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Attic Fans: How Much Do They Cost?

What is the most important factor to consider before buying something?


Cost

The most important factor when purchasing just about anything is the cost of it. It not only determines if you are able to purchase the thing but whether or not you are getting a good deal. Because of the plethora of options out there, you can compare hundreds of things that are nearly exactly identical.

This is why price can be so crucial in the buying process. Quiet Cool attic fans usually sit at $125-$170. Price, however, does not reveal the whole story. QuietCool has two different models of attic fans that give you similar yet different perks.

The QuietCool smart attic fan has, “a built-in thermostat/humidistat and a ten-variable speed motor. When the attic is at its hottest point, the fan will run at the 3,000 CFM setting, while only using 140 watts! For that amount of power, 140 watts is an amazing feat! As the attic begins to cool down, the smart attic fan will automatically cycle itself down to the lower speeds. At the lowest speed, the fan will blow 1,000 CFM and run at only 15 watts! To install, simply mount it directly to a gable or dormer vent and plug the fan in using the 20-foot power cord that comes attached. That’s it! It truly is plug and play, and maximum energy efficiency for the homeowner!”

So, when purchasing a smart attic fan, you are not only paying for the actual cost of the machine but all that comes with it. These features greatly outweigh those of other companies and are the reason for the price. This is not the only attic fan that QuietCool has in stock, however.

They also have the pro attic fan which is “equipped with a permanent spit capacitor motor (PSC) that pulls in a whopping 3,000 CFM! The AFG PRO-3.0 is designed for larger attics that need more power than the typical big box attic fans are capable of bringing. The unit also comes with an adjustable thermostat so the homeowner has the option to have their unit kick on when the attic temperature is between 60 degrees & 120 degrees. For example, if a homeowner would like to keep their attic below 100 degrees, they can set their thermostat to kick on at 95 degrees and help prevent their attic from ever reaching 100 degrees! “

The price of these cooling systems remains around $100 to $200 but they are far more than just their superficial cost. They have many different yet similar perks that equate to the monetary price. A price that some could look at as overpriced but the knowledgeable will know is quite the bargain.


Who Installs Attic Fans?

Installation is a large aspect of choosing either a whole house or attic fan. It takes up so much equity in the decision making process likely because of the cost that is attached to it. Not only are these cooling systems widely viewed as accessories instead of necessities but each additional cost is subsequently looked at as excessive.

Installation could, at times, come with a heavy price, however, this is not always the case. To answer who installs this machines is to really ask who the homeowner wants to. This is because installation is made incredibly easy.

QuietCool attic fan in particular are easy to install for handy homeowners who do not want to splurge on the additional cost of installation. To make this even easier, each system comes with very detailed, full‐color, written instructions that walk you step‐by‐step through the installation process.

QuietCool even has a detailed installation video and wiring video for the model that one may. So, if need be, one could easily install a attic fan themselves. They could even have a capable neighbor, friend, or family member quickly install one.

It is very highly recommended that a competent, licensed electrician complete all wiring connections. Slightly messing up such a system could be detrimental to how they run and worsen the product. The primarily suggested way to install such machines would be with a licensed and authorized dealer.

This is slightly more money as was mentioned previously but when going this route, a homeowner will know that the job is 100% being done correctly while taking the liability out of their hands. There are also a massive amount of dealers that do such a thing and finding one in a specified area would be no trouble like finding someone on the street or in the family to do it would be.

QuietCool even has a site where one can search out for a dealer near them. This easy website makes it unbelievably easy to not only find someone more than capable, but to find someone exceptionally quick. All someone would need to do is to enter their zip code and their preferable distance from said dealer. Then the site will immediately find you an authorized dealer who can install your attic fan.


Why Do I Need an Attic Fan with my Whole House Fan

A QuietCool whole house fan is a phenomenal product for nearly every home. They are efficient, intelligent, whisper-quiet, and cool every home rapidly. They do, however, have exactly one flaw; they can not be used at any hour of the day. Doing this would lead to hot air being rushed into the home instead of the strictly cool air that should be utilized.

