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Cooling your attic might be as simple as ensuring you have the right amount of venting. Here is how to know if you have enough attic ventilation for your home.
Your house is more than just a physical dwelling place. It is where you live— where you build fond memories, where you form relationships, and where you create dreams. It's a place of rest after a hard day's work and a place of refuge when storms come, may they be literal or figurative.
Because of this, we want to ensure that our homes are comfortable, secure and can provide the rest and safety we all need. We spend vast amounts of money on home furnishings, repainting, decorations, and the like. Still, we often neglect one crucial spot in our home that significantly contributes to its overall livability: the attic.
Contrary to common belief and practice, the attic is more than just a storage space for discarded or unused stuff. It plays a crucial role in maintaining your home's general comfort by improving your home's ventilation, increasing energy efficiency, and prolonging the lifespan of your roof. The secret? Make sure that your attic is properly ventilated.
You might be asking: "does an attic need ventilation?" The answer is yes, it does.
If you're currently considering setting up an efficient attic insulation system at home or you're looking at installing attic vents, this article is for you.
You may also be wondering, "how many roof vents do I need," or "how many attic fans do I need for my house?
This article will try to answer those questions and acquaint you with the recommended attic ventilation.
First, let us answer the most critical question: Why do attics need to be vented?
There are several huge benefits to installing vents in your attic. Proper attic ventilation will help you cut costs related to electricity consumption, roof maintenance, or house repair caused by extreme weather or the changing of seasons.
To begin with, venting your attic is an affordable and practical way of protecting and extending the lifespan of your roof. For instance, during summer, the roof above our heads protects us from the sun's heat, and we rely heavily on our air conditioning system to keep the temperature comfortable inside our home.
If your attic is not getting enough airflow, the heat from your roof will be trapped inside your house, and your air conditioning unit will work double-time to keep the house cool. This results in high electrical consumption and, yes, soaring energy bills.
The sun's scorching heat during summer and the formation of thick ice ridges during winter can severely damage your roof sheathing. Proper attic ventilation helps protect your roof from deterioration caused by excessive heat, ice dams, or interior water leaks. Moreover, did you know that improper ventilation can void your roof's warranties? Hence, protecting your roof through proper ventilation will help you avoid losing your warranties.
Proper ventilation reduces the rate of your attic's deterioration. Poor attic venting can cause mildew, wood rot and rust, and could severely damage your home.
You must install a balanced and efficient roof ventilation system to facilitate proper air circulation in your attic space.
Homeowners usually use soffit vents to take in the fresh air and ridge vents or gable vents on the side of the house to expel the warm air, thus facilitating natural airflow in the attic space.
The idea of roof ventilation is based on a fundamental scientific principle: hot air rises while cool air sinks. This is called passive ventilation and is the most common way of venting an attic.
Without proper ventilation, the excessive heat and moisture trapped inside your attic can damage your roof and, ultimately, your home.
Having roof vents can help you avoid these potential concerns. Using roof vents allows you to regulate the temperature in your attic space, maintain a comfortable temperature inside your house, and protect your roof and home.
There are two main types of roof ventilation: the intake vent and the exhaust vent. Cool air enters the attic through the intake vents, which you can find at the lowest part of the roof. Meanwhile, hot air passes through the exhaust vents from the attic.
As a rule of thumb, the quickest and fastest calculation is the 1/300 rule or one square foot of ventilation for every 300 square feet of attic floor space.
To calculate the square footage of your attic space, you need to multiply the length by the width.
To determine how much ventilation your attic needs, divide the total square footage by 300.
For example, if your attic is 40 feet by 60 feet, its total area is 2,400 feet. This means that your attic will need eight feet of ventilation, with half using intake vents and the other half using exhaust ventilation.
This formula is often used for static roof vents, which are rated for net free area in terms of square inches.
This is the minimum residential attic ventilation that most building codes recommend. Remember, though, that you might need to check this with your community's local building authority because building codes may vary per location.
If you want to lower your electricity and home repair expenses, consider installing an efficient attic ventilation system. That way, you won't need to replace your roof as frequently, and you will be able to keep your house adequately ventilated at a low cost.
With proper roof and attic ventilation, your house remains your place of safety and comfort no matter the season.