Whole house fan as Exhaust fan

[Neville Stewart]

I was looking at a Whole house fan or attic fan and thought I might be able to use it as a workshop exhaust fan, only problem is that it is set to " suck" not exhaust and the vent flips inward and not out. Is this a pointless endeavour to rewire the motor or is there a specific application I could use. TIA Neville in Austin

[Allen Bookout]

I think that I know what you are talking about. You would have to mount it just as thought you were mounting it in the ceiling but I do not see why that would be a problem. I guess that you could have to have a window on the outside that you could open and close if you wanted to close it up airtight sometimes.

I had two attic fans that I used but I had the same thing with them. I had a window that I could open and close on the outside. Actually I had roll out type windows with a crank on the inside so I just bolted them directly to the frame of the window and could open and close the window from the inside. I guess if you did not mind the open air all of the time you could mount them just like you do in an attic.

I was using mine when I was doing a lot of welding inside and it worked to get the fumes out but at the same time it sucked in a lot of dirt and stuff. I should have had a good filtered intake installed and kept everything else shut up real tight. I would rig it up that way if I did it again.

I do not know if I would want this setup in a woodshop or not as it will allow a lot of moisture to be sucked in unless you have a way to deal with it. Here in Florida on the coast it could be a real problem but I guess that Austin is not nearly so humid except when it is raining.

Will be interesting to see what you set up.

Allen

[Matt Meiser]

You might watch Ebay for a more suitable fan. I picked up a really nice Dayton ~20" fan with a TEFC motor for about $130 shipped a year ago. Mine hadn't even been used other than for lab testing.