Luckily, their one flaw is covered up by their biggest strength; their ability to enact thermal mass cooling. This process allows a home to stay cool longer than an air conditioning can. It is also lucky that attic fans can be seamlessly used in combination with a whole house. These two systems are the perfect combination for efficient home cooling because an attic fan is used during the day while the whole house fan is ideally used at night.

So, after cooling a home all night, a home still has the potential to reheat during the following day. It takes a significant amount of heat and time with a whole house fan but it can still happen largely because of the attic. The attic reheats the fastest and can reach the highest temperatures climbing all the way up to 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

The system cools down those scorching temperatures by having an adjustable thermostat built-in. This allows the homeowner to have their unit kick on when the attic temperature is between 60 and 120 degrees. Per QuietCool, “For example, if a homeowner would like to keep their attic below 100 degrees, they can set their thermostat to kick on at 95 degrees and help prevent their attic from ever reaching 100 degrees!”

This helps the home stay vastly cooler because the heat from the attic would no longer be able to seep into the home because there would be minimal to no heat in the attic. The house reheats because of the outside air slowly making its way into the house. Each home only contains five sides, completely shutting off one of those sides from heat while the other four should be expertly insulated means the home should very rarely get hot during the day.

A whole house fan works great on its own. In fact, it is far more efficient and energy conscious than any air conditioner on the market. Pairing it with an attic fan could completely cover your cooling needs and give a homeowner many more comfortable days than other.


How many attic Fans does one home need?

When making a large purchase, it is very important to understand just how many products are needed. If that number exceeds the one that the buyer had in his head then the entire sale may become nonexistent. If a buyer comes into a situation where they believe they will only need one thing, in this case an attic fan, then suddenly realizing their home may need more could be a shock that leaves a bad taste in their mouth.

As with most things, how many attic fans a home needs is reliant on something else, in this case, the size of the home itself. An attic fan is a pretty self explanatory machine as it fans the attic. Specifically, it takes the hot air out of the attic and pushes it back outside. This is important for a home because the attic is the hottest part of a home.

According to Fast Facts, “Attics can reach temperatures of 150 to 160 degrees F during a summer day, although outside air temperatures are only 95 to 97 degrees F. The cooling load for a home air conditioner depends on the difference in temperature between the inside and outside air, and reduction of attic temperatures from 155 degrees to 105 degrees F will result in a significant reduction in cooling load.”

An attic fan is able to achieve this significant reduction in cooling much more efficiently than an air conditioner. Fast Facts also has a handy equation to determine just how much ventilation is required in a home “Calculate the required summer ventilation rate by determining the volume of attic space and dividing by 2. This will be the cfm (cubic feet per minute) of ventilation air needed. The volume is determined approximately for a rectangular house by multiplying the height from the ceiling to the peak/ridge (H) times the width of the house (W) times the length (L) and dividing by 2 — ( H x W x L / 2 ). For a gable roof, this will be reasonably accurate. For a hip roof house, the volume will be overestimated but adequate.”

So, with cooling of the attic being the main objective then the number of attics a home has is an important factor when buying an attic fan. If you have a multi-layered home then multiple attic fans may be necessary. But, for standard homes, just one attic fan will work effectively.

Most common homes have just one large attic where having a single attic fan would be perfect. When someone is looking to purchase an attic fan, they may be worried about having to buy multiple of the same product, however, for most people, just one attic fan works perfectly fine and will significantly cool the entire home as the attic is rapidly cooled down from dangerous temperatures like 160 degrees F.


How Does an Attic Fan Work?

Attics can get hot, abnormally and unbearably hot. Most don’t mind much as many don’t spend a lot of time in their attic space. If that area gets hot, no one cares. That heat cannot be tangibly felt and why would anyone spend money to cool down something that you can not even feel being cooled?

