Where to begin? I live with my brother in his home. He travels and is never home. Several years ago or more he had attic fans installed; two 4 blade fans that have not worked for a few years now. He contacted an electrician to fix the old ones or install new ones. The old ones were not repairable. The electrician installed two eight blade temperature controlled fans set at 60 degrees and on separate circuit breakers. The electrician showed me the force of the pull by holding a paper towel up to the attic while the attic stairs were still lowered. It was a real nice pull; even the curtains were being pulled as if there was a breeze outside (which there was not). Day 1 the electrician gets paid and goes on his merry way. I started to smell an odor very much like the oil heater fumes but didn’t see any black smoke spewing from the chimney when it would kick on for the hot water. Day 2 and the smell is still there. Day 3 and the house fills up with white smoke and STINKS!! I called the Oil service man and he said that something is drawing the air from the furnace. Soooo I told him about the new and wonderful fans. He charged for the service call because it was not a contract related issue; it was due to the new fans. The house is a 1 floor, three bedroom, no basement, and the attic is just a crawl space the length of the house. The house has no soffit vents for the fans to pull any air through and there are no ceiling vents for the air to be pulled from either. so the fans are pulling from any and every where they can including from the oil heater. Presently, I do no use the fans until something can be done. But what? Soffit vents? Up and down both sides of the house?
If you can stop laughing long enough to pick yourself back up off the floor and into your chair, please tell me something good! I just can’t believe my brother spent that kind of money and can’t use the fans!?
Thank you.
Hope
Hope
Replies
" Soffit vents? Up and down both sides of the house?"
Sounds like it. Along all eaves.
But before you do that (and this is all based on stuff I've read here at Breaktime), go into the attic and seal the attic floor. Every electrical box in the ceiling should be sealed around. Every wire that comes up through the top plate of the walls should be sealed. Any place that air can move from the house into the attic should be sealed. Are there ducts in the attic? If so make sure they leak no air.
Once a wall is built, the wood shrinks and pulls away from the drywall. This leaves a small gap between the drywall and the top plate that should be sealed.
Finally, turn off the oil heat and turn on the fans. Get a source of smoke (a cigarette, a candle that you keep lighting and blowing out, etc.) and walk all through the house looking for places the smoke is getting sucked into. Go into the attic and seal that spot.
With soffit vents and a sealed attic floor, I would think the problem should be taken care of.
I suppose it is possible that the fans are simply too powerful for the situation and should be replaced, but my money is on the soffit vents and sealing the attic floor.
Another day, another tool.
Get a source of smoke (a cigarette, a candle that you keep lighting and blowing out, etc.)
It's a good idea, Rich, but DO NOT use a candle. Browns Ferry Nuclear Power plant had a serious fire there twenty-some-odd years back because they were searching for gaps in walls and conduit penetrations and using a candle. The flame got sucked into the next room and started a fire which in turn precipitated a number of new regulations regarding fire protection at Nuc plants. It was serious, more serious than all but those in the nuc industry realize.
They make smoke sources (in aerosol cans) to test fire detectors which would work as well if not better.
Again, please don't use a candle (or any source of flame) when searching for ventilation leaks. The results can be disasterous.
I never met a tool I didn't like!
hope.. i don't like attic fans.. they usually do exactly what yours are doing..
i like ridge and sofit vents combined..
think about it... what are you trying to do with the fans ... lower the temp. of the attic ?.. by pulling outside air in and blowing it back out ?..... why not just try to bail out the ocean ?
better to increase the insulation between the attic and the living space...
in any case .. those two fans sound like they will suck the doors in on the outside wall... ain't no way they are not going to unbalacne the whole house... do you have air conditioning ?.. they will pull the cool air out of the house..
attic fans are just not a good idea
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore