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#1
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Current best practice for roof vents?
We're re-roofing this spring and I'd like to replace the roof vents at
the same time. We currently have turbine-style vents which were installed decades ago when the attic was insulated and vented. The turbines have moving parts and I'm certain that they'll start to fail soon, probably at the worst time. Last winter during a nasty cold spell following a heavy snow, one did start screaming as it turned, but quieted down as soon as the sun came out the next day. We probably won't be so lucky next time. On the other hand, the turbines are tall and stick out above the snow on the roof. We often have a foot of snow on the roof for months at a time. Other than trying to avoid turbines, does the style matter, so long as they're big enough and there's enough of them? -- Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN |
#2
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Current best practice for roof vents?
Bert Hyman wrote:
We're re-roofing this spring and I'd like to replace the roof vents at the same time. We currently have turbine-style vents which were installed decades ago when the attic was insulated and vented. The turbines have moving parts and I'm certain that they'll start to fail soon, probably at the worst time. Last winter during a nasty cold spell following a heavy snow, one did start screaming as it turned, but quieted down as soon as the sun came out the next day. We probably won't be so lucky next time. On the other hand, the turbines are tall and stick out above the snow on the roof. We often have a foot of snow on the roof for months at a time. Other than trying to avoid turbines, does the style matter, so long as they're big enough and there's enough of them? I little oil or grease would probably extend their lives indefinately. |
#3
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Current best practice for roof vents?
In "Bob F"
wrote: Bert Hyman wrote: Other than trying to avoid turbines, does the style matter, so long as they're big enough and there's enough of them? I little oil or grease would probably extend their lives indefinately. Maybe so, but A) I don't do roofs. B) I'm interested in hearing about the pros & cons of other styles -- Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN |
#4
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Current best practice for roof vents?
Bert Hyman wrote:
We currently have turbine-style vents which were installed decades ago when the attic was insulated and vented. The turbines have moving parts and I'm certain that they'll start to fail soon, probably at the worst time. Last winter during a nasty cold spell following a heavy snow, one did start screaming as it turned, but quieted down as soon as the sun came out the next day. We probably won't be so lucky next time. On the other hand, the turbines are tall and stick out above the snow on the roof. We often have a foot of snow on the roof for months at a time. Other than trying to avoid turbines, does the style matter, so long as they're big enough and there's enough of them? I'm a fan of turbine vents, especially where the summers are very hot. They work better than passive vents, and are straightforward to replace if they get noisy and/or rusty. |
#5
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Current best practice for roof vents?
In "John Weiss"
wrote: They work better than passive vents, and are straightforward to replace if they get noisy and/or rusty. As I mentioned in my other post, I don't do roofs, but ... Is there a replaceable bearing or some such, or is the entire rotating assembly replaced? Are they of standard size, so that I can wander into my nearest home-improvement store and pick up a replacement? -- Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN |
#6
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Current best practice for roof vents?
Bert Hyman wrote:
In "John Weiss" wrote: They work better than passive vents, and are straightforward to replace if they get noisy and/or rusty. As I mentioned in my other post, I don't do roofs, but ... Is there a replaceable bearing or some such, or is the entire rotating assembly replaced? Are they of standard size, so that I can wander into my nearest home-improvement store and pick up a replacement? I've never tried to replace the bearings, but have "dropped in" several replacements in the past. There are several sizes available, but I believe they are standard. |
#7
Posted to misc.consumers.house,alt.home.repair
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Current best practice for roof vents?
