iLIVING 20" Wall Mounted Shutter Exhaust Fan, Automatic Shutter, with Thermostat and Variable Speed controller, 2.2A, 3368 CFM, 5000 SQF Coverage Area Silver (ILG8SF20V-ST)

VERDICT: I highly recommend the iLIVING 20" Wall Mounted Shutter Exhaust Fan is an excellent value, and a highly effective exhaust fan. Volume of air movement is impressive. It operates at reasonable a sound pressure level of ~65 dB (highest operating speed) as measured with a sound meter SPL app 1 meter distance. It implements aluminum gravity shutters that automatically open with operating airflow, and reliably close when turned off, keeping critters from entering. There is a safety grating completely covering the fan, ensuring that fingers cannot ever come in contact with blades. I recommend mounting the fan high up anyway. Context: We installed this in out 2-story storage warehouse to cool the space during Summer months. We are in Hawaii where temperatures can reach a high of 89 degrees F outdoors. Design situation: Cross-ventilation with a single exhaust fan, pulling air across the ground floor of the warehouse, up a stairwell, then across the entire 2nd floor. Site details: We have CMU concrete walls to side and back, and a corrugated metal roof with a drywall ceiling (uninsulated), and the South-facing front wall is cement fiber siding with insulated walls. Upstairs warehouse storage area being ventilated is approximately 12,500 cubic feet in volume. Assembly: The unit comes completely assembled with the fan ready to be installed to a box frame in a wall. Install, then plug it in. Mounting location: Somewhat high on the 2nd floor at one end, cross-ventilating position. Installation: Mounted to the wall framing, then framed in, with insulation in the walls all around above, to the sides, and below the unit. This eliminates any rattling vibration from the unit. Otherwise, expect the fan box and shutters to rattle. Essentially, this fan was mounted with zero static pressure (no restrictions on airflow except from the shutters and the safety grating). Cooling: It can move a peak of >3,000 cubic feet per minute (cfm), which is way more than I need for the area that I'm cooling. Can reduce indoor temperatures from 94 degrees F to 83 degrees F in about 45 minutes. We could cool the upstairs area in less time by opening upstairs windows; however, we choose to instead use the fan to cool the downstairs area as well. I recommend running the fan early in the morning to bring in the cool dawn air, then operate it again from the mid-day when heat starts to build. Operation: There is a temperature control dial so you can vary at what temperature that the fan will come on. It is hard to get precision to a degree, but it is helpful. There is also a variable resistor fan speed control if you don't need maximum air movement all of the time. Noise level: We measured a peak of 65.2 dB noise level, low enough to have a normal conversation 10 feet (3 meters) away at normal voice levels. Electrical: Very efficient. At a peak draw of just 253 watts, even at our most current expensive Hawaiian Electric rate of 42.44 cents per kWh, we're paying just under 11 cents per hour to operate the fan. I do not recommend running an extension cord to the unit. I recommend that you have an electrician provide a receptable within operating reach of the fan unit. Shutters: The shutters operate reliably every single time throughout our initial 6 months of usage. These are gravity shutters with weights built into the bottom edges of the louvers. These shutters are sufficiently watertight, and with two recent storms blowing wind and rain directly at the shutters we have very little water intrusion. The water intrusion was due to the gravity closed position being overwhelmed by >50 mph wind gusts, which had enough updraft to partially open the louvers for instances, thus allowing wind-blown rain to intrude. This is probably a shortcoming of gravity (weighted) louver closure versus spring loaded designs. Insects can enter through gaps in the shutters. If you're really that concerned then you can probably enshroud the grating with #16 insect screen, though you may be disappointed with how much airflow restriction that you would introduce. So there are consequences, as such. Size: For the volume of the space (<12,500 cu. ft.) being cooled, the 20" fan size is well oversized. Since we are cooling the lower floor of the warehouse as well by drawing air through the 1st floor and up the stairwell to cool the 2nd floor, this size of fan (20 inches diameter) was perfectly suitable for our situation. You need to right-size the fan size to the space which you are cooling. iLiving offers a full complement of replacement parts including shutters, fan assembly, fan motor, cord, and thermal control switch unit. This unit comes with a grounded plug that can either be direct plugged into an outlet, or plugged in to their temperature and speed control switch that would be plugged in to a receptacle. If you plan on using the fan at high speed all the time, you would need to have the outlet to which the fan is plugged into as switch-controlled. That requires a professional electrical installation. Expectations: Fans are electrically very simple, and I expect this fan to operate for years to come. I can see this being a perfect fan to be gable mounted in an attic to exhaust hot attic air and draw in cooler air through the soffit vents. Yet these fans operate quietly enough that these fans are great for ventilating a barn, workshop, shed, even your garage. I've provide photos of the external mounting, internal finished view, the operating control unit, the SPL sound meter reading, and a short video clip to hear the fan. Highly recommended.

