Video: Whole House Fan Benefits

SAN LEANDRO — Host, Sarah Rutan: If you’re looking for an alternative option for cooling your home, consider the benefits of a whole house fan. Today we’re in San Leandro with Diamond Certified Expert Contributors Sean Madar and Paul Doane of Atticare to learn more.

Sean Madar: Cooling your home in the summer can be uncomfortable and pricey. Installing a whole house fan can help you save 50 to 90 percent on your energy bills, but there are also side benefit to it. Paul, can you tell us a little bit about what is a whole house fan and how it works?

Paul Doane: Sure. A whole house fan is a fan installed in the attic, and it’s designed to cool and ventilate the entire living space. And the reason people will purchase a whole house fan primarily is for cooling. They want to stay cool and stay comfortable, which an air conditioner will do, but they’re expensive, which leads us into the second benefit of the whole house fan – energy savings.

Through the fans, people can keep their AC off saving money with their fan on increasing comfortability. And the last reason somebody would install a whole house fan is for ventilation and indoor air quality where indoor air quality is not good and outdoor air quality is something that the experts say we want to be introducing into these homes. So, a person will typically purchase a whole house fan for cooling, ventilation, and energy savings.

Sean Madar: Great, great. And can you tell us a little bit about how it works?

Paul Doane: Of course. The system is installed in the attic, and in the evening night times and morning times when the outside temperatures drop and they’re more desirable, a home owner will open a few select windows, turn the fan on, and the fan pulls that outside cool air into the home through the windows cooling and ventilating the living space and flushing the heat out of the attic.

Sean Madar: Great. That’s where the energy savings coming. And can you tell us a little bit about the other benefits that most homeowners don’t know about?

Paul Doane: Sure. The cooling and – and energy savings are what typically draws people to the fan, but the ventilation and indoor air quality where you can ventilate cooking odor, pet odor, pet dander, steam, smoke, germs all year long, including the winter time when indoor air quality is often at its worst where people lock up their homes is probably the best kept secret of a whole house fan where not only does it cool your home and save you money, but it ventilates your home and introduces fresh air.

Sean Madar: That’s absolutely great. So, if you want to protect your family, save money on your energy bills, and most importantly be comfortable at your home, you should consider a whole house fan.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local, top rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.