How To Tell If My Attic Fan Is On

The whole house fan is installed inside the attic between the living space and ceiling.

How to tell if my attic fan is on.

So if your fan is rated at 1500 cfm you will need about two feet of totally open space in your attic. Step 2 test the thermostat. The warm air escapes through the attic and to the attic vents allowing the circulation of chilly air from the windows. When the temperature within the attic reaches a set point the fan will turn on and start venting the heated air cooling the attic space.

If the fan turns on the motor is still good. Whole house fans work on the principle of removing the hot and humid air out of the house. It helps to cool your home temperatures and the attic by approximately 30 degrees. How to tell if you need an attic or whole house fan.

Now take that number and divide it by 750. Your attic fan may not be turning on because of an electrical problem like a tripped circuit breaker a blown fuse or a bad connection. Any whole house fan that you buy should have this figure listed somewhere on the packaging. You can diagnose it by plugging other electrical appliances that are working into the same outlet and by plugging the fan into a different power outlet.

Or look at the weather for 2 days with the same weather and monitor temps with and without the fan on each day. Good insulation reduces fan effectiveness. The downside of attic ventilation fans. Step 1 test the fan motor.

Attic ventilation fans whether hard wired or powered by their own solar panels seem like a low cost and effective way to help keep your house cool. This is done because you need one square foot of ventilation area for every 750 cfm that your fan can push. Turn the attic fan off and unplug the motor from the thermostat. You simply add up the nfas of all your vents and divide that number by the area of the attic to determine whether you re within the 1 150 ratio.

However the utility of attic ventilation fans is actually quite a controversial topic. Once done test that the motor still works by plugging the motor into an extension cord that is connected to an outlet.