Installed in pole barn to pull out some heat. Has worked great. On the thermostat and pulls heat out.

Works good so far. Its nice for the price and moves air very well. The shutters make a little noise when the fan is moving fast. At low setting it's pretty quiet.

This is the second fan we have bought from this company. Noice level is mediocre, not too loud. I was able to easily plug it in, set the temperature and leave it. Since the first one worked so well im onto buying my second for a business expansion. Looking forward to seeing how it does.

Works great and worth the price. Easy to install

Good value and great air flow. A bit noisy but I use it in my dance studio so the sound drowns it out. The fact that we get more air circulation is more important.

Build quality is on par. Worked as expected. Small thing to mention, I planned to place the controller in the garage and run an extension cord between then controller and fan so I could control the fan from garage instead of it just being temp controlled For whatever reason it will not work with an extension cord between controller and fan. However you can use an extension cord between the wall and controller.

I've had a solar roof fan in place for several years but the motors burnout on those and replacing them is neither cheap nor easy to do. Rather than buy a new motor and work on installing it so it can burnout 3 years from now, I went with this gable fan. The fan with thermostat was important for me as I don't have to think about turning it on and off whenever I think it's needed. I've set the fan to 95 degrees or so in my attic and it's kicking on/off as it should. I will be seeing how long the thermostat lasts. I'm hopeful, it's years. As one reviewer noted, the dampers are a little light. He placed tire balancing weights on the outside of his as you can see in his photo. I went with far less weights, though I don't know how heavy his were to begin with. They certainly look the same. I used a total of 4 and it's plenty. The dampers/louvres move up 3/4 of the way when the fan is on. If they do get blown up too often my winds, I can always take a ladder up and add a couple more. The entire setup was less than two hours. You time may be less or more depending on accessibility into your attic (mine is a full walkup attic), outlet location (I had to install my own), and your tools and know-how for things like this. I saw a few comments that it's noisy. I think the sound it omits is what a fan should omit. I did take the added step of not merely screwing the fan to the opening but also framing the metal edges with wood strips to both hold it in place and dampen potential rattles or reverberations. It's been working three days now with no sound issues. One item that should be given with this system is screws with washers to hold the fan in place when bolting it. Or, at least, the screw openings should have been smaller. I only received small screws with plastic wraps for securing the fan electrical cord to the walls to prevent it from potentially moving up into the fan or catching someone as they move past it. Not a deal breaker as I have tons of screws, washers, etc. to use. Bottomline: The thermostat is helpful and the fan has enough draw with no vibrating sounds if installed securely. The damper/louvers could be heavier but that's easily resolved with weights/magnets. It's doing its job and I expect it to keep my HVAC system under a lot less stress. Attics get very hot.

Great fan. Been using for 6 months now with no problems

Fans great. The temp controller works opposite of what I need for greenhouse. (As temp increased it shuts off and starts when temp decreases) basically if you set it at 70 f it’ll shut off as soon as it’s higher than that. Doesn’t help with cooling the greenhouse as I would’ve preferred. I’ll install and order another controller to help regulate the temp.