Whole House Fan Safety

[chezron]

I am thinking of having a whole house fan installed to help defray A/C costs. All of my friends SWEAR by them to delay using A/C. Anyway, one of my neighbors has an old whole house fan and she turned it on, and it has really powerful suction. I am worried now that it could hurt the birds if they flew too near the inlet. Do any of you who own a grey also own a whole house fan? Of course i can make sure they are in their cages when i run it, but since they are so rarely IN their cages that could be difficult.

[KimKim]

Interesting... We have been looking into getting an HVAC system lately. Now I'm going to google the house fan.

[Talon]

Never heard of this..I will google too, I have central ac, this could save some $$..

[SRSeedBurners]

I googled whole house fan to see if that's what we have. Several variations came up. We have the one with the monster fan that pulls air from everywhere into one central location and vents it through your roof. The fan happens to lie directly in Greycie's flight path to the laundry area where she directs mommy on how to properly do laundry. I would not for a second be worried that Greycie would get sucked up into that thing. Even so, you could very easily put screen above the collapsible vents to prevent such an occurrence. Our on/off switch is right there under the fan so we could easily turn if off. Ours has two settings Hi/Lo. I seriously doubt the Hi setting could pull Miss Piggy off her intended flight path. That said, I could see a Parrotlet or maybe a conure or our Caique possibly getting pulled up there but again, screening would prevent them going into the turbine. I know Greycie would not fit between the inlet guards.

 

This is the motor/fan we have:

http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/hvac/exhaust-fans/fans-whole-house/30-in-comfort-cooler-belt-drive-whole-house-fan-1-2-hp?infoParam.campaignId=T9F&gclid=CMP26Lfq2L0CFQsSMwodHhEAMA

 

My biggest fear concerning the use of this fan is you almost have to open windows to allow it enough circulation to do its job. I don't want windows open enough that Greycie can squeeze through and chew her way through the screen.

Edited April 11, 2014 by SterlingSL

[Timbersmom]

I have a whole house attic fan. I think a lot of it depends on your layout. Our house is two stories with a basement. The fan is in the attic. There are louvers at the top of the stairs. You definitely feel air movement through every open window, but not enough to disturb Timber. If you had a small area, well sealed, with the fan close, you probably could have a strong enough flow to disturb the flight path of a smaller bird, as Sterling said. FYI, yes, it saves us a lot on A/C. When the weather starts warming up, we turn the fan on at night. Then, we close the windows and turn off the fan when we get up in the morning, or when the temp outside starts climbing. It makes a big difference!

[Luvparrots]

I have a exhaust fan in my hall between my three bedrooms. Is this what you are talking about. The fans are in the ceiling with a cover. Not even my canary could get though so I don't worry. My system is both heating and cooling combined.

[katana600]

We live in Georgia and we installed a whole house fan just after moving in. It is a great investment, we paid about five hundred dollars total including installation. Ours is in the upstairs ceiling above the stairwell on the top floor. Java is a smaller parrot, actively flying and I would not turn it on while she is flying freely. With that said, it is only cool enough outside in the spring to use it early in the morning and long after sunset. Also, I only need to have it on for ten minutes or so to pull a huge breeze though the house. It cools and refreshes things but it isn't meant to be on for long periods of time, it is a bit loud too. We open a door to the screened porch on one side of the house, and a bathroom window on the other side and on low you can feel a breeze that takes the edge off the Georgia heat. If we turn it on high, any paper that is not held tight is going to be moved to a new location, LOL. That includes the little feathers on the floor of the bird cage.