Bert Hyman wrote:
We're re-roofing this spring and I'd like to replace the roof vents at the same time. We currently have turbine-style vents which were installed decades ago when the attic was insulated and vented. The turbines have moving parts and I'm certain that they'll start to fail soon, probably at the worst time. Last winter during a nasty cold spell following a heavy snow, one did start screaming as it turned, but quieted down as soon as the sun came out the next day. We probably won't be so lucky next time. On the other hand, the turbines are tall and stick out above the snow on the roof. We often have a foot of snow on the roof for months at a time. Other than trying to avoid turbines, does the style matter, so long as they're big enough and there's enough of them? Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN What kills your shingles is heat. Heat happens in the summer - not winter. The worst heat happens when there is no wind. If there is no wind, your wind-powered vents will not turn, and the temperature in your attic will rise - probably to 140f or more. Do yourself a favor and scrap the wind-powered turbines and replace them with electric fans controlled by a thermostat. You can have a powered vent as well as a few passive vents. All these vents are low profile and it's not uncommon for them to end up covered in snow by mid winter. There's no real harm in that. You should also have styrofoam baffles or shields placed under the roof decking where the decking passes over your header plate and out over the soffit. Most people jam insulation in that area leaving no air gap where air can pass freely along the underside of the roof deck into the soffit. Your shingles will deteriorate the most in that area, and you will form an ice-dam in the winter because of heat conduction through the insulation into the roof deck. http://products.construction.com/swt...55/E715704.jpg http://www.houserepairtalk.com/f106/...od-attic-9704/ You should also have a completely ventilated soffit along the entire length of the soffit. If you have soffit clad with aluminum trim, the soffit face should be the ventilated type (with small holes in it) and it should be this way for the entire length of the soffit - not just every 5 or 10 feet. If your soffit was originally wood then you will have 1/4" plywood as the soffit underside and you will need to cut holes in it between each rafter to allow for complete ventilation. A 6" hole is all you need. Depending on the past history of water penetration through your existing shingles, age and weather conditions, it's not uncommon to have to replace some (or many, or most) of the roof decking around the perimeter of your roof during a re-roofing job. And by the way, if you're planning to just lay a new set of shingles over top your existing shingles, then you're a bone-head. |
#8
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Current best practice for roof vents?
In Home Guy wrote:
The worst heat happens when there is no wind. If there is no wind, your wind-powered vents will not turn, and the temperature in your attic will rise - probably to 140f or more. What "killed" our shingles was time. Convection moves air from the soffit vents to the roof vents. -- Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN |
#9
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Current best practice for roof vents?
On Feb 25, 10:24*am, Bert Hyman wrote:
Guy wrote: The worst heat happens when there is no wind. *If there is no wind, your wind-powered vents will not turn, and the temperature in your attic will rise - probably to 140f or more. What "killed" our shingles was time. Convection moves air from the soffit vents to the roof vents. -- Bert Hyman * * *St. Paul, MN * high attic humidity from lack of ventilation can also shoten roof lives, and worse damage the decking |
#10
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Current best practice for roof vents?
" wrote:
high attic humidity from lack of ventilation can also shoten roof lives, and worse damage the decking You solve high attic humidity by having a proper vapor barrier between your ceiling and the attic space above it, as well as having proper soffit ventillation. |
#11
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Current best practice for roof vents?
"Home Guy" wrote in message ... " wrote: high attic humidity from lack of ventilation can also shoten roof lives, and worse damage the decking You solve high attic humidity by having a proper vapor barrier between your ceiling and the attic space above it, as well as having proper soffit ventillation. Soffit vents are for "intake" of ventilation, where the cooler air infiltrates. You need additional vents to "exhaust". Power vents are much like your information you have, USELESS. They don't work in the winter. A vapor barrier does nothing for the attic as far as heat loss to the attic in the winter. Heat WILL still escape into the attic, even with PROPER INSULATION. The vapor barrier is for the "interior" or "thermal envelope" of the structure. At least read up on this stuff, since you have no real experience with it. Here's a hint, read about condensation. You probably think a cold glass of iced tea in the summer, is leaking tea through the glass. |
#12
Posted to misc.consumers.house,alt.home.repair
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Current best practice for roof vents?
Bert Hyman wrote:
What "killed" our shingles was time. Convection moves air from the soffit vents to the roof vents. Dream on. Convection will not move enough air during the dog days of summer to keep your attic cool. I have properly ventillated soffits, several passive vents AND a powered roof vent that I manually control. When I forget to turn the fan on until noon on some summer days, it's not uncommon for my $15 battery-powered temperature sensor to read a temperature of 140 F in the attic. 15 minutes after I turn the fan on, the sensor will be reading 120 f and still dropping. This is for a roof section that is about 35 feet by 30 feet with a low pitch. I'm in the same climate zone you are - I'm about 120 miles more south than you, and a few hundred miles to the east. Wind-powered roof turbines are a crock of ****. Maybe you have some sort of romantic or nostalgic attachment to them, but they will not do squat to keep your attic cooler as compared to just having a hole in the roof. And during the dog-days of summer when there is no wind, the turbine blades will actually HINDER convective air flow because of the resistance to air flow they cause vs just having an open hole. |
#13
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Current best practice for roof vents?
