Attic Fans for Dummies

Attic exhaust fan

It may be the wrong season, but seasonal dissonance never stopped the fabulous faking freelancers of eHow from sharing misinformation; so we don't have any qualms about making the same apparent faux pas here at the Antisocial Network. That's why we rummaged around in among the candidates we unearthed last summer to find a post by the one and only Homeschool Mama, Naima Manal, returning here to tell us her version (which, given that its Naima, is likely wrong) of "What is the Purpose of an Attic Fan?" at HomeSteady.com.¹

It's not so much that Ms Manal gets it wrong in this case, but that she works so hard to meet the eHow minimum word count. For instance, read this, from her introduction:

"These fans work by circulating stagnant air out of the attic, replacing it with breezy, even-temperature air from the outdoors."

We're not really sure why Naima thinks the replacement air is "breezy," but we're even more confused by why she thinks it's "even-temperature"; or even what "even-temperature" is supposed to mean. Too bad she doesn't know the word "ambient" (though that would cut down on her word count...). Read on, and learn what Naima thinks an attic fan does:

"Once the attic fan circulates hot air out and cool air in, the fan pushes the air through the rest of the house through an opening between the attic and the home's living areas."

Wrong, Ms Homeschooler: a whole-house attic fan – what you seem to be talking about here – is not set up to "push air through the rest of the house." That would be stupid, because, first, you'd be pushing overheated attic air through the rest of the house and second, the fan would blow holy hell out of the attic insulation. No, dummy, attic fans are exhaust fans: they suck the hot, moist air out of the house and replace it with - if you turn it on at the right time - cooler, drier AMBIENT air. There is, of course, more (there's always more dumbassery out of this multiple winner). We were particularly taken with  "Attic fans also function as exhaust fans, releasing unpleasant aromas and stale air from the entire house."

mostly for its rather strange word choice -- "releasing"? Really? And then there's Naima's equally strange installation instructions:

"With a little help, the fan can be attached through your home's roof, then wired to your home's electrical supply." Again, we have to ask, "Really?!!!" "...attached through the roof"? Jay-zuz: small wonder Naima's won our Dumbass of the Day award so many times...

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/facts_4894716_what-purpose-attic-fan.html

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