FAQs

This could mean one of two things.
1. An intermittent chirp is probably an indication of a defective smoke detector.
2. A consistent chirp is probably an indication of a low battery condition and the smoke detector requires a new battery.

This is usually caused by several factors.
1. Use of non-brand named bulbs.
2. Larger wattage bulbs, which cause excessive heat build-up shorting the life of the bulb.
3. Power Surges.

Yes. Within reason, if the quantity of lights creates a load greater than the capacity of the circuit breaker, the breaker will trip off. In this event, additional circuits may be required to accommodate your holiday display.

Yes. Main line surge is no absolute guarantee and any additional surge protection down stream in the system offers a greater level of protection; though, nothing is absolute when it comes to the power of Mother Nature.

No. Surge/Lightning Protection only offers additional levels of protection. Nothing can guarantee completely against Mother Nature and where she chooses to strike.

Yes. This is a common occurrence when large motor/compressor loads start. These devices cause a minor momentary voltage drop, demonstrating itself as the blinking in your lights. This has no negative effect on the electrical equipment within your house.

Yes. Though, if the device exceeds the capacity of the circuit, the breaker will trip off.

Yes. Though, if the two loads exceed 20amps, your breaker will sense overload, do its job, and trip off. Under this condition, you must plug one of the appliances into a different kitchen outlet on a different circuit, in order to balance the load.

Unless you made provisions with the builder for a dedicated circuit, the outlets in your garage are GFCI Protected per National Electrical Code. This device will not tolerate the additional resistance load created by refrigeration equipment. The GFCI senses there is a fault, and therefore trips off. The only cure to this problem is to provide a dedicated, non-GFCI circuit allowable by code.

Yes. Dimming fluorescent requires not only a special dimmer, but also special fixtures. You cannot place a typical incandescent dimmer on existing fluorescent.

Yes, but first you must make sure the electrical box is properly braced and rated for the weight and torque of the ceiling fan you are installing.

Flickering may indicate impending bulb failure, minor power fluctuation, and/or improperly installed bulbs. Cycling on and off is usually a clear indication of ballast and/or bulb failure. It is recommended when replacing a ballast to replace bulbs as well.

First, disconnect any additional devices that may have caused the breaker to overload and trip. Breakers are mechanical devices and must be turned all the way off before turning back on. Remember this is a mechanical device, so this may require several attempts. If this fails to reset the breaker, there may be a more serious problem. Give us a call.

Check to see if the outlet is on a switch. Check and reset GFCI outlets and circuit breaker. Check light bulbs and replace if necessary. If none of these are the problem, call us to discuss this issue.

Except in the case of ground fault interrupters, which are susceptible to moisture and/or weather conditions, fuses and circuit breakers should not trip. Check to see if some type of plugged in appliance is causing the problem.

Central air conditioning and heat pump condensers may cause a noticeable slight dimming on start up. Lights may flicker or dim due to startup of some appliances or motor driven equipment. Check with the local utility company for possible defects in supply source or for the utility switching to other utilities for supply.

GFCI stands for Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter. In layman’s terms this device protects you from electrical shock. When it senses the slightest increase in resistance resulting from ground fault, (i.e., the use of electrical devices in or near water), it turns off to protect you.

Both devices, either breaker or fuse, are designed to trip (turn off) in the event of an electrical overload, i.e. 20Amps of electrical load on a 15Amp circuit would cause a trip. The only difference is that a breaker is mechanical and may be reset. Whereas, a fuse is one time only and must be replaced.
Please Note: Modern breakers are much more efficient and offer greater levels of protection.

The black button is a test button and when pressed, should deactivate the outlet and any other outlet fed from it – Indicating a properly functioning device.

The red button is the re-set button that you depress to reactivate the outlet or outlets in the event of deactivation resulting from a fault.

Whole house cooling is a way to cool your house by bringing in cooler outside air and pushing warmer inside air out through the attic. The moving air cools you and removes heat. 

Whole house cooling brings outside air into your home to cool it, while flushing out the warm air and ventilating the house at the same time. Air conditioning takes the existing inside air and keeps recycling it and cooling it slightly each time it is recycled. No stale air is removed in the process. 

YES, definitely, but not at the same time. The whole house fan should be used when the outside air temperature is cooler than the inside temperature. The air conditioner when the reverse is true. Normally, the whole house fan in the evening, night and early morning hours, and the air conditioner during the heat of the day.