On Feb 25, 10:50*am, Home Guy wrote:
Bert Hyman wrote: What "killed" our shingles was time. Convection moves air from the soffit vents to the roof vents. Dream on. Convection will not move enough air during the dog days of summer to keep your attic cool. I have properly ventillated soffits, several passive vents AND a powered roof vent that I manually control. *When I forget to turn the fan on until noon on some summer days, it's not uncommon for my $15 battery-powered temperature sensor to read a temperature of 140 F in the attic. 15 minutes after I turn the fan on, the sensor will be reading 120 f and still dropping. This is for a roof section that is about 35 feet by 30 feet with a low pitch. *I'm in the same climate zone you are - I'm about 120 miles more south than you, and a few hundred miles to the east. Wind-powered roof turbines are a crock of ****. *Maybe you have some sort of romantic or nostalgic attachment to them, but they will not do squat to keep your attic cooler as compared to just having a hole in the roof. *And during the dog-days of summer when there is no wind, the turbine blades will actually HINDER convective air flow because of the resistance to air flow they cause vs just having an open hole. I upgraded some years ago from 2 tiny vents at each end of house to ridge vent plus those existing vents. Put my fluke recording temp probe up there before and after. Before top temp 146 degrees after 116 degrees Incidently home inspectors say the spec is the attic shouldnt ever be more than 15 degrees warmer than the outdoor temp 90 degrees outdoor 115 TOPS in attic my home for sale was 119 degrees at the home I was attempting to sell the inspector said I had to add 2 large attic exhaust fans., The buyers wife didnt want the fan noise so that issue faded away the house had a ridge vent but no soffit vents and no place for soffit vents |
#14
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Current best practice for roof vents?
On Feb 25, 11:00*am, " wrote:
On Feb 25, 10:50*am, Home Guy wrote: Bert Hyman wrote: What "killed" our shingles was time. Convection moves air from the soffit vents to the roof vents. Dream on. Convection will not move enough air during the dog days of summer to keep your attic cool. I have properly ventillated soffits, several passive vents AND a powered roof vent that I manually control. *When I forget to turn the fan on until noon on some summer days, it's not uncommon for my $15 battery-powered temperature sensor to read a temperature of 140 F in the attic. 15 minutes after I turn the fan on, the sensor will be reading 120 f and still dropping. This is for a roof section that is about 35 feet by 30 feet with a low pitch. *I'm in the same climate zone you are - I'm about 120 miles more south than you, and a few hundred miles to the east. Wind-powered roof turbines are a crock of ****. *Maybe you have some sort of romantic or nostalgic attachment to them, but they will not do squat to keep your attic cooler as compared to just having a hole in the roof. *And during the dog-days of summer when there is no wind, the turbine blades will actually HINDER convective air flow because of the resistance to air flow they cause vs just having an open hole. I upgraded some years ago from 2 tiny vents at each end of house to ridge vent plus those existing vents. Put my fluke recording temp probe up there before and after. Before top temp 146 degrees after 116 degrees Incidently home inspectors say the spec is the attic shouldnt ever be more than 15 degrees warmer *than the outdoor temp 90 degrees outdoor 115 TOPS in attic my home for sale was 119 degrees at the home I was attempting to sell the inspector said I had to add 2 large attic exhaust fans., The buyers wife didnt want the fan noise so that issue faded away the house had a ridge vent but no soffit vents and no place for soffit vents This will not make shingles last longer but will cool the space. I got some perforated aluminum/polyethylene sheeting and stapled it to the joists below roof. I used to walk into my separated garage in the summer and feel the extreme heat from the roof. Now, I don't feel any heat from the roof. A major improvement. greg |
#15
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Current best practice for roof vents?
