roof vent, ridge vent or what?

Posted by floatee@gmail.com on May 17, 2006, 1:56 pm

a roofer just walked through my finished attic, trying to give me ideas
about ventilation. at the moment, the roof has none at all. (it's a
1930 bungalow, about 1800 sq ft, attic and main floor together). and
boy does it get hot up there.

at first he talked about adding 4-5 roof vents onto the roof on the
non-visible side (north facing), along with a ridge vent. cost would
be about 150 per vent installed, with $300 for the ridge vent.

but the more he thought about it, the more he thought a powered roof
vent would be the ticket. he said the one unit could solve all my
ventilation needs, that with one of them i'd no longer really need any
additional roof vents or a ridge vent. he said the vent itself would
cost about $400, with $200 to install it.

so, does all this sound about right and accurate? i live in RI and,
believe it or not, during the summer it does get hot here. or at least
in my attic it sure does, to the tune of around 130 degrees.

thanks for any help you can offer.

Posted by z on May 17, 2006, 2:02 pm

floatee@gmail.com wrote:

> a roofer just walked through my finished attic, trying to give me ideas
> about ventilation. at the moment, the roof has none at all. (it's a
> 1930 bungalow, about 1800 sq ft, attic and main floor together). and
> boy does it get hot up there.
> at first he talked about adding 4-5 roof vents onto the roof on the
> non-visible side (north facing), along with a ridge vent. cost would
> be about 150 per vent installed, with $300 for the ridge vent.
> but the more he thought about it, the more he thought a powered roof
> vent would be the ticket. he said the one unit could solve all my
> ventilation needs, that with one of them i'd no longer really need any
> additional roof vents or a ridge vent. he said the vent itself would
> cost about $400, with $200 to install it.
> so, does all this sound about right and accurate? i live in RI and,
> believe it or not, during the summer it does get hot here. or at least
> in my attic it sure does, to the tune of around 130 degrees.
> thanks for any help you can offer.

I'm in CT and with a powered roof ventilator set to kick in at 80
degrees, it still feels like 130 degrees up there in the summer. I
can't imagine what it would be without it. I'm even pondering whether
more would be better; replace one of the 4 foot square or whatever
vents with another fan.

Posted by No on May 17, 2006, 2:22 pm

floatee@gmail.com wrote:

> a roofer just walked through my finished attic, trying to give me ideas
> about ventilation. at the moment, the roof has none at all. (it's a
> 1930 bungalow, about 1800 sq ft, attic and main floor together). and
> boy does it get hot up there.
>
> at first he talked about adding 4-5 roof vents onto the roof on the
> non-visible side (north facing), along with a ridge vent. cost would
> be about 150 per vent installed, with $300 for the ridge vent.
>
> but the more he thought about it, the more he thought a powered roof
> vent would be the ticket. he said the one unit could solve all my
> ventilation needs, that with one of them i'd no longer really need any
> additional roof vents or a ridge vent. he said the vent itself would
> cost about $400, with $200 to install it.
>
> so, does all this sound about right and accurate? i live in RI and,
> believe it or not, during the summer it does get hot here. or at least
> in my attic it sure does, to the tune of around 130 degrees.
>
> thanks for any help you can offer.
>

Does the "finished" attic have a small unfinished 'attic' above it? In
other words, is there a continuous area behind or above the finished
area? Or, is he talking about venting the finished space?

Roof venting should allow air movement under the entire roof deck.
Soffit vents to allow air in and ridge/roof vents to allow it out. If
your attic is finished it may be impossible to achieve this type of
venting. A whole house fan in the finished space may help keep that area
cool but is not, IMO, considered roof venting.

If your attic is finished like I envision. (Drywall or paneling against
roof rafters, knee walls and no space above). I would do the following:

If insulated behind finish surface.
From inside of knee wall, unfinished area, add those Styrofoam air
channels between the insulation and the roof deck, add soffit vents and
a ridge vent.

In no insulation
Just add the ridge vent and soffit vents.

If you also have a space above the finished ceiling then I would add a
powered vent to help with the draw.

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Posted by on May 17, 2006, 2:48 pm

A powered roof vent for an attic this side should not cost anywhere
near $400 for the unit. I'd go with the ridge vent, as it's simple,
effective and doesn't need power. You also need to make sure there is
enough air intake through soffit vents or similar.

As for the poster who has the power attic ventilator set at 80 degrees,
that is way too low and a waste of energy. If it's 75 inside, that's
only a temp delta of 5 dgrees, which any decent insulation should
handle very easily. At that temp, the fan will be running way too
much. IMO, the fan should kick on somewhere around 105 or so.

Posted by z on May 17, 2006, 3:42 pm

trader4@optonline.net wrote:

> A powered roof vent for an attic this side should not cost anywhere
> near $400 for the unit. I'd go with the ridge vent, as it's simple,
> effective and doesn't need power. You also need to make sure there is
> enough air intake through soffit vents or similar.
> As for the poster who has the power attic ventilator set at 80 degrees,
> that is way too low and a waste of energy. If it's 75 inside, that's
> only a temp delta of 5 dgrees, which any decent insulation should
> handle very easily. At that temp, the fan will be running way too
> much. IMO, the fan should kick on somewhere around 105 or so.

That makes sense, actually. I left it the way it was set when I bought
the house, which judging by everything else was probably not optimal.
Obviously, when the sun's out and everything's cooking, it's not going
to be cooling things any more when set at 80 than at a higher temp.

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