cubic foot per minute

Truth in AirFlow

It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.

-Mark Twain

 

We here at AirScape have spent a lot of time and effort testing and ensuring that our products provide the airflow and the energy use that we state. Take a look at this interesting video of our test chamber.

We just heard that one of our competitors (QC Manufacturing aka Quiet Cool Fans) has entered into a settlement agreement with the California Energy Commission. The most important part of that agreement is this:

“From December 15, 2015, to July 18, 2016, QC sold or offered for sale either directly or through retailers, distributors, or installers whole house fans in California that were listed in the Database with greater air flow and air flow efficiency data than could be verified by the Commission’s testing laboratory, in violation of sections 1606(a)(3)(E)(l) and 1608”

There are no Federal standards other than truth in advertising laws to specifically keep people in our industry honest. So we are grateful to the California Energy Commission for ensuring that customer receive what they paid for.

Thanks to our great customers and we look forward to keeping your homes cool this summer !

Here are some useful links.

CEC Docket Log

Actual Settlement Agreement

What is a cubic foot and a CFM?

balloonOK, first the boring defintion. A CFM stands for cubic foot per minute. This term is used as a measurement of airflow rate for ventilation systems. The cubic foot refers to a (mythical) cube of air 1 foot x 1 foot x 1 foot. CFM becomes a flow rate since we measure how many cubic feet are flowing by per minute.

Now, let’s get some perspective on what a cubic foot and CFM represent:

  • It takes about13.5 cubic feet of air to weigh one pound. A 2,000 square foot house will contain 16,000 cubic feet of air. The weight of all that air is only 1,185 pounds.
  • Warming or cooling air is “low calorie”. To warm all that air in your house up from 50 degrees F to 70 degrees F takes about 5,688 BTU’s . The smallest house furnace puts out 40,000 BTU’s per hour. So how come it takes so long to heat up the house on a cold morning?
  • An unsealed door jamb, leaking 50 CFM would over the course of 24 hours, leak out 72,000 cubic feet of air – not “low calorie”