A Whole House Fan Company
Our new fan motor housings for our next line of innovative ducted whole house fans just arrived. We plan on going to market with this new line featuring our new fan motor housing in May 2017… Stay tuned for more updates.
As the name suggests, a whole house fan can greatly reduce the temperature in an entire house. However, the model and make of the fan must be suitable for the house and its size to be effective.
A whole house fan is installed in the ceiling of the upper level of a house, so that it is connected to the attic. A central location and good ventilation are all crucial to the successful operation of this system. The following are several benefits of a whole house fan.
These fans work by drawing hot air from the house into the attic and then outside via ridge, dormer or gable vents. The empty space left by the hot air is filled with cool, fresh air from outside the house. Compared to a central air conditioner, a whole house fan works much faster, and you begin to feel the cooling effects in minutes. However, a whole house fan will obviously only work if the external air is cooler than the air indoors.
A whole house fan is a much more environmentally friendly option than central air conditioning or room AC units.
During operation, a modern whole house fan, like those from Centric Air, costs just pennies an hour to run compared to an air conditioner that can cost several dollars an hour to operate. It is far cheaper, and you can save hundreds of dollars in your electric bill every summer.
Installing a whole house fan can be easy and uncomplicated. Modern whole house fans are built to accommodate roof trusses and attic joists, so it can actually be a do-it-yourself project, with minimal assistance from another person.
A whole house fan can be 10 times cheaper than a central air conditioning unit, not to mention the cost of the ductwork and installation. If you do not have extreme summer weather, this appliance can replace your AC entirely.
Because a whole house fan draws in hot air to the attic and then lets it out of the house, your indoor air is considerably fresher. This helps remove and prevent odors and provides excellent ventilation all around the house.
Newer models like whole house fans like Centric Air operate very quietly, and do not emit the loud, disturbing noises associated with traditional larger whole house fans. You can operate a whole house fan throughout the night and enjoy a good night’s sleep even if you’re a light sleeper.
When you use a whole house fan, the entire house can be effectively cooled down by drawing in air from the outside. When operated during summer mornings, evenings, or nights, there is usually no need for other air conditioning. In fact, you should not use an AC at the same time as a whole house fan, because the cool air from the air conditioner will be let out of the house and replaced by air from outside.
It doesn’t make much sense to use an air conditioner to cool a home when the outside air is cooler than the inside. So in areas with hot days and cool nights, people often use whole-house fans to exhaust the hot indoor air once the outside temperature drops below 78°F.
Whole house fans are installed in the ceiling, in an opening that is cut into the attic. They flush indoor air out through the attic, replacing it with outside air drawn in through the open windows. Residents turn on the fan and open windows when the outside temperature drops below the inside temperature, and for best results, they leave the fan on for several hours – preferably overnight. This cools the house down and also flushes built-up heat (much of which would otherwise find its way back into the home) from the attic.
At Centric Air our mission is to provide homeowners with an affordable alternative to expensive air conditioning. Although no whole house fan can completely replace the need for air conditioning, a Centric Air system can reduce its dependency by as much as 50 to 90% saving homeowners hundreds of dollars a year in energy costs.
Unlike conventional whole house fans that are large, noisy and unattractive, a Centric Air system is modern, powerful and ultra quiet. Contributing to its exceptionally quiet operation is the German engineered, acoustically designed and precision balanced fan that is rated for 40,000 hours of operation. These high efficient fans are made of composite materials with wing tip design for increased performance and efficiency, while reducing noise up to 3 decibels.
Other whole house fan manufactures typically use an open motor with exposed electrical windings, which allows dirt and debris to plug the motor causing it to over heat, and prematurely fail. They also use cheaply made propeller fans, which can become unbalanced over time causing the fan to be unstable and noisy.
Adding to Centric Airs remarkably quiet operation is the acoustical ductwork. Unlike standard ducting, acoustical ductwork not only dampens the noise of rushing air but also absorbs vibration, allowing the system to quietly operate even while you sleep.
While traditional whole house fans consists of large louvered shutters that can rattle, squeak and vibrate over time, Centric Air systems use a modern eggcrate style grill, which not only looks nice but also allows for 30% more airflow compared to standard return air grills. Located above the grill in the attic and out of sight, is an industrial grade damper box, which is designed to seal off the living space from the attic when the system is not operating.
