Insulation, Radiant and Vapor Barriers - how bad is it having a house fan

the house ia 42 years old . when i got the house i was told it has a house fan [ a large fan in the celing that ehausts in to the attic] also when a got in to the attic i noticed the bath room exhaust fan vents into attic.that was 9 years ago. now i was just reading up on adding some insulation on diy.com and i noitced that you should have a barrier between your living space an attic. how bad is it, and should i seal it up as soon as possable and vent bathroom out of attic. i live in new jersey so dec, jan, feb , is when it gets cold , and i cover fan with insulation every winter.

The bath fan should vent to the outside, not into the attic, too much moisture. The whole house fan can remain for the warmer months as it will do a good job at blowing the hot air out of the attic and pulling in the evening cool air. That's as long as you don't ac. But for the winter months, you will want to not only insulate over the fan, but air seal it so no warm conditioned air can escape.

Just one question, did they sell Philly to NJ? :)

Bud

VB or very over rated, you will be fine with out one. Bath fan should be vented to outside. Remove that hole house fan. You are in a green grass state it will do more harm than good.

thank's bud ,airman . i'll start to make a plan on routing bathroom ehaust out of acttic .as for the house fan i only us it a few times a year, and this year was zero times because of the baby, to noisy . so i am going to get rid of it and seal up the ceiling. Allso i have a access panel to the acttic thats only 1/4" plywood. i stapled [rg-19 i think] insulation to the back .what else should i do to seal access panel for winter?