Do We Need An Attic Fan

Soffits gable vents without fans and rafter vents are passive ventilation systems to keep your roof and attic healthy.

Do we need an attic fan.

Electric attic fans however often increase energy consumption and cancel out any savings unless the attic is not insulated at all. The main work of an attic fan is to regulate the heat level of the attic by removing hot air out of the attic and pushing it outside providing needed ventilation. That said air resistance and interference such as vent grates reduces the area of true ventilation. To reduce that expense some homeowners buy an electric or solar attic ventilator.

Your home s roof and attic was most likely designed with just the right amount of fresh air it needs. Generally speaking you need a ratio of 1 300 where for every 300 square feet of ceiling space you need 1 square foot of attic ventilation. Some may also argue that an attic fan helps in the ventilation of your roof and or attic. Often being situated on the roof attic fans are often in need of repairing or replacing following hail storms.

Attic ventilation fans help cool air your attic by pushing out the stifling hot air from inside the attic and bringing in cool air from outside. Attic fans are intended to cool hot attics by drawing in cooler outside air from attic vents soffit and gable and pushing hot air to the outside. Because what happens is attic fans are so strong that they actually reach down into the conditioned space of your house and they do that by using the wall cavities and where the outlets and pipes come through the walls as places where they draw air from the inside of your house it s that air conditioned air and it ll pull it right up into the attic and exhaust it outside. There are really two categories of attic fans.

Pulling hot air out of the attic and cool air into the attic. However if your attic has blocked soffit vents and is not well sealed from the rest of the house attic fans will suck cool conditioned air up out of the house and into the attic. Most homeowner s that are building homes and renovating older homes have found that a better choice for ventilating the attic space is through the use an attic fan. If an attic fan is properly installed it will act as an air circulator.

In a properly designed passive system air enters through the soffit. The ventilation that controls moisture from condensation and regulates the temperature in your attic relies on air circulation. This prevents hot air from seeping into your home and driving up the temperature in the living space which reduces the load on your air conditioner. The whole house fan and the more.

In other words the entire vent opening doesn t count as vented space.