We get it--why fix what ain't broke?  Here's the thing... A/C units are terribly inefficient.  On warm days, your house absorbs heat as its "thermal mass," and retains it throughout the night into the next day. Your upper floor living spaces, and your attic especially, are slow to release that heat, and your A/C never has a chance to catch up. It wakes up early and kicks on and off every 10 minutes as it battles the stubborn hot existing air, and pleads with you for help!  Whole house fans help-- a lot!  They reset that thermal mass by bringing in cool, dry Colorado air in the evenings and throughout the night.  That refreshing breeze sweeps through your home and then out through your attic, cooling it too. Your home can finally breathe.  Your wallet will thank you too! Most people are used to the number that shows up on their energy bill in the warm months, but it could be so much better! Here's the hard data: depending on their household’s energy use and how much they commit to using the fan, our customers can save up to 90% on their energy use and bill. They also drastically improve the lifespan of their existing A/C!  We hear it a lot: "We wish we had this a long time ago!"

The average cost is in the range of $2000-$3000, but it depends on your home and the model you choose. Most people make up the cost of their investment in energy savings within 2 years!

We calculate what fan size would be best based on the square footage of your home above grade (not including your basement.) We then have to make sure you have adequate attic venting for the fan we'd ideally like to install for the house you have. If your house is undervented for that size, we can give you a price for adding additional vents.  Some folks want that woosh of air to be as powerful as possible-- to cool the house and eliminate smoke/odors quickly! However, the fan works best when you leave it on a low speed for the whole night to take advantage of the coolest temperature possible. So a less powerful fan may be more cost-effective for some-- let's work it out together!

First of all, estimates are free! Once you contact us, we’ll set up a convenient time to meet with you at your home to map out where to install the fan, calculate your venting, and talk to you about your model options. After you approve the estimate, we’ll get you on the schedule for the installation. My trusted suppliers usually can have your fan shipped and ready to go in about 3 days!

Sometimes unexpected factors can slow the installation a bit, but on average it only takes about 3 hours. We take care to be thorough with replacing disturbed attic insulation, cleaning up the area, and answering any of your questions.

Step 1: Open selected windows before turning the fan on! This is the critical point-- if you don't open any or enough windows or doors, running the fan can strain the motor, over-pressurize your attic, and create a backdraft of stuff you don't want in your house. You can be strategic-- open the windows that are furthest from the fan, so that the cool air breezes through as much space as possible. Or, open the windows in the rooms that you want to cool the most. Opening 3 or 4 windows a few inches makes it quieter than opening 1 or 2 all the way. But which windows you open and how much you open them determines how the air flows into your house and which rooms get the most benefit. We recommend creating an even draw across your whole home.

Step 2: Turn it on! The good rule of thumb is to power up the fan when it becomes cooler outside than it is inside. 70 degrees is about right for most people. Also remember that the breeze effect always makes your skin immediately feel about 10 degrees cooler. Turn it on high to cool your home and attic as quickly as possible, and use the timer to let it run for a couple of hours.

Step 3: Before you go to sleep, reduce the fan to low and leave it on throughout the night to draw in the coolest available air in the wee hours of the morning. Depending on the weather, you may even want to pull up an extra blanket! The cooler you can make it during the night, the longer your house will stay cool the next day. Everybody's comfort level is different though-- use the fan how it's right for you!

Step 4: You’ll want to close the open windows when you wake up (or once the outside temperature starts to increase with the sun) to trap the coolest air inside your home for the day.

The whole house fan comes with a sleek touchscreen remote that can be mounted on the wall or anywhere you like, or you can slide it off the mount and keep it right on your nightstand. The timer function and the speed control are easy to use.

The attic fans do integrate with a convenient app. However, this app does not support whole house fans, for safety reasons. It would be all too easy to accidentally turn on the whole house fan without opening windows first.

We feel you. If you have had one of the older styles, they sound like a jet engine. The new technology puts the motor (and its noise) suspended in your attic, instead of in your ceiling. It truly is a whisper, comparatively! The models obviously vary on how quiet they are based on their size, but they run from around 30 to 50 decibles. If you like the sound of light rain on your roof, you’ll love the barely audible, soothing white noise of your whole house fan at night. Guaranteed to put your toddler to sleep!

Absolutely! We work with many of the old noisy fans that were commonly installed in the 80s and 90s. Some of them have some good years left and maybe just need a new belt or spring. Some of them just are no longer for this world. We are honest either way! If the fan needs replaced, a few folks don't mind the noise of their old fan at all. We have no problem replacing an old style, new body. Of course, we recommend the new quiet and energy efficient versions. However, they're also a smaller profile. That means patching a little drywall upon replacement, but be assured that we work with amazing drywall patchers that make it look like the new fan had always been there. We'll include the patch in our estimate and coordinate that process ourselves.

They are commonly confused, but the difference is found in the names. An attic fan refreshes the air just in your attic, which can still make a big difference in comfort and savings. A whole house fan refreshes the air in... your whole house. We absolutely install both. Attic fans can be solar powered and controlled from an app! However, we highly recommend a whole house fan. The cost of just an attic fan in materials is cheaper, but actually a little bit more labor intensive. Bang for your buck-- whole house fans are easier for us to install, and also provide the full service of cooling your living spaces as well as your attic. An attic fan may save you 30%, but a whole house fan can save you up to 90%! There is still a case to be made for both, so please reach out for both options!

