Anyone with an attic fan?

[Wallflower]

I have a cape house and I'm looking for ways to help my second floor be a little less hot during the summer. Because the second floor is built into what would be (or was) the attic, it is surrounded by attic space above and on the front/back sides of the house. This attic space gets super-heated in the summer, making it really hard to keep things cool upstairs.

Eventually, I want to do some major work upstairs, so I'm looking for intelligent but less expensive options for now. (For example, blowing more insulation into that space is probably not the best option right now as I plan on raising the ceiling level and building a dormer in one room.)

I'm trying to educate myself on attic fans - anyone out there have one/had one/familiar? If you do, do you have any pros/cons to pass along?

Thanks!

[hamster]

We have one that blows hot air outside - is that what you mean? I've never been up there to know what it looks like as far as being in your living space, but it's pretty darn loud when it's on.

[Wallflower]

Jul 6, 2020 8:23:48 GMT -5 hamster said:

We have one that blows hot air outside - is that what you mean? I've never been up there to know what it looks like as far as being in your living space, but it's pretty darn loud when it's on.

Yes, that's what I'm thinking of, something that would blow air out.

Good to know that it's loud. I don't want that, though it would probably be needed most in the daytime, when I'm not upstairs. Do you have to do anything to winterize it? I keep picturing something that allows air out would also allow water/snow/ice in.

[simpsongal]

I think you should get a consult w/a roofing person (should be free....). When we were researching house venting a few years ago I recall reading several articles about how it needs to make sense in the context of your home's design, roof design, and venting. Ridge vents are popular in roofs now for naturally allowing hot air to escape - but coupling a ridge vent and an attic fan doesn't work b/c the two actually work against each other. All to say, I would want a knowledgeable professional to look at the design of your roof area, current venting (side, eaves) and give an opinion on the cheapest/more effective interim solution. If you have several segmented areas, you may need multiple fans, which might get expensive. If there's a non mechanical, cheaper options, I would go for it (even blown in insulation isn't terribly expensive). We had to have our soffits changed to allow more air circulation for our ridge vent and blown in insulation to work (I forget what it's all called).

Good luck!

[mrspez07]

We have a vaulted ceiling tri level house, so really open below with little insulation, and an attic above the 2nd story.

We have one on the roof that kicks on when the temperature differential is warmer in the attic than outside and off when it isn’t. So it runs from about mid morning to after dark in the summer. I want to replace ours with a solar version. It doesn’t need to be winterized, as I think it’s got a kind of mushroom type cap that doesn’t let rain/snow in.

We also have a whole house fan (often called an attic fan) that is in our upper hallway, we turn that on in evenings or mornings when the temps outside are more than a few degrees cooler than inside to pull the cool air in. This one requires that only a few windows are open so the pull is stronger, they often note doing the lowest windows in the house so the cool air travels through the house. It does leak cold air some in the winter from the attic, but it’s probably close to the same age as the house, so 35-40 years old, and there may be insulation solutions on newer versions.

[hamster]

Jul 6, 2020 8:36:47 GMT -5 Wallflower said:

Jul 6, 2020 8:23:48 GMT -5 hamster said:

We have one that blows hot air outside - is that what you mean? I've never been up there to know what it looks like as far as being in your living space, but it's pretty darn loud when it's on.

Yes, that's what I'm thinking of, something that would blow air out.

Good to know that it's loud. I don't want that, though it would probably be needed most in the daytime, when I'm not upstairs. Do you have to do anything to winterize it? I keep picturing something that allows air out would also allow water/snow/ice in.

We do not, but we have relatively mild winters. I suppose some sort of cover wouldn't be a terrible idea. We already had one, but our contractor highly recommend it because you really don't want your attic getting too hot (he wouldn't let me pick too dark of a shingle for that reason, not that we tried).

[katieb4tom]

We have one and I love it. It sucks the air up and out. It’s best when the outside temp has dropped and you can use it to pull cool air in and up through the house. We use ours a ton. It’s loud on the second floor, but it’s more like white noise to me and is not a problem overnight.

Now that we’re in major summer heat, we use it less, as it never cools outside significantly. It can help sometimes with pulling the cooler a/c air upstairs, but it’s better with cooler outside air.

I don’t like sleeping in a/c, so it’s nice to have the windows open and the fan pulling a cool breeze through.

[boiler717]

We have one and it’s very loud. I agree that it cools somewhat but not a ton when it’s super hot. I would not intentionally install one.

[carmenere]

Growing up my dad would only let us run the AC June-August so we used the attic fan a lot. They work well for spring and fall when it’s not too hot out, but probably aren’t a good solution for your situation unless the summers are really mild.

To answer your question about winterizing, you can buy a cover for it.