Advice - Whole house Fan

[sandy2982]

I am buying a new home, but it does not have a whole house fan system
Keeping the house cool and saving money on electric bill sounds interesting, but do not have a lot of
Information, like how much am I saving really vs. the set up expenses? My new neighbor has purchased a whole house fan from Houseneeds.com (http://www.houseneeds.com/) and told that he is happy with the performance.

Some of the questions I have about the whole house fan system:

Are they worth the time and expense?
Are they quite?
How difficult would this be to add after we move in?
Can anybody recommend a reliable and cost effective brand?
Is this a project I could do myself over a weekend?

Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.

[hewood]

We had one at our other house and I really miss it. A properly sized and installed fan can work surprisingly well. The noise will vary from model to model depending on power, house construction, and louvre style....ours was a fairly basic model and was never objectionable that I recall. I did ours myself....it's a project of medium difficulty with some electrical involved. I'd say go for it, and do it now even if you have to hire it done.

[FINER9998]

had one in every house i've owned. wouldn't be without it. just be careful if your house has trusses. with conventional framing and drywall, its a very easy installation process.

[BHD]

regardless you will need some venting to let the air out, of the attic,

for a time I had a good attic fan and I jsut proped open the craw hole to the attic since it was in the hall way, and it worked very well and there was hardly noticeable noise as the fan was away from the craw hole some distance, my house had little venting in the attic,
when that fan died, I replaced it with one of the air powered rotary ventilators, (not as effective), but much cheaper to run and we have plenty of wind in our area, and snow does not blow into it. we still prop up the trap door to the attic in the summer time and let suck the hot air out of the house as well.

IN another house we I have been in a lot, they put in a whole house fan and IMO unless ran on low it unreasonable noisy but it will clear the air out of that house in jsut a few minutes. It is located in the Hall way going to the bedrooms.

[BucketMan]

I have been in a few houses where they installed them in the Garage. Put a screen door on the entry to the house from the garage and open the garage door some. Worked great and you don't hear any noise.

[mtcone]

it's a project of medium difficulty with some electrical involved.

I agree. Just make sure your Whole House Fan (http://store.h-mac.com/housefans.html) is from a quality manufacturer.