QuietCool fans include R5-rated damper doors that seal shut when the fan is off to prevent heat loss. Other brands have even more insulation and motorized louvers. We also provide an insulated insert to provide even more R-value in the winter. It’s easy to install— just remember to take it out before you run your fan again. Other companies sell a magnetic winter cover that installs on the outside of the grate.

QuietCool and other companies sell a Zone Air Pathway (ZAP) which we can install in the wall, usually above the door. This allows air to flow through the room even when the door is closed.

This is one of the most common questions we get, and a valid one. Let us say first: studies have shown that indoor air can actually be 2-5x more polluted than outdoor air during the majority of the year. Allergens have a way of getting in to your home with or without a fan, where they settle. Moving the air usually does more good than harm in removing allergens, pathogens, pet dander, etc. However, if you're particularly sensitive to pollen, there may be a few weeks out of the year you may change the way you use the whole house fan. However, maybe less than you think! During that time of year when nature is frisky, pollen is released from trees and flowers outside, but surprisingly on a predictable hourly schedule! The large majority of pollen is released during the early sunny hours, between 5 AM and 10 AM. The pollen takes a bit to settle down throughout the day, but is really not playing in the air much when you'd be turning on your fan to cool down your house. The feedback we have received from allergic customers is that it really hasn't flared up their allergies any more than normal. That being said, there are other solutions to help! Special multi-layer window screens can be installed to combat the problem. QuietCool has a proprietary window screen featuring an innovative 3-layer construction with a high-quality PET outer layer. It’s MERV 5-rated to filter all particulates up to 70%, including dust, pollen, and allergens. There are also home air filters that are specifically designed to remove any stray pollen or particles in minutes. All that to say-- we acknowledge it's a consideration for some, but for most, it hasn't been prohibitive at all.

Unfortunately, yes. The aforementioned window filters and air filters do a lot to alleviate pollen and larger particles, but smoke is a different story. If it's smoky outside, it's best not to run your whole house fan that day. Here's hoping that those days don't become even more frequent. Again, for many, the benefits very much outweigh the costs. For example, whole house fans are great at clearing any smoke that may be coming from inside your house–say burnt food on the stovetop.

What you’ll actually see on your ceiling is very low-profile and aesthetically pleasing. It really looks like a bigger version of the return-air vents that you most likely already have in your home. Where would we put it? The fan works best when it's in the middle of the house, to pull evenly from all sides. But there's some flexibility there. We always try to put it somewhere aesthetically conducive. Many times in a central hallway, but never just in the middle of your living room!

Some utility providers do provide a rebate— let's talk about what utility company you have! However, some of the rebate providers like Efficiency Works have unfortunately discontinued their rebates for whole house fans. It confuses me too! Be assured that we are very actively working to advocate for the reinstatement of these rebates. But I need all the help I can get! Please ask me about who are the best people to contact in your area and if you are willing, ask them to include rebates for whole house fans!

If you have both, use both! But not at the same time. If you set your A/C to run at night while the fan is running, you'd be paying to air condition your attic as the fan will immediately evacuate the cold air from the A/C out of the house before it has a chance to condition the house. The good news is that the house will get cool enough at night with the fan that you shouldn't have to do anything special with your thermostat. Leave your thermostat on the temperature you desire, let the fan take the night shift, and if the A/C even does need to kick on the next day, it will do so when it needs to.

We have worked with many satisfied customers who rely on their whole house fan for cooling and don't have A/C at all. It does depend on several factors-- shady trees, altitude, your insulation, and also your desired temperature to be comfortable. If, for instance, you set your thermostat for an existing A/C to 68⁰, your A/C will probably kick on late in the day on the hottest days. This doesn't mean that you're a whole house fan isn't working-- we promise that you're still tons of money and energy!

We install 2 lines of professional models from QuietCool. The Stealth Pro line is a little more expensive than the Trident Pro, but has 3 speeds instead of 2, is a little quieter, and most importantly, is much more energy efficient on low speed because of its ECM motor. I'm happy to show you the math on about how long it would take to make up the difference in cost for the Stealth line because of its energy efficiency! We will find the right model that fits your budget.

I can install any brand of whole house fans. There are some higher end models that have fancy features like motorized dampers. I do mostly install the QuietCool brand, which gets the job done at a more economical price point.

When you want to get the benefit of the whole house fan airflow at night without keeping a door open, you can install a pass-through vent in each bedroom which will allow you to get the benefits of the whole house fan while maintaining each person’s privacy.

Almost never. These whole house fans are so energy efficient that we can almost always find an existing circuit with enough capacity to handle the fan.

Don't worry! There are options for homes that do not have an available attic space, such as the roof mount fan. Contact us so we can help you find an appropriate solution!

This is a good question. Many people nowadays are doing everything they can to help the environment-- recycling every can, buying paper straws, even investing in an electric vehicle. Some of these same people feel jaded in this world of wasteful corporations and billowing AI data centers. At Fantom, we are passionate about whole house fans because it's a simple concept that really can make a big difference. A/C units consume the most energy in homes across the US, by far. Of course, not every climate is ideal for a whole house fan, but Coloradoans are uniquely situated to use them to their full advantage. We can make a change!