So,your trying to cool your house with what works out to be
the size of a bath room fan. Interesting.

It's not going to work well- not enough cfm.
The whole house fans are large for a reason- in cfm as you mentioned. Installing a whole house fan would be a better choice.

Thanks for the comments

It's a _little_ bigger than most bathroom vents, though not by much. It happened to be the largest one of a line that my supplier is discontinuing, so I thought it might help. I'm trying to do this on a budget (in other words, I'm a cheap SOB).

My problem with the traditional whole-house fan is the cathedral ceilings. They are covered with western red cedar and there is NO way I am going to put a huge fan into it. Guess I'll keep looking for other options, like a larger in-line duct fan.

You could try one of those large outdoor fans sold at the depot stores, place it in a window on one end of the house, then open the windows a bit where you will be sleeping or sitting and you'll get a breeze. *Have the fan blow outwards at the window.
Just a thought and it's CHEAP. :)
Also- you won't feel much breeze if there are too many windows or doors open at the same time.

Thanks daddo. That's essentially what I do now, with several $10 box fans. It works well except when the wind reverses on us in the middle of the night. But I never thought of using an outdoor fan. Those are definitely more powerful. I'll check that out.

I guess what I'm looking for is a "partial house fan." Something that will help out on the 10 to 20 days per year when the natural breezes don't cool the house at night, and won't cost an arm or a leg. I've been doing some caculatin' and I figure I would have about a 20 year payback period for the cost of a conventional whole-house fan, so I don't think we'll be going that route.

Headed for triple digits today for the first time this year. Maybe I'll actually use the A/C. It's a museum piece, one of the first Carriers made, but still works great.

Anyone else have suggestions for a cheap partial house fan?

My old house (in Sac) was dreadful to try to cool. I replaced the indoor coils/fan/furnace with a newer model in the attic (house had been sold as "newer AC", neglecting to mention the 30-year-old furnace/coils).

I then replaced the windows and blew more insulation in the attic... but no "ultimate glory"...

Until I installed a Whole House Fan. Sadly, I was between 2-story houses, so no breeze for me.

After much research and studying, I opted to go with a 24-inch (all that I could fit without altering the attic too much) Triangle Engineering fan. It is solid steel, belt driven, 2-speed motor (not a motor that is "throttled" like ceiling fans - so thus much better).

On low, we could barely hear it. It moved lots of air, and we ran it all night long to "pre-cool" the house, severely cutting back on our AC needs.

In our new "barely-insulated" KB Home, I put the 36" custom "Delta Breeze" version of the Triangle Enginnering fan (it is a 1/2 hp, 6-blade version made just for the local company Fanman), and it does wonders for cooling the house. 7500 CFM low (290 watts), 11200 CFM high (580 watts). However, the smallest Delta Breeze is 30", which is why I had to put the non-Delta Breeze version in my old house.

http://fanman.com/whole_house_fans.html (Sacramento company with the custom Delta Breeze)

http://www.trianglefans.com/wholehouse.html
(the company that makes the Delta Breeze, and the regular 4-blade versions that are available from other dealers. They also make a cheap direct drive, but I wouldn't use one of those recycled-soda-can-looking units :)

Wow, thanks goglen. Great stuff. Do you mind sharing how much you paid for the 24" version? I think that would work well, since it can be installed vertically in the gable end of our cathedral ceiling.

Believe it or not, with temp at 103 yesterday and 99 today so far, we still haven't had the AC on. We peaked out at 84 yesterday, too hot for my wife, who was traveling on business, but fine for me. The little breeze we had last night combined with my liberal use of box fans got us down to 77 by morning. We're at 81 and holding right now (4:30 pdt). I took the day off to stay at home and finish up some hardwood floor installation, instead of dying at our presently gutted project. We are blessed with nice trees on the south side, and great insulation, as well as our usual breeze, so perhaps we really don't need a WHF, but it would be nice not to have to fiddle with the 4 box fans we use during the heat waves.

thanks again.

