Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Works Wonders for Cooling a House!


It's Works for me Wednesday, and I must really share our favorite (inexpensive) method of keeping the house cool in the summer. I see that Shannon is taking a break, but you know me. Gotta keepa bloggin'.

Introducing, my friend, the whole house fan.



When we had our first house (in Central CA where the days were hot and nights got cool) my handy husband installed a whole house fan, similar to an attic fan. Now I'm hooked. He installed another in this house last summer, and though we have air conditioning we rarely use it, the fan keeps the house nice and cool, and full of farm-fresh air. It's my favorite time of day, when the air temp gets cooler than the house temp, we open windows, switch the fan on and then bask in the cool air.

The fan works by drawing air (it's very powerful) from the out-of-doors in through the house, up into the attic. You may not know it, but your attic is nothing but a nice hot insulator for your home. I think it must be like 490 degrees up there. (Ralph would NOT advise installing the fan in the heat of summer) With the house fan, all the hot air is pushed out and as a result, the house is cooled drastically, and stays cool longer during the day.

We usually let our fan run most of the night, still keep feather comforters on the bed. It gets chilly, but I love the fresh air! (did I say that?)


***Added benefits...
Should you burn something in the kitchen, the house fan takes about 3 minutes to suck that stink right out of the house forever.

White noise...helps the babes sleep. Maybe me too.

and, I love the way my curtains blow around in the evening light....

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Check out other great ideas for life & living at Shannon's place.

1 comment:

The Daileys said...

Do your boys throw things up into it? That would be my fear. Do you have a one story house? Would it work in a 2 story house?