Whole house cooling fans are a system of high volume fans that are installed in the attic or on the roof to cool your entire home using the free natural fresh air from outside that is available at early evening and night time. These systems are able to cool in three ways:
1. QUIETCOOL Whole House Fans draw cooler outside air in through your open windows which lowers the room temperature by as much as 10 to 20 degrees F. Your open windows serve as intake “vents” which allow you to control the air flow by selecting how many or which windows you open. QUIETCOOL fans use THERMAL MASS COOLING with rapid air exchanges which will quickly cool your entire home including: walls, ceilings, floors, furniture, etc. Doing this will keep your home cool all night, the next morning and into the day absorbing the heat and allowing your home to stay cooler throughout the day.
2. The moving air blowing through the house cools the occupants. The cooling breeze can lower the skin temperature by 5 to 10 degrees.
3. The cooler air, after passing through the living space, is forced into the attic which pushes the hot attic air out through the attic vents. This can lower the attic air temperature by as much as 50 degrees F. The attic can reach temperatures in excess of 150 degrees F. in summer, and that air, if allowed to remain undisturbed, will radiate heat down through the insulation to heat the living space. That is the main reason that a home, without the use of a whole house fan, remains uncomfortably warm in summer evenings, and that the upper floor of a multi-floor house is always warmer.

A whole house fan sucks air into the house and blows it out through the attic. If no window is open, a negative air pressure is created which will draw air in from a fireplace, or other vents.

The QUIET COOL QC-1000, 1200, 1500, 2250, 3200 or 4500 is the right choice for any home. If the saving of a few dollars on the original purchase price is the only important factor and you are willing to live with the loud noise, difficult and expensive installation, unsightly ceiling grill and the lack of thermal protection, then the Type 1 whole house fan might be better.
The only reason to buy the Type II whole house fan is if you live in a very cold climate and are concerned about maximum insulation values in the wintertime.

The QC-1500 can be installed almost anywhere because the entire mechanism hangs in the attic where you can’t see or hear it and the only visible part is a small attractive ceiling grill. 

Our years of experience has shown us that if a whole house fan is noisy or whining, we won’t turn it on while watching television, carrying on a conversation, or trying to go to sleep. These times of the day are when a whole house fan is most effective. A QC-1500 is so quiet, you’ll use it always.

The QC-1500 does not require any carpentry or framing work to install. You merely cut a 14” x 14″ square in the ceiling (or vertical wall), install a ceiling grill with a few screws, connect the duct to it and hang the fan assembly to the roof rafters in the attic and then make the electrical connections. Our experienced installers routinely complete the installation in less than one hour, but an average handy person should be able to do the job in two to three hours. 

We recommend installing one in each bedroom for maximum comfort. That allows the bedroom door to be closed and still obtain all the benefits of cooling and ventilation. Other ideal locations are laundry rooms, smoking rooms and kitchens. If only one unit is to be installed, it should be in a central location and upstairs in a two story house.

You will need a switch to turn it on. There are several types available. See our products page for additional information.

Ten years on the parts, one year on labor, besides the 90 day money back guarantee at time of purchase.

Absolutely none. The motor has lifetime lubrication.

Please contact us at 951-965-1014 between the hours of 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM Pacific Time, M-F, and a knowledgeable and friendly representative will gladly answer all of your questions and help you with your order.

All of our fans are sold with a 90 day money back guarantee. If you are not completely satisfied with your purchase, you may return it for a full refund less labor, shipping and handling costs. Just call us for support and instructions for return.

A WHOLE HOUSE FAN is a large fan mounted in a Venturi housing and is installed in the attic. They are used to both cool and ventilate a house.

A whole house fan is able to cool your house in 3 ways:
  1.   They draw cooler outside air in through your open windows which lowers the room temperature by as much as 10 to 20 degrees F. Your open windows serve as intake “vents” which allow you to control the air flow by selecting how many or which windows you open.  
  2.   The moving air blowing through the house cools the occupants. The cooling breeze can lower the skin temperature by 5 to 10 degrees F.  
  3.   The cooler air, after passing through the living space, is forced into the attic which pushes the hot attic air out through the attic vents. This can lower the attic air temperature by as much as 40 degrees F. The attic can reach temperatures in excess of 150 degrees F. in summer, and that air, if allowed to remain undisturbed, will radiate heat down through the insulation to heat the living space. That is the main reason that a home, without the use of a whole house fan, remains uncomfortably warm in summer evenings, and that the upper floor of a multi-floor house is always warmer.

Whole house fans are rated according to the amount of air they can move. This is measured in cubic feet of air per minute, or CFM. In order to be effective, a whole house fan’s CFM rating should be 2 to 3 times the square footage of the house. For example, a 1,500 square foot house should have a whole house fan system capable of 3,000 to 4,500 CFM.

