Do Solar Attic Fans Work

Attic ventilation fans whether hard wired or powered by their own solar panels seem like a low cost and effective way to help keep your house cool.

Do solar attic fans work.

Attic fans exhaust hot air from your attic to the outside. However the utility of attic ventilation fans is actually quite a controversial topic. These fans are designed to remove excess heat from your attic which in theory is supposed to lessen the load on the air conditioning in your home. You will probably need two solar attic fans to get the results you want.

It helps to cool your home temperatures and the attic by approximately 30 degrees. Whole house fans work on the principle of removing the hot and humid air out of the house. For the attic fans to work at peak efficiency they need to be on a south facing roof slope if you live in the northern hemisphere. This pressure balance improvement and the cooling provided by the air flow are most significant in the case of a leaky.

That means you will need to double up your investment in this area. The warm air escapes through the attic and to the attic vents allowing the circulation of chilly air from the windows. If a cloud blocks the sunlight the fans slow or stop. Depending on what your utility charges that s about 40 per year.

The downside of attic ventilation fans. Danny s tests of solar attic fans showed that in florida where there s abundant solar energy yearly savings from installing two fans in a house with just over 1 000 square feet of air conditioned floor area amounted to only 460 kwh. Exhausting moderate amounts of attic air as solar fans do can counteract this reducing infiltration my calculations show it to be about right for a vented attic but either do the calculations or measure the pressures. A great roofer will cut the shingles and lace the fan housing into the shingles so that rain will stay outdoors where it belongs.

Because solar attic fans operate with a lower power output they are unable to move as much air as some of the other options that are available. Solar powered attic vent fans usually don t move as many cubic feet of air per minute cfm as hardwired fans. But they re much easier to install since no wiring is needed. To determine the number of cubic feet per minute needed for a power vent fan multiply the number of square feet in your attic by 0 7.

The whole house fan is installed inside the attic between the living space and ceiling. When installed properly on a roof with standard asphalt shingles solar powered attic fans do not require caulk roofing cement or any other product to prevent leaks. How an attic fan works. 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.

Even if you install it yourself and take the tax credit it could still take you 15 years or.