The makers of the QuietCool QC-4500 Whole House Attic Fan make big claims about the unit cutting utility bills and helping you control the temperature inside your home without air conditioning. But is the unit worth the price? Does it do what the company says it will?
And is there a better whole house attic fan for today’s homeowners?
I’ll get to this whole house fan review in a moment, but first let’s look at how home attic fans works. Without a complete understand of how these fans work, you can’t be sure such a unit will work for you.
Units like the Quiet Cool model we’re discussing are radically different from the old-fashioned attic fans you may remember as a child, but they work in much the same way.
Those old-fashioned whole house attic fans usually had large motors mounted on the ceiling’s wood frame. When you turned the unit on and opened the windows, large louvers opened and the fan powered up, creating suction in the home that pulled hot air out of the house, through the attic and vented it outside.
These units worked fairly well, but the motor mounted on the ceiling was noisy, the suction could be unpleasant and the opening in the ceiling for the louvers was huge.
Today’s whole house attic fans have quieter motors, require smaller vents and run much more efficiently, but they aren’t all the same. In fact, there are major differences between models on the market today, so it’s important to choose the right one.
The QuietCool QC-4500 Review
Even better, the unit comes with a 10-year manufacturer’s warranty so you can be sure the money you spend today will serve you for years to come.
The easy-to-install unit also saves you substantially on your energy bill.
While all whole house attic fans will result in lower utility bills if used correctly because they allow you to vent hot, humid air and pull in cooler, drier air, some save you more than others. Since this unit is energy efficient, it uses no more power than necessary to do its job. It also moves air quickly, so you may not need to run it as long as you would other units.
Of course, the exact amount of savings is difficult to determine because circumstances vary.
Note that when the air outside is warm and humid, this type of unit does little good. If the air outside is cool and dry at any time, even if it’s just in the mornings or evenings, the QuietCool QC-4500 can be used to pull this more pleasant air inside your home and save you money on your air conditioning bill.
In many cases, that air pulled in is cool enough for you to live comfortably. In some cases, however, it may still be necessary to turn on air conditioning for a while to help further cool the air. That depends on how hot it is outside and how cool you want your home.
A single Quiet Cool unit can serve a fairly large home. Turning on the unit when you come in from work, for example, can clear out stale air from a large home in only a few minutes. Homeowners often mount the unit at the top of the stairs in a two-story home or in a central hallway with access to as many rooms as possible in a single-story residence.
Because the fan motors hang above the rafters, there’s less vibration than with other brands of whole house attic fans that are mounted directly to the wood in the attic. And the fans in these unit are quieter to begin with.
Quiet Cool vents also have self-closing damper doors that seal out air and prevent ventilation when it isn’t desired, increasing energy efficiency if you decide to run an air conditioning system and when you need heating.
These types of fans are also great for ventilating cooking smells or other odors and reducing that stale, closed-up feeling of home.
In short, the QuietCool QC-4500 whole house attic fan does everything it says it will and more. It really can save you money and make you more comfortable in your home.
A Final Note
Whole house attic fans have proven their effectiveness over decades of use. And now, they’re better than ever. When modern technology and innovative new engineering meet economical and old-fashioned ways that were nearly forgotten, great things result.
While older units were noisy, unpleasant and consumed a lot of electricity, the QuietCool QC-4500 Whole House Attic Fan uses today’s technology to bring you that proven effectiveness in a less intrusive way.
When you order this system from Amazon, you get free shipping in many cases. That’s a real savings over what other sites charge to get this to your home.