sounds like you need a couple of power vents in the roof. These are simply
fans permanently mounted through the roof, and attached to a thermostat. At
a given temp, they turn on, and start sucking the hot air out of the
attic/crawl space. They're not that expensive, and if you're comfortable
playing with roofing, they're easy to put in (if not, a general contractor
should be able to put them in for pretty low bucks). They draw air in
through the soffit vents, so convection is helping too....

The whole house fan i s *supposed* to pull air through the house. if you
keep the windows closed, it will suck air back through whatever opening
there is - usually a chimney - so you may be pulling air back through your
furnace or a fireplace or some such, hence the soot smell.

I wouldn't bother with playing wiht the insulation - no matter how well you
insulate the attic floor, unless you manage to get the temp down, you'll get
heat penetration. Better insulation will help a bit, but you really need to
get the attic temps down....

the idea for some shade trees is a good one. It won't lower the general iar
temp, but it will help keep your roof from baking, which is whats making
your attic so hot. those roofs really soak up heat - I live in New
Hampshire, and a few years ago I was doing a roof in January when it was
about 20 below zero. On a sunny day, it was warm enough on the roof to work
in T shirts (and there was no heat in the building at the time....)

--JD


"Don" wrote in message
...
We live in Denver. Our home is about 3,500 Sq Ft with a 3 car garage.
We have central air conditioner. It cools the downstairs great. But
the upstairs can get quite hot. The garage is on the west side of the
home and gets hotter than 40 hells in there during the summer. There
is a south facing gable in the garage. Two bedrooms are above that
hotter than hell garage.
Question 1: Would a power fan mounted in front of that gable suck out
the hot air in the garage even though there isn't another gable to
bring in the cooler air?

Above the three bedrooms upstairs is an attic that gets hotter than 47
hells. There is a gable on the east side of the house and one on the
west side. I'm thinking something with a bit of power up there could
suck that hot air out and help cool the upstairs vs what it is doing
now and radiating down into the living space. Here's the twist. We
also have a whole house fan mounted upstairs of course. But that
sucker could substitute for an engine for a small airplane. Works
great but forces us to open windows which defeats the purpose of the
central air conditioner. If we don't open windows our home starts
smelling like soot from the fireplace. I know this is getting long so
thanks for making it this far.
Question 2: Based on the facts above what is the best way to remove
all that hot air out of our attic?

Lastly, my daughter's bedroom is on the west side of the home. Anyone
who knows Colorado knows the west side of the home cooks in the
afternoon. To make matters in her room worse .... her vent barely puts
out any air. It's been like that from day one. So her room gets hot.
Question 3: Based on what you know about my daughters room would it
help to have someone install an in duct fan to push more air through
her vent? Those $39 register fans I see at Home Depot just look
worthless but I've never bought one so I really don't know.

Last part I promise. Our home was build in 1984 and the attic has a
bunch of blown in insulation. Should that be removed and then replaced
with newer and better insulation?

To those who made it this far thanks. I appreciate your patience. To
those who give suggestions even more thanks. I've always found this
newsgroup to be very helpful when it comes to stuff like this.

Don