Please pardon mismatched pages as we do a little renovating of our own.

An attic exhaust fan can lower your attic temperature by as much as 30 - 40 degrees during the summer.

An attic exhaust fan can make a huge difference in your second floor temperatures.
No matter how many vents I closed on the lower floors of my house to help route the air conditioning to the upper floors, the bedrooms are always too warm at night.

In order to keep the bedrooms at a comfortable sleeping temperature, I have to turn the thermostat much lower than I’d like to and dread the day when the electric bill arrives.
Well if you invested in an attic exhaust fan, the hot air in the attic would be sucked out with the spider webs and this little project can make a much more energy efficient house. (i.e. Save a lot on the electric bill)

They can sometimes be heard at night as a low humming sound but it isn’t annoying at all, it's the sound of money NOT going to the eletric company.

If after you have installed the attic exhaust fan and it makes a lot of noise, it's probably not level or plumb. So, get back up there with a level and make sure that it's perfectly level or plumb and before you get down, have someone turn it on and ask them if they can still hear it. If they can't then you are done.

It does make a difference in the upstairs temperature.

Give yourself all day to install it. If you need an electrician to do the wiring, keep in mind that most won’t do it once the temperatures have been in the 70’s for a while. It’s hard to blame them. You won’t want to go up there either.
Plan ahead and install it in the fall or spring and the long sleeves you should wear, to prevent the insulation irritation, won’t bother you as much. You may even find one on sale then, not to say they are very expensive to begin with.

If you have an older home, you will most likely be mounting the fan on a gable.

Remove one of the vents on a gable of your house, shouldn’t be hard. Put the new attic fan cover over that existing hole and trace around it.
Cut an opening 3/4' to 1" inch smaller than what you traced and screw on the cover.
It’s a good idea to seal around the outside of that with the caulk.

You will need a board above and below the cover on the inside to mount the fan itself on.
Trace the outer rim of the fan on a piece of plywood and cut out the hole.
Be sure the plywood is long enough to mount it to the boards above and below the cover.
Screw on the fan housing to the plywood then screw that onto the frame around the cover, making sure the fan is in the correct position.
Make sure the fan is level so it spins efficiently and quietly. Install the thermostat that comes with the fan onto the plywood as well.

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First turn off the power to any electric box you will be using. Unless you know how to connect the wiring to the junction box of the attic light confidently, consult an electrician to hook it up for you.

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If you have a newer home, your vents are probably on the soffits so you will most likely mount the fan to the roof.
If you are uneasy about working on the roof, hire a professional to install it for you. It will cost a bit more but it is still worth the investment.

Refer to the instructions that come with your fan. When cutting through the roof, be sure you will be cutting only into the roof sheathing, not any rafters or framing wood in the attic.
Position the hole so that the fan is about 2-3 feet down from the peak of the roof.

Since you will be removing the shingles in the area where you are mounting the fan, there is always potential for the roof to leak if it is not properly sealed back up.
If you are unfamiliar with how to do this, please get someone more familiar with roofing to help you or call an installer.

When the temperature in your attic gets into the 90’s your attic exhaust fan will turn on and pull cooler air through the vent that is already on the opposite gable of your roof thereby cooling the attic and thus your house!
This will make a big difference in how hard your air conditioner has to work and may even allow you leave it off altogether. An attic exhaust fan is yet one more relatively easy way to add energy efficiency to your home.