Whole house fan opinions

We had one growing up....too much humidity.....everything is damp/sticky in the morning.

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cooler outdoor air

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What’s that?

I grew up with only a whole house fan to cool things down in the summertime. It beat the hell out of not having anything to help cool off at night, but during the day they only drew in hot air.

I grew up in the lower 9th ward as a kid and not many folks had A/C when I was young, so having a whole house fan was very much appreciated at night.

The thing I remember going hand in hand with the fan at night was my mom walking through the house with a Black Flag flit gun pumping that thing to dispense the poison based liquid to kill the mosquitoes that got into the house during the day.

Ah, the good old days.

I have one in my house. Previous owner was a yankee and had it installed, he loved the thing.

The ONLY time I can use it, is in the fall. In the spring, there is too much pollen, and you just suck all that into your house. Summer is entirely too hot/humid to use it. We had a couple of cooler days/nights in April and the pollen was pretty much done and I got to use it once or twice.

Your location says So Cal.....If that is the case, it might be worth it. The climate is arid and that area gets cool enough at night that it might be worth the money. It could pay for itself vs running the AC at night.

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We had one growing up....too much humidity.....everything is damp/sticky in the morning.

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Kinda the same, but my father knew when to use it. It was great for those few times each spring and fall when the air was dry enough. Otherwise we suffered because his depression era arse barely used the A/C and we were not allowed to touch the thermostat.

I don’t even drive with my windows down anymore.

I guess it would be great for people that smoked in their house.

Same with car windows, only ones that are down either the AC is broken or they're smokin.

I get in drop all the windows and get moving. Close it all up and turn the AC on, but houses in this area need to be conditioned 24/7 for moisture alone.

Introducing mid 80°/60% humidity air (at best) to the house will only make your system work harder than keeping it set to 80° during the day. I work and play in the heat. I want to be comfortable when I get home. Nothing worse than sweating getting out of the shower.

then your AC has to run 6 hours straight to ever get the temps down into the low 70's when you're done with all of that shenanigans.

I grew up in south Louisiana in a house with nothing but an attic fan. In the hot summer you would fall asleep sweating and wake up an hour later looking for a sheet (notice I didn't say blanket). All of the beds had to be next to a window. You would crack the window open about an inch or two to get a good flow of air across your bed. You were on the honor system. If you opened your window too much, everybody else suffered. It really wasn't that bad unless you had a hot west wind blowing all night.

Adults were smart enough to lower their activity level prior to bedtime. Us kids were too dumb and played and ran around all the way up to bedtime, so we really broke a sweat when they forced us to lay down.

During the day you expected it to be a little warm in the house. But our house was pier and beam and had awnings shading every window. We also had a yard full of big oaks and shrubs that shaded the house and the ground. So the ground actually stayed cooler during the day. That helped to keep the temperature of the air you were sucking in as low as possible. If you got a good summer shower, it would actually get very cool in the house.

I actually think it was a healthy lifestyle, sweating being good for you and all. I don't think it would work in most houses today. Slab houses don't breathe the way pier and beam houses do. Like someone said, if it wasn't summertime, it was awesome. Constant exchange of fresh air. But you had to maintain your screens. Spring cleaning included taking down all of your screens and cleaning them.