" wrote:
Wind-powered roof turbines are a crock of ****. I upgraded some years ago from 2 tiny vents at each end of house to ridge vent plus those existing vents. Put my fluke recording temp probe up there before and after. Assuming you can actually compare 2 similar situations: - same time of year (or similar solar irradiance levels, angles, exposure times) - same ambient external air temperature, winds, etc Before top temp 146 degrees after 116 degrees Incidently home inspectors say the spec is the attic shouldnt ever be more than 15 degrees warmer than the outdoor temp Because - why? Because it's bad for your roof/attic/house, or because it's hard to attain such a differential given unrestricted venting airflow? 90 degrees outdoor 115 TOPS in attic my home for sale was 119 degrees at the home I was attempting to sell the inspector said I had to add 2 large attic exhaust fans., the house had a ridge vent but no soffit vents and no place for soffit vents I don't get what you're saying. You're saying that you were able to keep your attic temp no higher than 115 (or 119?) with just a ridge vent and some hokey twirly vents, EVEN THOUGH you have no soffit vents ??? I assume you have a two-sided roof (inverted V) where you can have a continuous ridge vent from one side to another. The outside air you're pulling into the attic is coming from two vents mounted on the opposite sides of the attic - probably located 1/2 way or 1/3 of the way from the top of the roof line. The air currents inside the attic are such that most of your space and roof is baking in the heat, while the ends of the roof and attic that are in the path of the air currents will be cooler. You might also have light-colored shingled, or have some trees shading your roof. Either way, not having soffit venting is a major obstacle in keeping your attic cool and properly ventilated. |
#16
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Current best practice for roof vents?
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#17
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XPOST Current best practice for roof vents?
On 2/25/2011 9:50 AM, Home Guy wrote:
Bert Hyman wrote: What "killed" our shingles was time. Convection moves air from the soffit vents to the roof vents. Dream on. Convection will not move enough air during the dog days of summer to keep your attic cool. I have properly ventillated soffits, several passive vents AND a powered roof vent that I manually control. When I forget to turn the fan on until noon on some summer days, it's not uncommon for my $15 battery-powered temperature sensor to read a temperature of 140 F in the attic. 15 minutes after I turn the fan on, the sensor will be reading 120 f and still dropping. This is for a roof section that is about 35 feet by 30 feet with a low pitch. I'm in the same climate zone you are - I'm about 120 miles more south than you, and a few hundred miles to the east. Wind-powered roof turbines are a crock of ****. Maybe you have some sort of romantic or nostalgic attachment to them, but they will not do squat to keep your attic cooler as compared to just having a hole in the roof. And during the dog-days of summer when there is no wind, the turbine blades will actually HINDER convective air flow because of the resistance to air flow they cause vs just having an open hole. Just curious as to what type of vents you have. I have ridge vents running the entire length of all my roof sections. I have heel trusses with lots of room for insulation above the outside walls plus a good 5 inches of opening to allow air to enter the attic through the soffits. I have been up in the attic when the sun has been shinning all day and the outside temp are in the high 90's. It's warm up there but not hot. I would estimate the temp up there to be about 5 deg above outside. My neighbor has the regular square vents on his roof. According to him he has the required amount of vents per code. He does have well ventilated soffits but his attic is hot. You can work in my attic with little discomfort. I wouldn't even go up into his. LdB |
#18
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XPOST Current best practice for roof vents?
LdB wrote:
Just curious as to what type of vents you have. Pretty much exactly like this: http://www.single-family-home-remode...roof-vents.jpg It's about 12 inches on a side. I have 2 roof sections on my house. One is almost square - 35 ft by 30 ft. It's got 4 sides (like a pyramid). If I had a ridge vent, it would only be about 4 or 5 feet long. So I have 2 vents (like in the picture) on 2 sides of that roof, and a powered vent fan on the third side. The fourth side has no vents - you can see that side from the road (you can't see the other 3 sides). The powered vent looks like this: http://www.atticvents.org/wp-content...ttic-Vents.jpg The other roof section is about 25 feet by 50 feet. It's got 2 sides. I could put a 25-foot ridge vent on it, but because it's lower it doesn't get as much direct sun in the afternoon. I also have 2 passive vents and a powered vent on that roof. I have been up in the attic when the sun has been shinning all day and the outside temp are in the high 90's. It's warm up there but not hot. I would estimate the temp up there to be about 5 deg above outside. I have tan or light-brown colored shingles (the lightest color I could find that matches the brick on my house). In late july or early august, on a 90 degree day outside with full sun, with my fan running from dawn til dusk, I can barely keep the temperature at 125. Unless you put a temperature sensor positioned just under the decking (but not touching it) you can't really do a good job estimating temperature by waving your arm in your attic. And if you have an attic hatch in your ceiling, and you are estimating the temperture in the attic by standing on a ladder with your head poking through the hatch, then you will be fooled by the cooler interior air flowing past you up through the hatch and into the attic while the hatch is open. You will not get a true sense of attic temperature that way. My neighbor has the regular square vents on his roof. According to him he has the required amount of vents per code. He does have well ventilated soffits but his attic is hot. Code is crap. It doesn't mean additional insulation wasn't added since the house was built - insulation that is blocking airflow from the soffits to the attic space. Codes are well known for skimping out on soffit venting. You can work in my attic with little discomfort. I wouldn't even go up into his. What color are his shingles? What color are yours? Does he have anything to shield his roof at mid-day? A tree, a building, some other structure? What about your roof? |
#19
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Current best practice for roof vents?
