FAQ's

The Flex-Fan™ was designed to work very efficiently at three different speeds. In a normal garage ceiling installation, it's possible to hear the slight sound of the blades turning. However, most of my clients report that the fan sound is a non-issue, and is a lot less than what they are accustomed to hearing when the air conditioner is running. I have found that when you can hear fan noise, it usually means that there may be an opening or a leak of air through the drywall on the ceiling or adjacent wall to the garage. Because our fans have rubber shock mounts they control vibration and isolate the body of the fan from the building to ensure they run quietly.

Where do you get the power to run the fan?

As a licensed contractor, and someone who also was a licensed electrician, finding and hooking the unit to power is usually not difficult.

Do you need to mount the fan on the roof?

The design of your home will often dictate the best type of installation, therefore, the Flex-Fan™ (the primary fan we make) can be installed in four types of applications.

• The ceiling in the garage is my first choice. This way we can cool your garage as well as the attic over your livable area. During the summer months a Flex-Fan™ installed in the garage ceiling will reduce your home's utility bills by removing the hot trapped air from the attic in addition to making the garage cooler.
  
  When you are not running your air conditioner, the same fan that was installed to cool down your attic and/or garage can now be used to cool your home. Simply open the door between the garage and the livable area of your home to cool it down with the outside air.
  
  
• Wall mounting. If you don’t have an attic over your garage, wall mounting the Flex-Fan™ is a good option.

• Roof mounting of the Flex-Fan™. For a 1 or 2-story home without a garage, carport, or porch framed with trusses, a Flex-Fan™ installation on or through your roof will make many more air exchanges than a normally vented roof. The lower roof vents (or eave vents) need to be existing and open for intake air.
  
  
• Ceiling mounting in the house. For a 1 or 2-story home, the Flex-Fan™ is installed in the ceiling of the home. Again, the design and layout of the home will dictate where the install is best. We will attach a back draft damper that is normally closed to keep out the hot attic air from coming into the livable area. The damper opens as the air pressure from the exhaust blows past the damper blades.                                       

What is the importance of intake air vents?

Most people don't realize that the trapped hot air in the attic, under pressure, makes its way into their home. In order to remove hot air from a room, a garage, or even an entire house, outside air is needed to replace the hot inside air. To illustrate, perhaps you remember playing with a straw as a kid. You tried to suck air through it while pinching one end closed but you quickly learned that the straw collapsed and no matter how hard you tried, you were unable to suck any air through a straw with one end closed off. The same holds true for removing air with a fan. Any air removed by the fan has to be replaced. As a result, intake venting, or providing a path for an exchange of air, is a must.

Unfortunately, many times the home builder has not included enough vents so the attic is unable to exchange the hot air that is trapped within. Like a pot of boiling water, the heat in the attic becomes pressurized and has no place to escape. The reality is that the heat in most homes is forced from the attic down into the living area. Ironically, after paying to cool your home, this is the last place you want the hot air to go!

So the question becomes how best to do it, and can we do it in such a creative way that we can gain greater benefits in addition to a reduction to our utility bills. The answer is yes! By installing a Flex-Fan™ hot air can be vented into the attic and pushed out through the current vents in your roof and eave vents.

Doesn't the insulation in my attic prevent the heat from making its way into my home?

To some extent the answer is yes. But like a pot of boiling water, once the pressure builds up, the heat will filter through the insulation no matter how much you have installed. Insulation is really a blanket and with enough heat, it will retain the heat and prevent the attic from cooling down during the coolest few hours before sunrise. Having a good venting system goes a long way to removing the heat in the attic 24 hours a day!

I have an older home and adding more insulation isn't going to be easy. Am I better off having vents put in or a fan?

The answer is yes! to both adding vents and a fan. Adding vents solves the problem of replacing the hot attic air with cooler outside air, while adding a fan forces the hot air out of the attic eliminating the heat being forced into your home. Dollar for dollar, adding vents and the fan will net you a greater savings than trying to add more insulation. And the nice part is you will see the savings in your utility bills each month when you use your air conditioner.

Where should the vents be installed?

• Garage Install: Normally we install screened louvered openings in the outside walls of your garage. Openings can also be put in your overhead garage door by replacing the glass in the openings with a diamond screen mesh if your door can accommodate them. Click here to see photos of different intake vents.
  
