Do Solar Attic Fans Help

Gable fans fit into the gable vent and can be set to operate only within a preset temperature range.

Do solar attic fans help.

Attic fans exhaust hot air from your attic to the outside. Solar powered attic vent fans usually don t move as many cubic feet of air per minute cfm as hardwired fans. Using a fan to blow hot air out of the attic doesn t address the radiant heat flow from the roof to the attic floor. When you compare the capital expense of this product to the ongoing bills you would pay to operate the unit you ll come out ahead every time.

Even if your roof already has ridge vents and plenty of ventilation built in it s a good idea to install gable fans or roof fans to help blow hot humid air out of the attic. Many are solar powered and require no other wiring so they don t cause any additional charges on your electricity bill. How an attic fan works. Fresh air is pulled in from your soffits and or roof vent creating a draft through your attic.

Attic fan savings claims. Attic ventilation fans also tend to be quite energy efficient in terms of their own operation. The most significant benefit of solar attic fans is that they operate using renewable energy from the sun instead of being hooked up to your electrical grid. In addition to soffit gable and or ridge vents you may want to add a power vent fan to your attic to increase air circulation.

Cold air is at the bottom and warm air is at the top. This is basically how air naturally moves. If a cloud blocks the sunlight the fans slow or stop. This pressure balance improvement and the cooling provided by the air flow are most significant in the case of a leaky ceiling.

Exhausting moderate amounts of attic air as solar fans do can counteract this reducing infiltration my calculations show it to be about right for a vented attic but either do the calculations or measure the pressures. But they re much easier to install since no wiring is needed. Solar attic fan reviews even though electric attic fans can lower your air conditioning costs they cost more money to run than what they save you. Much of that heat then conducts downward and finds its way into the house.

Ideally this will lower the high temperatures that have built up in your attic. It will offer you more benefits that include. For the attic fans to work at peak efficiency they need to be on a south facing roof slope if you live in the northern hemisphere. Solar attic fans work by pulling in the cold air from the soffits and pushing out the hot air that has accumulated at the top of the attic.

Trying to solve the heat gain problem in your attic by using a fan is like lying out at the beach with a fan blowing over you and thinking you re not going to get a sunburn. This air is then exhausted through the fan to the outside. They can provide a cooling effect that reduces temperature significantly in your house. The problem with this design as argued by energy professionals is that attic fans also pull the conditioned air from your home into the attic.

Meanwhile solar attic fans are free to run lower your electric bills and have few costs beyond purchase and installation.