Whole house fan

[Rick Potter]

I have a detached shop, and I was wondering about putting a whole house fan on the wall near where most dust is generated. It seems to me that might draw most of the fine stuff outside immediately. This would be in addition to my very basic dust collection system (3 HP Powermatic).

I live in Ca., and am not worried about losing heat, nor is there any gas appliance in the shop.

Any thoughts...is this another of my dumb ideas?

Rick Potter

[Rob Russell]

Doesn't sound dumb to me, if you have windows or something to open so you can get good airflow going.

We have a whole house fan that blows up into the attic. It moves a lot of air. With one of those on, you'd definitely evacuate the fine dust in a hurry. Just remember the air has to come from somewhere. Turning the fan on without doors or windows won't do much. You're also going to be potentially sucking in as much dust and pollen as you're blowing out. Depending on the time of year, you could also suck in a lot of flies if you don't have screens.

[Robert McGowen]

We have a whole house fan (in the house ) so here is my take on it.

Make sure that the motor can run in a vertical position on a wall. I understand that the orientation can effect some motors depending on their design.

The motor is on top of the fan, which means that it will be sticking out quite a ways from the wall. It will need to be completely covered from the weather.

I guess the point of installing one is to have a lot of dust and sawdust, etc. blowing past the motor. It might have to be a sealed motor so that it is not effected by this.

There might be more to installing this than meets the eye. Just my .02 worth. Good luck.

[Chris Padilla]

Ditto to what the other have said, I also have a whole house fan placed in my stairwell and venting into the attic space. Works great for drawing in the cooler summer evening air and evacuating the warmer air in the second story and it uses much less energy than running the A/C.

That said, I'm not sure it was designed to "handle" a significant amount of particulates in the air but that doesn't mean that it couldn't.

You could do something as simple as a box fan placed in a window blowing outside but it would cake with dust pretty fast however a good blast with some compressed air might clean it in a jiffy. Worth a shot and very cheap.

[Rick Potter]

I was thinking about mounting on the wall near major tools. With the window open on the opposite side it might just pull a lot of the fines out. It would be pretty easy to reverse the blade so the motor and belt are on the inside, and the louvers on the outside wall. It would be under a wide eave and rain would not be a problem.

Dust would go past the motor, but I have seen a lot of table saws with open motors, so I imagine that might be manageable. Open windows are not a problem here...it was 75 today, real bad days are about 40 degrees for a month or so.

The whole house fan in the house makes it possible to selectively adjust which was the breeze comes from by opening and closing various windows.

Another wild idea. Who knows if I will ever do it, but I have been cutting a lot of MDF lately.

Thanks,
Rick Potter

[Mike Cutler]

Rick

A gable vent fan might work also. It's a little smaller than a whole house fan.

My whole house fan moves a lot of air.

[John Hixon]

I think it would be a bad idea to suck all the particles into an attic. Imagine the amount that would settle before getting through the ridge vents.
But venting directly outside.. Gotta be better than any filter.

[josh bjork]

So put the fan down low and open an upstairs window! I dont' think there is a rule they have to be on top, it is just normal. Anyway, an attic fan would just suck the OP's dust up through his house. Wise idea. Basements need some circulation anyway imo.

[Greg Stanford]

you might look at exhaust fans like they use in a paint shop, I bought one from an outfit in arkansas & have it mounted in the rear wall of my shop. It does very well. I do wish I'd gotten the 2 speed as this one's a little loud at times - but I don't run it except when I need to clear the air or want a breeze.

g