  
• Home Install: The normal place to install vents is between the rafters visible from the outside of your home. The type of vents installed depends on whether the rafters are open or enclosed. We can also make customized vents to ensure they don't become a distraction to your home. Click here to see photos of different intake vents.

How do I know how many vents are needed?

There is a mathematical formula that is used to calculate the air flow required. One of the mandates to becoming a licensed contractor with a specialty in fan and vent installations was proving I have the knowledge to determine the size and number of vents for any and all type of installations whether the air is free-flowing or under pressure. I'm a certified expert in this field and also hold patents for specialized vent designs. Attic Tune-Up Systems specializes in attic, garage, and whole house ventilation.

How much power or electricity does the fan use?

Our 14” and 16” Flex-Fans™ use 200 watts of power at high speed. The cost of running our fan when compared to how much money can be saved by reducing your cost to air condition your home makes not having a fan installed a mistake.

There are many factors to determine how much money you will save every year so the number of months required to recover the cost of the fan, plus the cost of adding vents if required, will vary. The biggest reason it's impossible to give you an accurate number is Mother Nature. No one can predict if it's going to be warmer or colder day to day and year to year. But the one thing that is not in dispute is that you will recover the total cost over time — and in a reasonable amount of time!

Do you use a thermostat on your fan controls?

No! Here's why:

Thermostats are used for the majority of fans to remove heat because they turn on automatically when the temperature reaches around 90°F. But here in the Phoenix area, an attic can go from 90°F to over a 100°F within a short period of time! As such, thermostats tend to work best in cooler climates.

The Flex-Fan™, on the other hand, is designed to take advantage of the best time for the fan to be on. This puts the owner of a Flex-Fan™ in complete control of the fan's attic cooling operation. For example, by adjusting the timer to start the Flex-Fan™ long before the attic becomes an oven means the attic will remain cooler. In other words, waiting until the attic reaches 90°F degrees and then trying to play catch-up with our heat is a losing game. Here in the Valley of the Sun, a timer is the preferred method for controlling the fan.

Using the timer to control the fan also means when it cools off outside, you can run the Flex-Fan™ during the coolest hours of the day. This extra flexibility provides the coolest air to reduce the temperature in the garage and attic spaces whenever you want.

There is also an on/off switch provided to turn off the Flex-Fan™ when cleaning it or when you don't want it to run.

Below is an actual timer with the on/off switch and everything everything else that I normally install. The timer itself has on/off states, but I include a separate switch that can be used to bypass the timer. There is also a pull chain to allow you to change the speed of the fan from the panel. Normally the pull chain is attached to the fan, but when the install is in the roof, changing the fan speed would be difficult if you had to get into the attic every time you wanted to change the fan speed.

How many times can the timer you supply be set to turn on and off?

The timer provided can be easily programmed to turn on and off three (3) different times per day. Below is an example of a timer schedule.

On 2 AM  /  Off  10AM   
On 3 PM  /  Off   6 PM
On 8 PM  /  Off 12 PM

NOTE: The times shown are to illustrate the timer's capability only and are not necessarily the times one might actually use. For example, many people prefer to use only one or two cycles (not three).

How do I clean the fan?

                  ! WARNING ! Before cleaning, disconnect the fan power cord!

We also recommend that you wear goggles to protect your eyes, and wearing gloves to protect you hands when touching the metal blades.

Using an air compressor or the hose connected to the blower section of a vacuum cleaner to blow dirt out the air intake side of the Flex-Fan™. With the hose still connected to the vacuum cleaner, blow out the Flex-Fan™ from the air exhaust side.

If the Flex-Fan™ blades are still dirty, we strongly recommend that you wear gloves to protect yourself from being cut by the blades and then wipe the blades off with a clean cloth. It is important to understand that a clean fan uses less power to operate and will provide better performance.

Reconnect the power plug when you are finished and, if necessary, reset the timer to the current time.

How often does the fan need to be cleaned?

We recommend at least 2 times per year.

To maintain your warranty, the fan must be cleaned twice each year. We do offer a fan cleaning service if you would like us to do it. Click here to see our warranty and a cleaning and extended warranty option.