Fan not pulling air thru the window?

[Ed in NC]

When I was a lad growing up in Louisiana without A/C, we had an attic or whole house fan.Usually mounted near the center of the house. it exhausted warm air from the house into the attic and out of the house, and pulled cooler air in thru the windows. Even with all the windows open, there was a cooler breeze entering the house. If you opened only the bedroom windows in the evening, there was a downright stiff breeze into the room. It is the same principle being discussed here.

I currently live in N.C. and this house, built in the early 70's has a whole house fan, with a timer and automatic louvers. We use it quite a bit in the spring and fall.

Ed

[daddo]

According to my calculations; m2 x (r-d)f1+d3=g/2(c+x).  

I agree with Cletus!  

[hbmcc]

If the cat is being a pest put a screen on the window.  The last thing you want is a fan blowing air in a fallout shelter, a closed environment. I've had 25 years to experiment with one home's air circulation.

You are getting heat from several sources. The ceiling is the biggest culprit, and it hits you worst about 11 pm; amazing, you are hotter at 70 to 75 when outside temps never went over 65. By then you in your dutch oven are just about baked bread. I have a thermostat controlled fan for my attic, but my body pain of installing it is worse than the temperature-cost pain. 

I learned heat control in a largish commercial greenhouse. Banks of 4-ft-diameter fans (swamp coolers?) pushed and pulled hot humid Iowa air through and out of the entire volume. Plants sucked a lot of water in summer, but ambient temperature was cooler than outside. Always follow the mechanics mantra.

The mechanics are all the same: cool air in, hot air out. I can cool the house with a room fan. One little fan for a 1000 sf of circuitous ventilation area. The FAU fan runs from warm spring into cool fall, so it swirls air too. When I sneak a second window open, challenging burglars, a second fan pushes air downstairs to the FAU fan. The fans at windows take advantage of the prevailing breezes. 

Your body pumps out heat also. Just tell Wife to turn off her heater, and wear a sweater in the morning. Adjust the FAU thermostat, and let nature warm (or, cool) the house when possible. I have a whizz-bang electronic thermostat, but my finger in manual is so much easier, specialized--and cheaper. Don't let the salesman lie to you. Maybe, when they come up with body gauges and smart algorithms you can let science control the temperature.

Wife is also a compromise between easy comfort and contorted manipulation. YMMV.

[TDKPE]

Put the pedestal fan in front of a window in an unused room so it's blowing out.  Open the window in your bedroom.  Leave all other windows closed, or mostly closed.  Cold air will come into your bedroom and any other window you've left cracked open.  

I used to cool the downstairs in our Co-op in NY while the A/C was on in the bedroom for sleeping.  Got mighty chilly downstairs by morning, with the 16" pedestal fan on low.

Pushing air out one window means it has to come in through another, and you can control what the 'other' window is.

Edit: Oops - I see fixtureman and Ed in NC have suggested the same thing.

[Robert Adams]

Like mentioned the air is just being recirculated around the fan. You need to seal the fan in the opening to really get any effect. 

      And windows in the US all have screens which block pretty much all the airflow you would have anyway. 

 
               Here we are finally starting to cool down though it will be back to 90 in a couple days.... I have thought about one of those $500 ceiling mount attic fans with the insulated doors for when it's cool at night but.... I can buy allot of electricity to run the AC for $400 and the pollen is at it's worst when it's starting to cool off so it makes more sense to just run the AC to save $ and it cleans the pollen and dirt as it's running.

[R Clark]

If you use a double fan in a single window, you'll need some sort of baffle to prevent the incoming air being exhausted right out before it has a chance to circulate through the room.

It still mixes enough to cool down a normal size bedroom.  I used to have one of these double fans back when we lived in New Jersey.  The front on one had directional vanes to push the incoming air in a direction away from the outgoing exhaust fan.

And yes, a standard box fan can do a lot to help the situation.

Overcomplicating the situation as Cletus claims?  Sure.  But I'm woodworker.  It's how I roll. 

[fixtureman]

Just put a box fan right in front of the window screen. It will pull cold air into the room without needing to be able to vent air somewhere else.

I swear, you guys can over complicate the simplest things.

Your house must not be very tight it is hard to force more air into a sealed box

[nuk]

Well, swapped the tower fan in front of the window for a box fan *in* the window - immediate difference!

I've got one of the dual fan units with independent controls on order, as I need the box fan for other things from time to time

[CLETUS]

Your house must not be very tight it is hard to force more air into a sealed box

In theory. 

We're talking about cooling off a bedroom.

[Wild Turkey]

Back in the days before air conditioning. . . 


Houses were often built with tall windows that would be open top and bottom -- hot air going out the top, coming in the bottom.

Worked well back them, would work even better with a fan helping