in the ’80’s, i would wash my face at the end of the day and that cloth was black; diesel exhaust, cars with older exhaust systems, and coal furnaces, yes no lie; when we take old doors apart there is an oily dirt, like exhaust particles (probably from coal heating), in and around the molding around the glass where this stuff got pulled into houses which themselves act like big chimneys, drawing air in) and yes, i sleep with a window fan and i like it over the a/c. but most professional systems, even hot air systems that ran through radiators in the basements of big old buildings were inside plenums that had giant filters. air brought into any system is filtered. for sinus sufferers the filters are important and general health, we still have asbestos brake linings, etc.; this is still something to consider. if you find a way to filter it? maybe. read up on i t, maybe i am being overly cautious.

i have thought about getting a sky light that opens here and opening some windows on cool evenings to draw some air through, but i would limit the use of such a system to a couple times a week.

stevecym

in Heating and Cooling 5 years and 10 months ago

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jjq | 5 years and 10 months ago

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When I was a kid, back in the 60s, we would go visit my Grandparents in Montclair NJ — BEFORE Air Conditioners — and I can’t remember ever being uncomfortable, even in 90˚+ F temperatures.

My Grams’ lived in 3-Story frame house, with an attic which housed a gigantic “whole house” fan.

As I remember it, the fan pulled hot air from all 3 floors, and circulated it to the outside through the fan and attic vent.

It was quiet, moved a lot of air, and to my memory, kept the house very cool.

Now, Im trying to decide if unclogging my airshaft roof vents (along the side walls of my skylight,) and installing a large, flat fan directly under the skylight within my limestone’s 3-floor airshaft might do the same here in Brooklyn.

The fan would pivot perpendicular to the roof when in use (summertime), and drop down along the party wall during winter months.

When I moved into this limestone, I plugged the airshaft vents because there were no CLOSEABLE windows in the three bathrooms alongside the airshaft, leaving the shaft “corridor” open to each floor and the outside elements.

I ’ve now re-modeled and can close off each floor from the airshaft with windows off of each bathroom.

Any comments?

THANKS.

stevecym | 5 years and 10 months ago

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the effectiveness of such systems depends a lot on the humidity in the area. a/c is as much about drying air as cooling it.

stevecym | 5 years and 10 months ago

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a little more. i worked in a wwI era building in manhattan and one of the elevator shafts had at one time been an air shaft and remaining in the equipment room up top was a giant fan. the story was that every few days the iceman came and put ice in the bottom of the shaft and the fan pulled air over the ice to cool the building. i could not imagine that was very effective but in discussing it with some others, they surmised that the ice actually cooled the air enough that the moisture dropped out of it in the shaftway.