The reason is simple. Spending a lot of money on air conditioning means cooling the same space over and over again. The area that air conditioners miss is the attic. Because of this, the attic stays hot while the home just gets cool. The attic is then working directly against the air conditioning and slowly reheating the home.

Imagine having an oven on 24/7 upstairs. This would, of course, heat the entire house as hot air fills any space that is available. The space that it has is the entirety of the home. This is why hot attics can be such an expensive afterthought. Although no one is in the attic, the attics heat comes to the homeowner.

This is why attic fans can be so helpful to the cooling of a home and prove to be more of a necessity than a luxury.

How the attic fans help alleviate this problem is by taking all of the air in an attic and throwing it back outside. These cooling systems are attached to gable or dormer vents and plugged into an outlet. QuietCool power cords are 20 feet long so even if the vent is nowhere near a plug-in, the plug should still be able to reach the one that is closest.

QuietCool attic fans also have a revolutionary built-in thermostat that automatically kicks on when the attic reaches over 80 degrees Fahrenheit. These fans have different speeds so when it reaches 80, the fan turns on its lowest speed. This consumes a minute amount of energy and so even though an attic fan will run constantly, it will hardly increase an electric bill.

Attic fans work largely the same way a whole house fan does. These powerful fans simply do not have ducting or need a window to be open to work. They are attached to a gable or dormer vent as previously mentioned and they suck in all of the hot air inside of the attic and push it out to the world.

These fans are not common knowledge or seen as required for a home but they should be required in every home on a budget. They work with your air conditioning, instead of against it, attics currently do.


Attic Fans vs Whole House Fans

Whole house fans are often confused with attic fans. While they may share some similarities and can have an enormous effect on a home, both serve different purposes.

Attic Fans

Attic fans are installed either on a gable vent or through the roof. Their purpose is to ventilate and exhaust the air inside the attic directly outside. Even if the temperature outside is hot, this air movement can help immensely to cool the attic. Attic ventilation is crucial to homeowners because attics can act like an oven on top of your home, constantly reheating the living space. When mid-summer comes around a typical attic can reach temperatures of over 140 degrees! In a two-story home, this heat can make the top floor unbearable! For this reason, an attic fan alone can help homeowners feel more comfortable at home.


Whole House Fans

Whole house fans are also installed in the attic, but they are not attached directly to a vent. Instead, a whole house fan brings the fresh air through the open windows in the home and blows that air into the attic. The attic is then pressurized and then exhausted out the attic vents. The purpose of the whole house fan is to cool down the actual living space of the home, not just the attic. For this reason, whole house fans are meant to be run when the outside temperature is cooler than the air inside the home.

Attic fans & whole house fans each help with home ventilation, but serve different purposes. When combined, however, they form a perfect union. A QuietCool whole house fan can be run from early evening to early morning, effectively cooling the structure of your home using the cool outside air. When the day begins and temperatures rise, the whole house fan should be turned off, and once the attic begins to heat up, the QuietCool attic fan kicks on and helps keep the attic cool all day long. QuietCool can offer you 24/7 coverage, helping you keep your A/C costs down, and your living space comfortable!

QuietCool Smart Attic Fan

QuietCool is discontinuing the AFG ES-1500 after six years and introducing the first Smart Attic Fan in the world. This revolutionary new product combines the energy efficiency of the AFG ES-1500, the power of the AFG PRO-3.0, and some impressive technological advancements.

The QuietCool Smart Attic Fan – AFG SMT-3.0 features a built-in thermostat and humidistat that controls a variable 10-speed ECM motor. The attic fan self-adjusts it’s 10 speeds automatically based on the temperature in the attic, from 80 degrees Fahrenheit to over 140 degrees Fahrenheit. On the highest speed, the fan will move 2830 CFM at 150 watts. On the lowest speed, the fan will move 963 CFM at a modest 15 watts.

To install, simply mount it directly to a gable vent and plug the fan in using the 20-foot power cord that comes attached. That’s it! It is truly a plug-and-play machine