[m0rose]

Agreed. In my own experience, it's much more effective when cooling a room to pull the cool air in than to try to exhaust the hot air from the entire house so that cool air will eventually trickle into the room you're trying to cool. Changing from pushing the air out to pulling it in directly was an epiphany for me when I was younger and lead to many nights of better sleep.

Even better, now that I own my own house, is a high powered fan in one window pushing the air out and another (lower-powered) fan in a different room pulling the air in with an additional window open. You can stand in front of the open window and feel the additional cool air streaming in. It's a beautiful thing.

[spdustin]

In some zones, whole-house ventilation fans (which are installed in the ceiling below the attic) are excellent and efficient ways to cool and/or ventilate a house quickly—by exhausting the air in the living area of the house up and out through the passive vents in the attic. Open some windows, turn on the whole-house fan, and the air in the house is fully exchanged with fresh air from outside very quickly.

It helps to reduce stale odors, bring in fresh air, reduce indoor allergens...also handy when you accidentally burn something in the oven. :)

[mark212]

I think the key there is to open the windows at a time when it’s cooler outside. Without sufficient openings to pull air in, the pressure differential is inefficient