Kurt Ullman wrote:

Is the ceiling fan exhausted into the attic or would I need to put
a hole in my roof? I have two ridge vents, one above the (downstairs)
family room w/ cathedral ceiling, and another on the main roof. I
counted 8 soffit vents including 6 along the main living upstairs
living area.

The "recommended" soffit area is 1 sq in of unrestricted vent area for each
1 sq FOOT of ATTIC floor area.

If your soffit vents are, say, 8x72 inches that's nominally 576 sq inches.
BUT you must consider the mesh that keeps out the bugs. If the mesh
resembles hardware cloth, subtract 10% to get the effective area. If the
mesh is more like window screening, subtract 50%.

About the worst thing you can use is that perforated HardiPlank. Oh, it's
got a lot of holes, but if you add up the hole area, it comes to about 2
square inches per 10 lineal feet.

That said, you can't have too much soffit vent area. Just today I finished
TRIPLING the soffit vent area on my house.

The bitchiest part was cutting holes in the soffits. Finally used a chain
saw.

What with R30 in the attic, fussing with the soffits, window unit in the
bedroom, radiant barrier to come, I'm of the opinion it would be simpler to
just STEAL electricity! Mumble-mumble.