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You are here: Home / HVAC / House Ventilation / Whole House Fan ShutterCover Review

Whole House Fan ShutterCover Review

  Written by Dariusz Rudnicki     Print This Post   Leave a Comment


Whole house fan without insulating cover responsible for warm air migration into the attic and mold growthThere are three reasons for which I put together this Whole House Fan ShutterCover Trim to Fit Review;

  1. The ShutterCover Trim to Fit manufacturer contacted me with some information about his product and I decided that it is worth to mention it on my website. For your information – I’m not affiliated with the manufacturer, nor I’m profiting from you reading this fan Shuttercover™ Trim to Fit review – it’s my personal opinion without any influence, even if it sounds like a sales pitch :-) .
  2. During the cold season, I inspect many homes with black mold contaminated attics and in some of them, a simple thing like a whole house fan Shuttercover™ Trim to Fit I’m going to review would have prevented most of the house’s conditioned air from penetrating shutters.
  3. Installing the whole house fan ShutterCover appears to be an easy task to perform and a valuable item to put on your house maintenance schedule list.

I have always suggested that my clients purchase or “manufacture” a cover (box) that you can install over the whole house fan from the attic side. I still highly recommend this solution, but it sometimes requires a lot of effort, and for many home owners, it might not be even possible to implement.

Because of the size and/or location of the attic access hatch, transferring an assembled whole house fan box cover or assembling one in the attic is simply not an option. There are, of course, flexible/soft types of whole house vent covers, but you are still required to enter the attic before and after the cold season.

Whole house fan ShutterCoverThe whole house fan Shuttercover™ is a completely different story. It really can’t get any more simple than it already is.

Whole House Fan ShutterCover Benefits

  • Easy to trim so it fits any size whole house fan (up to 48”x48”)
  • Easy to apply / install over the fan shutters from within your house
  • Simplicity of the Shuttercover™ allows you to install it in seconds, and not only during the cold season, but also between the whole house fan without even entering the attic

Despite the fact that whole house fans use significantly smaller amounts of energy than air conditioners, the entire assembly provides very little insulating value. During the cold months, while you are heating your home, the whole house fan shutters allow the heated air to escape into the attic, which sometimes results in condensation and attic black mold growth. At the same time, cold air from the attic migrates into your home.

During the warmer months, whenever air conditioning is running, or even without the system operating, the whole house fan shutters become very hot. They either transfer the heat into the much cooler house or let the cool/conditioned air out (usually into the attic). Don’t believe it?

Touch the whole house fan shutter surface (assuming that there is no insulating cover installed in your attic) during the summer and during the winter.

  • Another huge benefit – by using your whole house fan  Shuttercover™ to seal the louvers, you’ll reduce your energy expenses.

Look at it this way – what’s going to happen when you open your window during the winter, or while operating an AC on a hot day? You’ll be dumping your money through that window, dollar after dollar.

An unprotected whole house fan shutter is the same as that – an open window into the attic. For every proud whole house fan homeowner, they are just increasing the energy usage and cost.

Let’s get into some whole house fan Shuttercover™ Trim to Fit details:

  • It is made of ¼-inch thick, Low-E reflective foil insulation.  This type of insulation adds significant energy savings by stopping up to 97% of radiant heat transfer.
  • To fulfill your aesthetic expectations, one side of the Shuttercover™ has a white coating that blends in perfectly with the surrounding ceiling.
  • The square piece of insulation can be easily trimmed to fit any whole house fan shutter size up to 48 inches by 48 inches.
  • Whole house fan Shuttercover can be installed over any shutters with Velcro type tapeA trimmed-to-fit Shuttercover™ section attaches to the whole house fan shutters frame with a self-adhesive Velcro tape. That allows you to easily remove the cover before turning on the fan and re-apply it after it has been turned OFF – no more duct tape, plastic foil or (the most convenient part) more trips to the attic…

However, I’d still highly recommend to examine your attic periodically, or have someone do it for you.

  • One more benefit of having the whole house fan Shuttercover™ installed – In many of the homes I’ve inspected that included a whole house fan installation, the heating/cooling system thermostat was installed in a very close proximity to the fan.

Without some type of a cover installed over the whole house fan, this area will always have a “micro-climate” – hotter or cooler than the rest of the house, affecting the thermostat directly and resulting in a false activation of the system. Shuttercover Trim to Fit can help prevent it from happening.

Since I personally don’t have a whole house fan installed in my house, all that rambling above is based on observation of many attics, conditions that resulted from uninsulated fans / fans shutters, and information from the Whole House Fan Shuttercover Trim to Fit manufacturer of this product.

I think, that you can’t really go wrong with such a simple “gadget”, and my review will help you a little, but let me know if you already have a whole house fan Shuttercover™ Trim to Fit and how is it performing. 

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Filed Under: House Ventilation Tagged With: and air conditioning, attics, black mold, building insulation, cool houses, fan, fan shutter, fan shutter cover, fans, heat transfer, heating, houses, insulators, review, shuttercover, Shuttercover Trim to Fit, thermal insulation, thermostat, trimmer, ventilating, Whole house fan, whole house fan review, whole house fan shutter, Whole House Fan ShutterCover, whole house fan shutters, whole house fans, whole house shutter VENT
About Dariusz Rudnicki

I'm a retired Illinois home inspector, founder and editor of checkthishouse.com, a blog which attracts around 2 thousand readers daily and is dedicated to answering the many questions of home owners and home buyers.
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