I've had one in my last two homes. Wouldnt live without it.
For those who arent familiar with them, they install in the ceiling inside the house, you open a window or three, and it pulls air from the outside, through the windows, up through the attic and out the attic vents.
Hard to beat in an area like we live in where its 100 during the day and 65 at night. By 10-11pm I can shut off the air conditioning and bring the house down 10 degrees by morning for a few cents.
laurence, never heard of these 'tube' varieties. There are two kinds...direct motor drive and belt drive. The belt models are pretty quiet but more expensive. I've used the direct drive and frankly its no louder than most fans.
I didnt even put it in the ceiling. I popped out the piece of sheetrock in the attic access 'hatch', put two "L" brackets on the 2x4 framing and ran a pair of screws from those into the fan, then plugged it in up in the attic with an extension cord I cut the head off of, and hooked it up with an x-10 remote. I put some cardboard into the areas the fan didnt cover to prevent recirculation. Later I hung a small hinged door with a magnetic closure I could open and close with a rod. Our attic access in the last two homes is in the master bedroom closet, we open the windows at the far end of the house, that way we can leave the bedroom windows closed and the drapes pulled so the sun doesnt get us up at 6am.
With the fan in the ceiling in the closet, around the corner from the bedroom, all we hear is a little white noise.
Oh yeah, and the installation cost was nearly zero. It sounds a little mickey mouse, but its pretty straightforward. If nothing else, it lets you try one out and see if you like it before breaking out the reciprocating saw.
In any case, a thousand bucks to install a fan is nuts. And theres probably no reason for two of them. My old mcmansion was about 3000 square feet and the cheapest 30" direct drive fan pulled more air through than I cared for...I wish it had a lower speed than 'low' in fact. I've never used the 'high' speed.
Also very handy if you burn the crap out of something in the kitchen...