Whole House Fan Efficiency in California
If you live in California, there is a good chance that you appreciate the importance of resource and energy conservation, including responsible use of water, fuel, and electricity. You likely value appliances and machines that are energy efficient.
However, you also need to live your life, which means using the shower, driving your car, and keeping your home cool during a scorching California summer. How do you do this in an energy efficient way?
There is one way you can keep your home cool (at least during moderate heat) and still be energy efficient. By using a whole house fan instead of an air conditioner to create ventilation. If the conditions are right, you will maintain a comfortable home and use up to 90% less energy!
Understanding Whole House Fans
While many energy efficient technologies can be rather complex, whole-house fans are quite simple. In essence, they are fans that are placed in the ceiling of the top floor, between the living space and the attic. Placed towards the center of the home, these fans pull air through open windows. This moves the hot, stale air through the living space and into the attic where it is pushed out through attic vents, which act as an exhaust.By replacing the hot, stuffy air inside with cooler, fresher air from outside your home is cooled down and has better indoor air quality and fewer airborne allergens.
However these systems are not effective during extremely hot or humid days, because all you would be doing is pulling in hot air through the open windows into the living space.
However, if the outside temps are moderately warm, from about 75 to 90 degrees, or if the nights are significantly cooler than the days, you could see outstanding benefits from a whole-house air purifier, especially lower electrical usage.
Whole House Fan Efficiency vs. Air Conditioning
In general, a whole-house fan uses up to 90% less energy than an air conditioner, so if the conditions are ideal, you will see a lower energy bill with a fan in your home.Exactly how much savings you will realize varies. For example, fixr.com, says that while an air conditioner uses 2,000 to 5,000 watts throughout the day, a whole-house fan will only use 200 to 700 watts. Clearly if you can run the fan instead of the A/C, you will notice a significant reduction in cooling costs.
Using a Whole House Fan in California
As any California resident knows, there is a big difference in climates across the state. San Diego is far from San Francisco and can have drastically different weather, while regions on the inland eastern portion of the state can experience virtually opposite weather from the coasts. So, there are areas of California that are more suited to whole-house fans than others. But which areas would benefit from these machines and the ventilation they create in your living space?While any corner of the state could enjoy the energy-efficiency benefits of a whole-house fan’s natural ventilation, areas like Riverside, which have warm days and cool nights, will often experience many benefits from a whole-house fan. In a place like Riverside, where it cools at night, you can use the fan system to bring cool air in during the evening and early morning.
Areas that don’t need consistent air conditioning and cooling will also benefit from a whole-house fan’s energy efficiency and ventilation. Using these machines in the coastal areas, where cool ocean breezes often dominate the weather, or in high-elevation regions, with crisp mountain air, will likely experience the most benefits of using a whole-house fan.
In these areas, when you use a whole house fan through the day, you can maintain a consistent flow of air from open windows to attic vents, allowing you to have the comfort you desire with the energy efficiency you expect from mechanical ventilation.
Costs of Installing a Whole-House Fan
So you can save a significant amount during the warm months if you have a whole-house fan, but these appliances will obviously come with an initial cost. According to Fixr, the average cost across the country for a low-cost whole-house fan is $700 to $900. However, on the high end you can expect to spend between $2,000 to $2,700. But the average is roughly $1,250 to $1,830.If you are interested in using a whole-house fan, but aren’t sure if you have the funds to pay for it, you could take advantage of a program available in California called the HERO loan. These loans provide financing for energy efficiency and resource upgrades, such as solar panels, new windows, or low-flow toilets. They can also be used to help fund your whole house fan purchase and installation. However, they can create complications with financing and selling your home, so talk with an expert before using a HERO loan.
Enhance Your Indoor Air with Whole-House Fans and Air Purifiers
If you want to improve your home’s air, a whole-house fan is an energy-efficient solution, providing you house with a cooling breeze from the ground floor to the attic. It reduces concentrations of indoor air pollution through mechanical ventilation while keeping your home more comfortable.Another important aspect of quality indoor air is purification. With an air purifier from Oransi, you’ll have advanced filtration that eliminates a high percentage of particles, including dust, dander, pollen, and mold spores.
Our air purifiers use the safest and most effective technologies including high efficiency air filters and a strong motor to give your home a high level of purification. Contact our staff to learn more about air purifiers from Oransi and how you can use the machines to improve your home!