On 25 Feb 2011 15:24:28 GMT, Bert Hyman wrote:
In Home Guy wrote: The worst heat happens when there is no wind. If there is no wind, your wind-powered vents will not turn, and the temperature in your attic will rise - probably to 140f or more. What "killed" our shingles was time. It's the integral of heat over time. My front shingles facing north still looked good after 25 years, when my rear shingles facing south looked terrible. I could only see the roof from the front, or from the rear if I was up on a ladder. Convection moves air from the soffit vents to the roof vents. |
#20
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Current best practice for roof vents?
On Feb 25, 10:27*pm, mm wrote:
On 25 Feb 2011 15:24:28 GMT, Bert Hyman wrote: Guy wrote: The worst heat happens when there is no wind. *If there is no wind, your wind-powered vents will not turn, and the temperature in your attic will rise - probably to 140f or more. What "killed" our shingles was time. It's the integral of heat over time. My front shingles facing north still looked good after 25 years, when my rear shingles facing south looked terrible. * I could only see the roof from the front, or from the rear if I was up on a ladder. Convection moves air from the soffit vents to the roof vents.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - family in the sun drenced phoenix report roofs dont last long there, the sun bakes them out. metal roofs arent common either cause they tend to warp. ceramic tile roofs there are supposed to be the best and last a 100 years if properly installed to begin with |
#21
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Current best practice for roof vents?
Home Guy wrote:
Bert Hyman wrote: We're re-roofing this spring and I'd like to replace the roof vents at the same time. We currently have turbine-style vents which were installed decades ago when the attic was insulated and vented. The turbines have moving parts and I'm certain that they'll start to fail soon, probably at the worst time. Last winter during a nasty cold spell following a heavy snow, one did start screaming as it turned, but quieted down as soon as the sun came out the next day. We probably won't be so lucky next time. On the other hand, the turbines are tall and stick out above the snow on the roof. We often have a foot of snow on the roof for months at a time. Other than trying to avoid turbines, does the style matter, so long as they're big enough and there's enough of them? Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN What kills your shingles is heat. Heat happens in the summer - not winter. The worst heat happens when there is no wind. If there is no wind, your wind-powered vents will not turn, and the temperature in your attic will rise - probably to 140f or more. Do yourself a favor and scrap the wind-powered turbines and replace them with electric fans controlled by a thermostat. You can have a powered vent as well as a few passive vents. All these vents are low profile and it's not uncommon for them to end up covered in snow by mid winter. There's no real harm in that. I'll disagree to the extent of scrapping the turbines. You are correct that they don't work as efficiently when there's no wind - although some heat escapes through those 18" holes - but when there IS a wind, they will move an enormous amount of hot air. Plus, they do it at no electrical cost! As for cosmetics, they can sometimes be installed below the ridge line so they're not easily visible from the street. And speaking of ridges, be sure to install a ridge vent. These are dirt cheap and will probably give you the biggest bang for the buck. Note: None of these suggestions are meant to be exclusionary. Do 'em ALL. You should also have styrofoam baffles or shields placed under the roof decking where the decking passes over your header plate and out over the soffit. Most people jam insulation in that area leaving no air gap where air can pass freely along the underside of the roof deck into the soffit. Your shingles will deteriorate the most in that area, and you will form an ice-dam in the winter because of heat conduction through the insulation into the roof deck. You should also have a completely ventilated soffit along the entire length of the soffit. If you have soffit clad with aluminum trim, the soffit face should be the ventilated type (with small holes in it) and it should be this way for the entire length of the soffit - not just every 5 or 10 feet. If your soffit was originally wood then you will have 1/4" plywood as the soffit underside and you will need to cut holes in it between each rafter to allow for complete ventilation. A 6" hole is all you need. Again, I'll slightly disagree. You're correct that one can't have too much soffit venting. The usual standard is one sq ft of soffit venting for every 150 sq ft of living space. If you've got a venting area 4' long and 6" wide on the soffit, that's 2 sq ft. BUT, you've got to subtract the screening area. If hardware cloth type screening, subtract maybe 10% of effective venting. If it's that HardiPlank stuff with itty-bitty holes, subtract 98%. |
#22
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Current best practice for roof vents?