I wish my family would let me keep it 80 or more in the house. I would try it, but I think I'll wait till I get my fathers day gifts first. :)))
Back in the 70's, I installed those whole house fans for Monkey Wards- they really did a great job. You may just have talked me into getting one.
The best thing was that they cooled the attic while running, so you had to make sure there were large openings at the gables to allow airflow.

Matt -- I bought my 24" many years ago... maybe in 2000? At the time, it was maybe $300.

Triangle Engineering fans cost more than cheap Home Depot Recycled Soda Can fans, but because they are solid, they last a long time.

Vertical mounting would be different - the unit is not bolted down, though I'm sure you could. Instead, it sits on a rubber strip on top of a wooden frame that goes inside its outer lip. Since it is blowing UP, this forces the fan down onto the mount... and the rubber strip absorbs any vibration impact.

You'd have to be careful about making sure the motor is in the correct corner (ie, ask them if it can be vertical mounted) because it is a self-tensioning belt drive... a spring holds the motor, keeping the belt tensioned.

I'm half Norwegian, so to me, 76 is too hot. 75 bearable, but I prefer to keep my house at 74 or even 73 :)

At your preferred temperature, I think I'd lie down and wait to die!

This is why a 4-ton unit for a 3000 sq ft house is torture for me.

I have a recommendation for whole-house fans, and that is to go with the ones made by Triangle Engineering of Arkansas (made in the USA!).

These things move more air than any other brand. As an example: the 36" belt-drive model sold at Lowes & Home Depot moves 6,900 CFM on its highest speed. The 36" one that Triangle makes moves 10,600 CFM.

I just put one of these in last week and am so taken with it that I'm evangelizing for Triangle now.

These things are much higher quality than the other brands too -- these are made with very heavy-gauge solid welded steel (as opposed to the thin, flimsy metal - often aluminum - that other brands use). They use a very solid motor made by Emerson, the best of the top three motor-making companies (the other two being Fasco and A.O. Smith). They come pre-framed on a wood frame for installation, AND they have sponge-rubber noise-dampening material between the fan and the frame, so they are much quieter than the other brands. Also, Triangle holds a patent on an automatic belt-tensioning system these things use, so you don't have to worry about getting the tension right when you install the fan (or in the years thereafter as the belt loosens up).

Also, they come in more sizes than the other companies -- from 24" all the way up to 48" blade diameter (which moves a ridiculously whopping amount of air; no one else makes one that big).

They're sold online at Southern Tool amongst other places that ship nationwide, so they're available wherever you live.

Also, Triangle re-brands some of these as a private label for Dayton, which is the "store brand" of Grainger - so if you have a Grainger store near you (check your phone book or their website), you can buy one there. I will say this, though - Grainger/Dayton makes their own shutters, and those shutters are much better than the one Triangle makes. Triangle makes great fans, but crappy shutters. Luckily, they're sold separately -- so buy a Triangle fan and Dayton shutters; money can't buy better products.

They also re-brand some for a company out in San Francisco called "Fanman" (a/k/a "Delta Breeze").

A word to the wise -- these fans move a lot of air, so make sure to install at least the recommended minimum amount of attic exhaust space (gable vents, soffit vents, roof vents, some combination thereof, whatever works for you) - if you don't have enough, the fan will operate at reduced capacity, and there will be a backpressure which will cause the shutters to rattle when the fan is in operation (any time you hear whole-house fan shutters rattling, you know there isn't enough exhaust space). Oh, and one other thing -- only buy a belt-drive whole-house fan, don't EVER buy a direct-drive model...the direct-drive models are at least five times louder, they sound like standing on an airport runway next to an old prop plane getting ready to take off.

Several of the dedicated whole-house fan installing companies have chosen to use Triangle fans; that should tell you something. These companies want satisfied customers, so they use Triangle and only Triangle.

Refer to http://www.trianglefans.com/wholehouse.html for more info

Here is a link that might be useful: Triangle whole-house fans