Overall attic venting is the only limiting factor on how many CFM can be efficiently moved. However, attic venting can be easily increased. Too many CFM for the attic venting can cause undue stress on the whole house fan and pressurizes the attic and walls. Too little CFM will not provide the desired minimum of 10 air exchanges per hour as recommended by the House Ventilation Institute, and may not provide the cooling draft to lower house, attic, and skin temperatures in a timely fashion.

Effective ventilation is a process that keeps the air circulating and exchanges the over-heated and moisture-laden air in your house with cooler air from outside. Most homes built today are sealed tight during the construction process and allow almost no air infiltration. This is efficient for heating and air-conditioning a home (heating and air-conditioning systems recirculate the same old, inside air over and over again) but makes it all the more necessary to ventilate. Without ventilation, moisture, cooking odors, tobacco smoke, and other foul-smelling odors are locked into the house and cannot escape.

Moisture in the air comes from everyday activities such as cooking, bathing, laundering, and even breathing. Moisture that is allowed to remain in a closed house can create many problems for the homeowner. The most serious is mold growth, which can seriously threaten the health of all the people in the house. Mildew is another problem, which is usually encountered around showers and laundry facilities. The moisture in these areas generally causes problems with peeling paint and wallpaper, but under the surface, structural damage may be taking place. Moisture can also be present in the attic and this dampness can deteriorate the insulation and also cause structural damage.

Did You Know?
Doctors are now recognizing that “sick” homes can damage people’s health and vitality, decrease their productivity, increase their health costs, and reduce home values.  

Today’s homes contain over 1,500 hazardous compounds from approximately 3,000 man-made products. Even low levels of pollutants emitted by these products will affect human health over a period of months or even years.
 
The EPA recently rated indoor air pollution as one of the five most urgent environmental issues, accounting for over $1 billion annually in direct health care costs and up to $60 billion annually in lost productivity.  

A 1999 Mayo Clinic study associated nearly all of the chronic sinus infections afflicting 37 million Americans with molds. Recent studies also have linked toxic molds to the tripling of the asthma rate over the past 20 years.  

The EPA has stated that 50%of all illnesses are caused or aggravated by indoor air pollution.

A whole house fan is by far the best method of providing ventilation for the whole house.

Every time a whole house fan is operated, it draws the foul air within the house up into the attic and then forces it out of the attic through the attic vents . 

There are basically three different types of whole house fans on the market today.

TYPE I 
The first, Type I, is the most common. It is a 20” to 36” diameter fan, either a direct drive or belt driven assembly that mounts to the ceiling on the attic side. It requires a large cutout in the ceiling and uses a moveable louver grill to cover the hole in the ceiling. They move a large volume of air (3,000 to 9,000 cfm) and do an excellent job of cooling and ventilating a house Their main advantage is that they are the least expensive to purchase; but they have many disadvantages such as: They can be difficult and expensive to install.  They are very noisy in operation.  It can be difficult or impossible to find an ideal location for them in many homes.  They do not cool or ventilate an individual room when the room door is closed.  They offer little thermal insulation protection in cold climates in winter.  Belt drive models require periodic maintenance.  They appear unattractive in the ceiling. 

TYPE II 
The second , Type II, is a small volume (1,000 to 1,600 cfm) fan assembly with motor driven shutter doors that mounts directly to the ceiling. They use less power to run, and their main advantage is their exceptional insulation qualities which are useful in extremely cold climates in wintertime. It does have several disadvantages:  They are the most expensive to purchase.  Their noise level, less than most Type I whole house fans, is still a bothersome whine and is unacceptable to most people while viewing television or sleeping.  They provide very little cooling or ventilation in a timely manner when installed as recommended by the manufacturer.  They are inexpensive per hour to operate, but require many hours of run time to accomplish their purpose.  They do require some carpentry framing modification to install. 

Type III 
The third, Type III, is a QUIETCOOL QC-1500. (U.S. Patent # 7497774) It is an innovative whole house fan that has none of the disadvantages of Type I and Type II. It’s big advantage is that it is not mounted to the ceiling but instead is suspended in the attic with straps from the roof rafters. It’s connected to an attractive ceiling grill with a flexible acoustical insulated duct, thus eliminating all vibration, rattle and noise in the house. It is so quiet in operation that it can be installed in a bedroom or sleeping room without a sleeping person being able to hear it.  This cleverly engineered system can be installed almost anywhere in a ceiling or vertical wall in less than 1/3 the time it takes to install a Type I or Type II whole house fan. It has a damper with insulated doors that prevents cold air intrusion in the wintertime. One QC-1500 performs better than one Type II whole house fan in all respects, but we recommend that one QC-1500 be installed for each 500 Sq. ft. of living space (ideally one per bedroom) to obtain the cooling breeze of a type I whole house fan. This also allows the cooling and ventilation to take affect even with the bedroom door closed as long as a window is open.