How To Install An Attic Gable Fan
Yous may not spend much time thinking nigh cranium ventilation, but if you own your own home, y'all owe information technology to yourself to give the subject serious idea. Inadequate venting leads to high attic temperatures that can reduce condolement, raise utility bills and shorten the useful life of roofing materials. The adept news is that adding a few vents almost always solves the trouble. And for fifty-fifty greater effectiveness, you might consider installing an attic fan, as well.
These cheap fans are thermostatically controlled so they run only when they're needed. When you consider that attics tin can achieve 150 degrees F, and that attic heat accounts for 20 percent of the boilerplate cooling pecker, these fans are a good investment. Most can exist installed for around $100. Cranium-ventilation fans are also available with humidistats as well as thermostats. A humidistat-equipped fan is a practiced choice for controlling excess attic humidity during the colder months.
Ventilation Basics
Before running out to purchase an attic fan, accept some time to check the existing attic ventilation on your house. While the type and number of vents will vary depending on the specific roof blueprint, firm location and amount of direct dominicus, a minimum venting arrangement should accept 1 sq. ft. of roof vent area for every 300 sq. ft. of attic surface area.
When information technology comes to vents, more is better, and every vent mounted high on a roof needs a analogue on the lower roof, commonly under the eaves in the soffit. With this system, hot air rising through the upper vents will pull cooler air into the attic through the soffit vents. Without soffit vents, it'due south like trying to cool your dwelling by opening the windows on just one side of your house.
Common signs of an overly hot attic are cobblestone shingles with corners curled up, or bulges in the felt and shingles direct over the seams in the sheathing. On cold winter days, look for frost inside the attic. This frost is trapped moisture, which, if not immune to escape, can rot the entire roof.
And finally, check your existing soffit vents to make certain they're not clogged with debris. On hot days, the air movement through these vents is strong plenty to pull lite seeds from trees and bushes right into the vent screens. Chock-full vents will need to be cleared if your new fan is to work properly.
Choosing Your Fan
In that location are two bones cranium fan designs: those made for roof installations and those intended to be mounted in a gable wall. Roof fans are mounted on plastic or sheetmetal bases that serve equally flashing. Simply cut an opening in the roof, typically near the pinnacle, and install the fan over the opening. Then shingle above and around the flashing merely as you would for a standard roof vent or plumbing stack.
In our instance, we chose a gable-wall fan that was slightly easier to install because no shingles had to be disturbed. In fact, we simply installed our fan in place of an existing gable vent. We needed to enlarge the opening a little to suit a slightly larger, automatic shutter, but it was notwithstanding a fairly simple job, requiring no structural alterations. If your existing vent is large enough, y'all may not need to replace it. Just mountain the fan directly backside information technology.
We chose a Whisper Absurd fan (Model WCGA) fabricated by CertainTeed (CertainTeed Ventilation, 3000 Due west. Commerce St., Dallas, TX 75212; www.certainteed.com). The fan is warranted for five years, draws a mere 3.ii amps and is capable of handling an attic area upwardly to 1500 sq. ft. Its thermostat is installed in a command box and is prewired.
We paid about $40 for the fan, plus about $30 for an Attic Aire automatic shutter, likewise made by CertainTeed. This plastic shutter remains closed against the conditions until the fan blows information technology open. You'll besides need caulk, a few electric items and a slice of i/ii-in. plywood on which to mount the fan.
Step one: Installing the Shutter
If the existing gable vent is smaller than the diameter of the fan, you'll need to remove the vent and install either a larger vent or an automated shutter. Begin past removing the screws or nails that secure the sometime vent, and elevator information technology from its opening.
Step 2: Installing the Shutter
Center the front of the automatic shutter over the vent hole, make sure the shutter's frame is level and trace effectually it with a pencil. This will give you the final position of the mounting flange. To establish the edges of the new opening measure in 5/8 in. on all sides.
Step 3: Installing the Shutter
Our installation was simplified because our gable wall was surfaced with Texture-111 plywood siding that provides a flat surface on which to attach the shutter flange. If your wall has lap siding, you'll need to cut the siding around the perimeter of the vent hole and install i ten three or one x 4 boards around the hole to act as a flat mounting surface on which you can secure the vent flange.
If you find the bottom of the old opening framed with 2 x 4 blocking, use a reciprocating saw to cutting through the nails that hold it in place, and set the blocking aside.
Footstep 4: Installing the Shutter
With all obstructions cleared, cutting the new opening with a sabre saw. Follow the lines drawn 5/viii in. inside the shutter flange perimeter lines.
