Do We Need An Attic Fan

If an attic fan is properly installed it will act as an air circulator.

Do we need an attic fan.

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. Your home s roof and attic was most likely designed with just the right amount of fresh air it needs. Some may also argue that an attic fan helps in the ventilation of your roof and or attic. Video of the day.

That said air resistance and interference such as vent grates reduces the area of true ventilation. Purchasing an electric or solar attic fan may not provide the savings that homeowners expect. Ok i would definitely not recommend an attic fan. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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.

Whole house fans need windows and doors open and attic fans need lots of soffit vents to suck. In a properly designed passive system air enters through the soffit. Installing roof ridge vents and more attic insulation are better options experts say. In other words the entire vent opening doesn t count as vented space.

Pulling hot air out of the attic and cool air into the attic. For both fans to work well they need large exhaust openings in the roof for the moving air to exit. Soffits gable vents without fans and rafter vents are passive ventilation systems to keep your roof and attic healthy. 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.

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.