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Posted by CJT on May 16, 2007, 5:48 pm
Postal68 wrote:
> I have increased my airflow to the top floor of my house by sealing ducts,
> closing dampers, ect....
>
> I have an open gable vent on each side of the house and also one of those
> vented shingle ridge vents on the peak of the roof.
>
> Would an attic fan or a gable fan make much of a difference in the
> temperature of the attic, therefore helping the cool air be more efficient
> in my 2 upstairs rooms?
>
> Would a gable fan do the job just as well or would the attic fan through the
> roof be better?
>
> I don't know why, but I have hesitation about having someone cut a hole in
> my new roof. I'm afraid it won't be sealed right and I will get moisture
> under the shingles and/or in the attic.
>
>
>
My experience has been that a gable fan will cool the attic
considerably, but not result in much net energy savings due
to its own power use. It'll relieve some of the load from
your AC system, though, which is a good thing.
A radiant barrier can be very effective in my experience.
--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
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Posted by mm on May 16, 2007, 8:12 pm
On Wed, 16 May 2007 15:08:39 -0400, "Postal68"
>I have increased my airflow to the top floor of my house by sealing ducts,
>closing dampers, ect....
>
>I have an open gable vent on each side of the house and also one of those
>vented shingle ridge vents on the peak of the roof.
>
>Would an attic fan or a gable fan make much of a difference in the
>temperature of the attic, therefore helping the cool air be more efficient
>in my 2 upstairs rooms?
>
>Would a gable fan do the job just as well or would the attic fan through the
>roof be better?
Which is better I can't say.
>
>I don't know why, but I have hesitation about having someone cut a hole in
>my new roof.
I had that too, so I cut the hole myself. :)
>I'm afraid it won't be sealed right
It was actually pretty easy to seal. The top half easily slid under
the shingles and the bottom half sat on top of them and iirc was
nailed down.
> and I will get moisture
>under the shingles and/or in the attic.
I had the roof replaced a couple years ago, after 20 years that I had
lived here, I saw it when the roof was off. Nothing special around
the fan. No damage, as I expected since the installation is simple
and well designed.
As to the attic, the rain hits the roof, bounces off, then some of it
hits the screeen that came with the fan, and some of that gets past
the screen, and a tiny bit of mist lands on the plywood I covered the
center of the attic with. It's never been enough to more than sit on
the surface, and after 24 years, the unfinished plywood has suffered
no damage from this little bit of water. I guess I wouldn't put an
antique under the fan, but even a grocery store cardboard box would
probably be fine. We have verrrry heavy rains here sometimes.
To prevent the mist, I did look into putting a second (vinyl) screen
inside the circumference of the housing, but A, I'm not sure how this
would have cut down on the amount of water, and B it didn't seem easy
to do. Then I paid attention to the wood and decided there was no
need.
I think Joe must be thinking of a whole house fan when he said it
would draw air from the house. That's why I call these things roof
fans, and not attic fans, which name I think misleads a lot of people.
I don't have a gable fan or vent. I only have about 4 inches of
fiberglasss and an inch or half inch of cellulose under that. I guess
I should have more.
As to the fan as a whole, a lot of people poopoo roof fans, but I
think mine is great. I have a townhouse that was built with a full
width ridge rail, and full width soffitt vents, front and back, about
4 inches deep and as wide as the house is. I almost never use AC and
when I bought the house, when I came home from work in the summer, it
was so hot, I couldn't even go upstairs for a minute. I would make
dinner, work and sleep in the basement, then go upstairs in the
morning to bathe and get new clothes. I put the fan in the first
summer.
After the fan, it was 10 or probably 20 degrees cooler. 20 degrees or
maybe 30 cooler in the attic. I stopped sleeping in the basement,
nailed a little fan to the window sill, kept the bed next to the
window, and I only need AC 2 or 3 weeks a year, in Baltimore. I never
thought to or tried to measure how much electricity the fan uses. I
thought, It's a fan. It couldn't use much. But I'm going to look at
the plate and see how many amps.
It runs from 10 or 12 in the morning to 6 to 8 at night, depending on
how sunny and hot it is outside. On hot days it can run from 9am to
10pm or maybe 11. This means it's off by the time I go to sleep.
Plus I put in a swtiches to keep it on or off. I keep it off in the
fall and spring, to use the sun to heat the attic to heat the house.
It works well. I don't take humid showers so there is no need to keep
it on to vent the attic, but it was easy to put in the second switch
when I put in the first. The switch is underneath the fan, in the
second floor hall, a double switch mounted sideways so it still goes
up and down, although iirc up is off and down is on. I get confused
what the normal setting is, so I drew a black line on both that shows
when they are in the "normal" setting, thermostat controlled, no
overrides.
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Posted by ransley on May 16, 2007, 9:38 pm
> I have increased my airflow to the top floor of my house by sealing ducts,
> closing dampers, ect....
>
> I have an open gable vent on each side of the house and also one of those
> vented shingle ridge vents on the peak of the roof.
>
> Would an attic fan or a gable fan make much of a difference in the
> temperature of the attic, therefore helping the cool air be more efficient
> in my 2 upstairs rooms?
>
> Would a gable fan do the job just as well or would the attic fan through the
> roof be better?
>
> I don't know why, but I have hesitation about having someone cut a hole in
> my new roof. I'm afraid it won't be sealed right and I will get moisture
> under the shingles and/or in the attic.
In restricting airflow you can do damage to your hvac system, one way
is freezing the coil from reduced airflow. Attic fans can increase
cooling costs by pulling out cooled air. No simple answer for you ,
best is a pro to look it over.
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Posted by on May 17, 2007, 7:51 am
>
>
>
>
>
> > I have increased my airflow to the top floor of my house by sealing ducts,
> > closing dampers, ect....
>
> > I have an open gable vent on each side of the house and also one of those
> > vented shingle ridge vents on the peak of the roof.
>
> > Would an attic fan or a gable fan make much of a difference in the
> > temperature of the attic, therefore helping the cool air be more efficient
> > in my 2 upstairs rooms?
>
> > Would a gable fan do the job just as well or would the attic fan through the
> > roof be better?
>
> > I don't know why, but I have hesitation about having someone cut a hole in
> > my new roof. I'm afraid it won't be sealed right and I will get moisture
> > under the shingles and/or in the attic.
>
> In restricting airflow you can do damage to your hvac system, one way
> is freezing the coil from reduced airflow. Attic fans can increase
> cooling costs by pulling out cooled air. No simple answer for you ,
> best is a pro to look it over.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
I'd consider the radiant barrier solution which was suggested a few
posts back before a powered fan. The radiant barrier is a metal foil
that get stappled to the bottom of the rafters. It blocks most of
the radiant energy so it doesn't heat up the attic as much. I'm
considering one myself, as everything I've seen tends to say they work.
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Posted by Bob M. on May 16, 2007, 11:06 pm
>I have increased my airflow to the top floor of my house by sealing ducts,
>closing dampers, ect....
>
> I have an open gable vent on each side of the house and also one of those
> vented shingle ridge vents on the peak of the roof.
You have a ridge vent without under-eave or soffit vents? Skip the powered
fans, put in some soffit vents. A lot. You need more soffit vent space than
ridge vent space.
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