Step 5: Installing the Shutter
Elevator the new shutter into the opening, double-bank check that it'due south level and spike it in place with 1-in. woodscrews. Seal the perimeter with an acrylic caulk.
Step 6: Installing the Shutter
Finally, smash the old blocking in place just below the bottom of the shutter.
Replace any blocking you cut out when enlarging the opening. The blocking will assist support the fan mounting panel.
Pace 7: Mounting the Fan
The carton our fan came in had a circle cutout pattern that we used to size the fan opening on a slice of plywood. Installing the fan on a plywood mounting panel is a skilful thought considering it keeps the fan blades away from the wall and it enables you lot to center and secure the associates with footling concern for the underlying framing.
Cutting a piece of plywood to a size that volition accommodate the attic framing that surrounds the vent hole. Cut the circle from the carton and position the paper-thin template on the plywood and then the finished hole volition exist centered over the vent hole when the plywood is secured to the wall. Trace around the template with a pencil.
Step 8: Mounting the Fan
Use a sabre saw to cut the airway in the mounting panel. Bore a pigsty in the waste area to start the cut.
Stride 9: Mounting the Fan
Place the fan mounting bracket on the plywood, center the fan over the opening and screw the bracket to the plywood. We backed our screws with washers to keep the heads from pulling through.
The fan assembly needs to be oriented vertically, so expect for the Upwardly/Downwards markings on 1 set of supports and mark the top of the plywood mounting panel accordingly. So, conduct the fan and panel associates into the cranium, position it behind the shutter and blast it to the gable framing.
Pace 10: Wiring the Fan
How you wire your attic fan will depend on local codes and whether you lot tin can find an attic circuit with enough reserve chapters to handle the 3.2-amp fan motor.
If you can't observe plenty of reserve capacity in a nearby existing circuit, you'll need to go dorsum to the service panel and create a new 15-amp circuit dedicated to the fan and possibly a few new attic lights. Your installation volition need to meet prevailing electric codes and will have to be inspected past a codes official. If y'all have any doubt nigh your ability to practice the wiring, install the fan yourself and hire a professional person to consummate the electrical piece of work.
To make up one's mind if an attainable circuit has reserve capacity, close off its billow and count the number of low-cal and receptacle boxes that are on this circuit. Assign each a value of one.5 amps and add up the total. A 15-amp circuit can serve 10 boxes and a xx-amp circuit, thirteen. If you discover a circuit with four or 5 amps to spare, y'all're in luck. If not, go back to the service panel and fish 14-2 w/chiliad cable into the attic. In our case, we were able to tap a nearby 15-amp circuit that powered pull-chain lights in our attic. As always, make sure the ability is off before working on any wiring.
The fan'due south thermostat is already mounted in a box that'due south fastened to the fan by a flexible conduit. Spiral this box to the plywood so it'due south in the straight path of the airflow
Stride 11: Wiring the Fan
And so, go to the nearest circuit box--in our case, a pull-chain fixture. Disconnect the fixture and prepare it aside for now.
Step 12: Wiring the Fan
Side by side, diameter holes in the rafters between the gable wall and the open fixture box. Utilize a 5/viii-in. bit and drill only the eye of the board. Pull 14-2 due west/chiliad cablevision through the holes between the 2 boxes and staple the new cable to the rafter inside 8 in. of the ceiling fixture box.
Step 13: Wiring the Fan
Do the same with the cable near the thermostat box.
Pull the cable through the holes in the rafters and staple it within eight in. of both the ceiling box and thermostat box.
Footstep xiv: Wiring the Fan
Bring the cable through ane of the studs supporting the fan and strip about 8 in. of insulation from the finish. Attach a box connector to the cablevision and feed the wires into the thermostat box. Tighten a fastening nut onto the box connector and connect the bare basis wire to the dark-green terminal in the box.
Step xv: Wiring the Fan
Then, connect the white excursion wire to the white fixture atomic number 82 and the blackness circuit wire to the black fixture lead with twist connectors.
Step 16: Wiring the Fan
Supervene upon the box cover and gear up the thermostat to activate the fan at about 105 degrees F.
Step 17: Wiring the Fan
To finish the wiring, render to the open fixture box and adhere two viii-in. pb wires to the pull-chain fixture. Connect a black lead to the brass last screw and a white wire to the silver concluding. Then, join like-colored wires in twist connectors and mount the fixture on the box.
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Source: https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to/a156/1275656/
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