Note: None of these suggestions are meant to be exclusionary. Do 'em ALL. actually not. exhaust fans with ridge vent is the tops for inefficency. the fans just suck the air from the nearby ridge vent, and that doesnt really ventilate the attic......... |
#23
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Current best practice for roof vents?
" wrote:
exhaust fans with ridge vent is the tops for inefficency. the fans just suck the air from the nearby ridge vent, and that doesnt really ventilate the attic......... That could very well happen. But the same could be said regardless if the fan is wind-powered or electric-motor powered. A fan that pulls outside air through the ridge vents and then exhausts that air right back outside will nonetheless create air currents inside the attic and it will lower the temperature of the warmest part of the attic - the area in the peak or top part. If you have a ridge vent then you probably have an inverted V style roof, which means you could mount a fan on the side wall of the attic (or both side walls) and have it blow outside air into the attic, thereby helping to force the hotter attic air up and out through the ridge vent. |
#24
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Current best practice for roof vents?
"Home Guy" wrote in message ... " wrote: If you have a ridge vent then you probably have an inverted V style roof, which means you could mount a fan on the side wall of the attic (or both side walls) and have it blow outside air into the attic, thereby helping to force the hotter attic air up and out through the ridge vent. This is horrible advice. It demonstrates the understanding of basic physics. Forcing air from an "outside wall" inward would be taking in elements such as water from something God created called rain. The fan would pull water from the louvers of any vent. You have absolutely no concept of building practices. You're nothing but a hack. |
#25
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Current best practice for roof vents?
HeyBub wrote:
I'll disagree to the extent of scrapping the turbines. You are correct that they don't work as efficiently when there's no wind - although some heat escapes through those 18" holes - but when there IS a wind, they will move an enormous amount of hot air. Plus, they do it at no electrical cost! Anyone that likes to get a tan in the summer will know this: When the sun comes out from behind the clouds, the wind mysteriously dies down. Then when the clouds come back - so does the breeze. That fact doesn't help you when your chosen method of active ventilation is wind powered. Attic fans (typically 1/8 or 1/10 hp) consume pennies of electricity a day. Worth the cost when they give you a reliable, dependable CFM of air movement when you want it. And speaking of ridges, be sure to install a ridge vent. These are dirt cheap and will probably give you the biggest bang for the buck. Depends on the style of roof. Again, I'll slightly disagree. You're correct that one can't have too much soffit venting. Once upon a time, soffits were faced with 1/4 plywood, and you had to buy and install screened vents that were visible and you had to do a nice job of cutting the hole and positioning and installing the vents so you wanted to install the minimum necessary if you were the builder. But it was a pain in the ass as a home owner to paint the soffits every 5 or 10 years so you got them covered in aluminum, and with slotted sheeting it wasn't a hassle anymore to create venting anywhere you wanted it - including the entire length of the soffit. The only problem is that unless you cut more holes in the original plywood facing, the extra aluminum venting will do you no good. The usual standard is one sq ft of soffit venting for every 150 sq ft of living space. For new construction, you don't even need to put the 1/4" plywood facing on the underside of the soffit any more. Just mount your J-channel and slide the perforated aluminum soffit sheeting into place. The problem with having one vent every 4 or 6 rafters is that you won't get much airflow along those rafters that don't have a vent down at their soffet end. Air will preferentially flow along those rafters that do have a matching vent where they meet the soffet. |
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