Andrew Barss wrote:
I'm looking for advice and ideas for improving energy efficiency in my house,
especially heat from the roof and attic.

I own an older house in Tucson, and we are trying to do what we can to
decrease our electricity (mostly air conditioning) bills. The house has
a peaked roof, with a low attic that has minimal access. The attic has some
blown-in loose insulation between the ceiling joists, and nothing on the
underside of the roof itself (and putting anything there is essentially
impossible). We have some degree of venting -- there are small
vents on the two end walls near the peak, and two passive vents (rotary
type) on the roof, about four feet down from the peak.

I've heard various things, some conflicting, about how to better
the situation:

a) blow in a lot more insulation.
b) increase airflow using soffet vents (aka birdboard).
c) do both
d) do both, but with some sort of a channel up from the soffet
vents to above the insulation.

e) tear the roof off, put a lot of money into a high-tech roof
treatment. The curent roof is light-colored shingles,
and in quite good condition.


Anyone living in the Southwest have advice on what the best move is?


Thanks,

Andy Barss
I'd go one better than just adding active fans at either end of the
attic. I'd also add a whole house fan, mounted in the floor of the attic
(ceiling of the living area) to pull cooler air up from the house into
the attic. This air will be cooler than the outside air and will create
a cool airflow throughout the house.

Here's a fact sheet from consumer reports:
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/fil...use-fans-1.pdf

~Mark.