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My parents have a whole house fan in their Atlanta, Georgia, home and its not been intentionally used in 30 years. Growing up I remember accidentally turning it

by rietta 8y ago

My parents have a whole house fan in their Atlanta, Georgia, home and its not been intentionally used in 30 years. Growing up I remember accidentally turning it on a few times and it was incredibly loud. Given the high summer heat and high humidity I don't understand why the builders included it.

powvans 8y ago
I grew up in North Georgia, near Athens. My grandparents had a whole home fan like what you’re describing. Extremely loud, terrifying as a child. The house is well shaded by trees and has a full basement. The basement provides a reservoir of cool air and the fan pulls that air up from the basement into the main area of the house. This solution wasn’t very effective in July and August. My grandmother had A/C installed not long after my grandfather died. Apparently he just refused to accept it as a necessity. It’s interesting though. The principles have been around for a long time. I’ve been told that it’s the reason for very high ceilings in Victorian homes. The idea is that the hot air in the room rises and draws cooler air from beneath the house. In my experience, even with A/C it can be hard to stay comfortable in a house like that during the summer.
- deleted 8y ago
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- watersb 8y ago
  The whole-house fan was useful in swampy Waycross, GA, but we never had a house with such a fan in Athens. Our house in Clearwater Florida, on the Gulf coast, desperately needed a whole-house exhaust fan; the compressor on the air conditioner would routinely trip a current-limiting circuit breaker, and the house would be 15 degrees F hotter than the outdoor temperatures. Our whole-house swamp cooler in southern New Mexico worked really really well.
mannykannot 8y ago
A friend had one in her house in NJ. They can be quiet if they are big and slow-turning. I imagine the one in your parents house was installed before home air conditioning became commonplace. Even where they are not effective in the height of summer, they can reduce the number of days when it gets unpleasant. They are more effective when you have a couple of thousand feet or more elevation, as the diurnal variation seems to be greater.
CommieBobDole 8y ago
My home in the same area has a whole house fan, and while it doesn't get a lot of use in the summer, it's nice in the spring and the fall. Helps clear the smoke if you burn something in the kitchen as well.
greglindahl 8y ago
I grew up in in SC in a house without AC which had a whole-house fan. It was extremely effective in the evenings after the external air temperature had fallen.
JoblessWonder 8y ago
FYI, new ones aren't as loud/scary and actually move more air. Builders include it mostly in places where the outside temperatures drop significantly at night to comfortable levels before rising again during the day.
GeekyBear 8y ago
We had a house down on the Gulf of Mexico with a loud fan like that. The fan was powerful enough that it didn't just produce a constant breeze through the open windows, it produced quite a volume of wind. The thing you have to remember was that when whole house fans were popular, the alternative wasn't to install an air conditioner, the alternative was to build a house with a screened sleeping porch so you could sleep somewhere that cooled off as quickly as the outside air did once the sun set. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_porch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_porch In the deep south, you can still use a whole house fan reduce the number of weeks you need to run the a/c at night to sleep comfortably. Fast moving, cool, humid air blasting across your bed from an open window will have you burrowing into your blankets more quickly than you would expect.

by rietta 8y ago

powvans 8y ago

I grew up in North Georgia, near Athens. My grandparents had a whole home fan like what you’re describing. Extremely loud, terrifying as a child. The house is well shaded by trees and has a full basement. The basement provides a reservoir of cool air and the fan pulls that air up from the basement into the main area of the house. This solution wasn’t very effective in July and August. My grandmother had A/C installed not long after my grandfather died. Apparently he just refused to accept it as a necessity. It’s interesting though. The principles have been around for a long time. I’ve been told that it’s the reason for very high ceilings in Victorian homes. The idea is that the hot air in the room rises and draws cooler air from beneath the house. In my experience, even with A/C it can be hard to stay comfortable in a house like that during the summer.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
watersb 8y ago
The whole-house fan was useful in swampy Waycross, GA, but we never had a house with such a fan in Athens. Our house in Clearwater Florida, on the Gulf coast, desperately needed a whole-house exhaust fan; the compressor on the air conditioner would routinely trip a current-limiting circuit breaker, and the house would be 15 degrees F hotter than the outdoor temperatures. Our whole-house swamp cooler in southern New Mexico worked really really well.

mannykannot 8y ago

A friend had one in her house in NJ. They can be quiet if they are big and slow-turning. I imagine the one in your parents house was installed before home air conditioning became commonplace. Even where they are not effective in the height of summer, they can reduce the number of days when it gets unpleasant. They are more effective when you have a couple of thousand feet or more elevation, as the diurnal variation seems to be greater.

CommieBobDole 8y ago

My home in the same area has a whole house fan, and while it doesn't get a lot of use in the summer, it's nice in the spring and the fall. Helps clear the smoke if you burn something in the kitchen as well.

greglindahl 8y ago

I grew up in in SC in a house without AC which had a whole-house fan. It was extremely effective in the evenings after the external air temperature had fallen.

JoblessWonder 8y ago

FYI, new ones aren't as loud/scary and actually move more air. Builders include it mostly in places where the outside temperatures drop significantly at night to comfortable levels before rising again during the day.

GeekyBear 8y ago

We had a house down on the Gulf of Mexico with a loud fan like that. The fan was powerful enough that it didn't just produce a constant breeze through the open windows, it produced quite a volume of wind. The thing you have to remember was that when whole house fans were popular, the alternative wasn't to install an air conditioner, the alternative was to build a house with a screened sleeping porch so you could sleep somewhere that cooled off as quickly as the outside air did once the sun set. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_porch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_porch In the deep south, you can still use a whole house fan reduce the number of weeks you need to run the a/c at night to sleep comfortably. Fast moving, cool, humid air blasting across your bed from an open window will have you burrowing into your blankets more quickly than you would expect.