Hello all: I just wanted to send a short email discussing the installation of my attic or whole house fan. My Wife and I decided to install a whole house fan to hopefully lessen the need to run the airconditioner. These kinds of fans are usually placed in the hallway of a single story home (like mine) or at the top of the stairs in a multistory home. The fan moves the hot stale air from inside the home up into the attic. One would open windows or doors to allow cool air from the outside to move in and replace the evacuated air. The fan is placed in the ceiling and looks like a flat panel. As the fan comes on, the suction causes the louvers in the panel to open.
The instructions said to mark the ceiling using the template provided. Cut out the marked opening with a saber saw. Frame up the opening to fit the fan. Obviously, this wasn't going to work for me. There is no way I'm going to follow a line drawn on the ceiling. My solution was to measure the frame of the fan and build the 2x6 box in my shop. I then carried the 2x6 square up in the attic to figure out exactly where the opening would need to be placed. This box is 33 3/4" on a side. The ceiling joists in my house are on 24" centers. So, I needed to cut one of the joist since the 33 3/4" box was not going to fit between them. I set the box on the joists where I was going to make the opening. I measured from the cill plate from each wall to center the box in the hallway ceiling. I next marked the joist at the point where the outside of the box rested on the joist. To make a mark, I just use a sharp knife. Setting the box aside, I used my circular saw to cut about half way through the joist in the 2 marked places. I then finished up the cuts with a hand saw. The board that used to be part of the joist came right up. The nails just pulled through the dry wall. I also had to re-route 2 circuits that ran across my opening and move a hall light. That was pretty straight forward. Next, I dug out all the insulation and set the box on the ceiling screwing it to the adjacent joist and to the 2 ends I cut. To my immeasurable delight, the box fit perfect. It dropped into place with just a little resistance. After running the wire to the opening and fishing the switch wire to a newly placed 2x4 junction box in the wall, all the work in the attic was done. I next setup shop in the hallway. I used a rotary tool to plunge through the ceiling and follow the inside of the 33 3/4" box I installed. At this point, I had a square opening perfectly sized. The rest was pretty much uneventful. My color identifier worked well for the wiring. The only other thing I can think to mention is my portable fence I made to use with my circular saw. It is made from 2 pieces of wood. It tells me where the cut will be exactly and what square is as referring to a 90 degree perpendicular cut on something like a2x4. This is how I accurately cut out a piece of that ceiling joist. If anyone is interested, I'll write up a description. I'll have to think about how to put into words how to attach these 2 pieces of wood. Terry