The cost to operate a Centric Air whole house fan is just pennies an hour making it one of the most energy efficient upgrades you can make to your home. Centric Air is also one of the few ducted whole house fan manufactures that meet the strict energy efficiency standards set by the California Energy Commission. To learn more about Centric Air whole house fans or to purchase a system online, please visit www.CentricAir.com
A Centric Air whole house fan is modern, powerful and ultra quiet. The fan motors used in Centric Air systems are acoustically designed and precision balanced. These highly efficient fans are made of composite materials with wingtip design for increased performance and efficiency.
Adding to Centric Air remarkably quiet operation is the acoustical and heat resistant ductwork. This specialty ductwork not only dampens the noise of rushing air but also absorbs vibration, allowing the system to quietly operate even while you sleep.
Other whole house fan manufacturers like Quiet Cool typically use an open face motor with exposed electrical windings, which allows dirt and debris to plug the motor causing it to overheat, and prematurely fail.
They also use cheaply made unbalanced fan blades, which over time, can cause the fan to become unstable and very noisy.
While traditional or older style whole house fans consists of large louvered shutters that can rattle, squeak and vibrate, Centric Air systems use an industrial grade damper and high airflow grill, which not only looks attractive but allows for 30% more airflow compared to standard return air grills.
The cost to operate a Centric Air whole house fan is just pennies an hour making it one of the most energy efficient upgrades you can make to your home. To learn about the differences between Centric Air, Quiet Cool and traditional whole house fans watch the following video
I have to admit that my experience with whole-house fans has not always been positive. I remember almost 20 years ago as an HVAC contractor when homeowners would ask me to quote a whole house fan installation, I’d quickly steer them away. The noise from these traditional whole house fans reminded me of my time in the Army being around helicopters. Sure they moved a ton of air but try having a conversation, listening to the television and don’t even think about trying to sleep while it’s running.
Fortunately times have changed and the newer ducted style whole house fans are ultra quiet and extremely energy efficient. This begs the question: “What is a whole house fan?” in its modern context.
Much of the country is experiencing a heat wave, which is typical for the month of August. Daytime temperatures can reach 90 to 100 degrees and temperatures during the evening and early night are not much cooler. At about 9:00 PM the outside temperature where I live was 84 degrees, definitely not a good time to use a whole house fan. This was one of those nights I was grateful for air conditioning.
In the morning, however, at about 6:00 AM the outside temperature was 67 degrees. Although you may think, why would I use my whole house fan when my home is already cool from running the air conditioner, the reason is quite simple. Even though the temperature inside the home may be cool, the temperature in the attic and walls are not. They retained the heat from the day before and the temps in those spaces could be well above 100 degrees. As a result, unless that heat is removed it will radiate into the house, quickly heating up the living space. It’s for this reason that you want to run your whole house fan. Learn how to use a whole house fan during a heat wave below.
At 6:00 in the morning I opened a few windows and turned on the whole house fan while making sure that the temperature outside never exceeded the indoor temperature. After about an hour, I turned off the whole house fan and closed the windows. My entire home (living space, walls and attic) were now cool and comfortable, delaying the need for air conditioning.
While some of my neighbors air conditioners turned on as early as 9:00 this morning, I knew I would not have to run mine until much later, significantly saving on my cooling bill.
Although a whole house fan is not designed to completely replace air conditioning, it can help reduce the need for it, even during a heat wave.
To learn more about the benefits of whole house fans, visit www.CentricAir.com
State power regulators decided today (May 15, 2015) how to divvy up the biggest electric rate hike in California history, boosting rates by as much as 80 percent for residential customers who use the most power.
More than half of the residential ratepayers served by the state’s two largest utilities will see no increase at all in their rates. But for those who consume the most, the new rates translate into an average increase of $85 per month for electricity.
The plan, approved 3-2 by the state Public Utilities Commission, affects about 9 million customers of the state’s two largest utilities, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co.
The new rates, which will appear on June bills, were approved seven weeks after the PUC mandated a $5 billion rate hike. The plan’s passage came after a week of intense lobbying by industrial, commercial, agricultural and residential groups — all trying to influence how the PUC would allocate the rate hikes.
