Frequently Asked Questions About Whole House Fans

A: There are websites that claim to provide independent whole house fan reviews; however, we found that they are typically associated with the whole house fan company that builds the whole house fans they are reviewing.

A: For our CentricAir whole house fans, Comfort Cool guarantees the fan motor for 15 years from the date of purchase against defects or failures under use as instructed in the user's manual. All the other components such as switches have a one-year parts warranty. Customer satisfaction is our first priority. Although problems are very infrequent, we will do whatever takes to make sure the client is pleased with their whole house fan purchase.

Your QA-Deluxe whole house fan system (Motor, Housing, Damper, Ducting and Control) is warrantied for 10 years from the original date of installation against defects in material and workmanship. The defective part will be repaired or replaced as covered by this warranty. Please retain the dated invoice as evidence of the date of purchase. You will need it for any warranty service.

Your QA-Deluxe Fan is warrantied against defects in material or workmanship for the time period and as set forth below. Pursuant to this Limited Warranty, we shall repair the product using new or refurbished parts or replace the product with a new or refurbished product. For purposes of this Limited Warranty, "refurbished" means a product or part that has been returned to its original specifications. Any replaced product or part is warrantied for a period of ninety (90) days from replacement, or through the end of the original warranty, whichever is longer.

A: We accept Visa, Discover and Master Card.

A: Many of our clients use third party Smart Plugs for WeMo, Amazon, Google, etc. to control their Comfort Cool whole house fan. The unique benefit of a Comfort Cool whole house fan is that they are designed to plug into a standard wall outlet. However, Comfort Cool systems with our Cold Climate Dampers are NOT compatible with Smart Plugs.

A: Yes! The reason is because during hot summer days, extremely hot air gets trapped in your attic. Throughout the late afternoon and into the evening, air conditioning has the job of battling the heat that is radiating into the house.

Because cold air falls to the lower level and hot air within the home rises to the highest level, air conditioning is fighting a losing battle. Customers relying on air conditioning alone often find that they end up with a cold lower level and hot upper level.

A: A whole house fan is a type of fan, or exhaust system that removes hot air from the attic and living space of the home. It is sometimes confused with an attic fan which only exhausts hot air from the attic to the outside through a gable vent or opening in the roof at a low velocity.

A: A whole house fan can be used to cool your entire Rancho Santa Margarita home including the attic and can significantly reduce and in some instances eliminate the need for air conditioning.

Attic Fans are smaller fans that are mounted on the gable or roof of your house. They typically work on a thermostat that's installed in the attic and help remove hot air from the attic but do not have a significant impact on the temperature inside the home.

A: The cost to operate a whole house fan is about 10% of what it costs to run a typical residential air conditioner.

A: We recommend clients consider purchasing the largest whole house fan that their home has the attic ventilation for. It’s very likely for example that a 2200 sqft two story home will have sufficient attic ventilation for our CentricAir 2.7 model which requires about 3.25 sqft of net free attic ventilation. However, if this same size home has enough attic ventilation for our CentricAir 3.4 system which requires about 4.0 sqft of net free attic ventilation, this may be worth considering since it’s only slightly more expensive but will cool your home even faster. We do not, however, recommend adding additional roof ventilation just to go with a large whole house fan.

In order to determine how much attic or roof ventilation is required for each Comfort Cool whole house fan, please call us and we'll gladly tell you how you can determine how many square feet of attic ventilation you have. Our professional advice is always free.

A: The modern motor fans in our systems are precision balanced and acoustically designed to allow for an extremely smooth and quiet operation. However, we took it even further. Rather than use typical air conditioning ducting with plastic lining, we use sound absorbing (Quiet Flex) ductwork which absorbs vibration and sound much better than standard ductwork.

A: Most Comfort Cool whole house fans are installed just a couple of hours. In certain circumstances installation may take a little longer, although that is very uncommon.

A: Each of our Whole House Fans has a listed requirement for attic venting. See the Specification tab for the product you are interested in.

A: Technically, yes, but we do not recommend this. In order for the home ventilation system to work correctly, windows need to be open. If your whole house fan turns on automatically and the windows are not open, it can pull air from your fireplace causing ash and soot to stain your furniture and carpet. Since the cooling effect occurs almost immediately, there is no reason to run your home ventilation system before you arrive home.

A: A whole house fan works by pulling cool fresh air in through open windows or doors and exhausting the hot stale air out through attic and roof vents. Using a whole house fan to cool your home can substitute for an air conditioner most of the year in many climates. Video - How Whole House Fans Work.

A: Opening two or more windows half way or more is recommended. Basically you should make it easy for the home ventilation system to pull in air. As for which windows to open, for general cooling you want to open windows far away from the fan to provide airflow to the whole house.

Or, you can open windows in the areas you want cooled. For example, if the upstairs bedrooms are the warmest, then open the windows in those rooms only and close the down stairs windows.

A: A unique benefit of a Comfort Cool whole house fan is that the receiver for the remote control is separate from the whole house fan. As a result, the whole house fan plugs into the receiver and the receiver plugs into a standard electrical outlet. We wanted to make sure that it was easy for our clients to replace the remote control and receiver in case there was ever a need.