Big Loss for Big Users
The average rate increase for all residential customers of the two utilities is 19 percent. But low-income ratepayers and those who use the least electricity will face no rate hike at all.
The biggest losers are the biggest users.
Residential ratepayers are divided into five tiers, and those in PG&E’s top tier — about 9 percent of that utility’s residential customers — will see electric rates jump from 14.3 cents to 25.8 cents per kilowatt hour. That’s an 80 percent increase.
That translates into an average increase of $85 — from $232 to $317 — on monthly bills.
For Edison’s heaviest residential users, the rate hike is 71 percent or an average increase from $194 to $265 on monthly bills.
Industrial customers of PG&E and Edison face rate hikes of about 50 percent, while commercial and agricultural ratepayers will see less significant increases.
Hike Fuels Protesters
The increases will be retroactive to March 27 — the day the record rate hikes were approved.
“This is probably the worst economic calamity the state has ever seen,” said David Marshall, chief financial officer at Gregg Industries, a 400-person iron foundry in El Monte. “It has got ramifications well beyond anything that we can begin to understand.”
Today’s vote took place amid the jeers of protesters, who wore tombstone-shaped placards that read: “R.I.P. Affordable Energy.”
PUC Commissioner Jeff Brown bellowed back.
“We cannot walk away from it. We cannot pretend that this is some sort of problem that we can walk away from,” Brown said.
The final plan was a revised version of the plan released by PUC President Loretta Lynch last week. Lynch reworked her plan after an outcry from businesses proclaiming the proposed rate hikes would doom California’s economy and a critical statement from Gov. Gray Davis.
Since it unanimously the approved rate hikes in March, the PUC has crammed a year’s worth of work into six weeks, struggling to fashion rates that simultaneously recoup the $5.2 billion the state has spent buying power for the customers of the state’s two largest utilities and trigger enough conservation to help fend off some of this summer’s expected rolling blackouts.
Customers of San Diego Gas and Electric Co. and those who buy electricity directly from energy wholesalers, such as the California university system, are shielded from rate hikes.
In the past 10 years electrical rates, on average, have increased by 40%. With additional federal regulations and the EPA’s proposed carbon dioxide limits for power plants, the cost of energy is expected to continue to increase significantly for the foreseeable future. For many households, utility costs can be as much as 25% of housing expenses and with air conditioning accounting for up to 50% of that, some people may have to choose between basic necessities such as food or medication and running their air conditioner during a heat wave.
A 2011 survey of low-income households for the National Energy Assistance Directors Association reveals some of the adverse health and welfare impacts of high-energy costs. Low-income households reported these responses to high-energy bills:
∙ 24% went without food for at least one day.
∙ 37% went without medical or dental care.
∙ 34% did not fill a prescription or took less than the full dose.
Although some may think air conditioning is not a necessity, the fact is that heat waves kill more Americans than other natural disasters such as floods, lightning, tornadoes, and hurricanes. In July 1995, Chicago, Illinois experienced a heat wave that caused over 700 deaths. Since 1950 the number of heat waves has increased and heat waves have become longer. The hottest days have become hotter and more frequent. In the contiguous United States, new record high temperatures over the past decade have consistently outnumbered the record lows.
With rising temperatures and increasing cost of energy, many homeowners are looking for alternatives to running their expensive air conditioners in order to stay cool. Although air conditioning continues to be the best solution for staying cool during the day, companies such as CentricAir have given homeowners an alternative during the evening and at night when temperatures outside are cooler than inside. CentricAir has created an energy efficient line of natural cooling and ventilation products that are cost effective for today’s needs. Using precision balanced, acoustically designed fans with industrial grade components and solid-state electronics, CentricAir fans are mounted in the attic on the ceiling and pull cool fresh air into the home through open windows. The hot air inside the home and attic is then forced out through the attic vents. Due to its great cooling efficiency, CentricAir fans bring the temperature inside the home to comfortable level allowing for an enjoyable evening and comfortable nights sleep. They also use a fraction of the energy of a typical home air conditioner making it one of the best home energy efficiency upgrades you can make. To learn more about CentricAir and their ultra quiet and energy efficient products visit www.CentricAir.com
