Attic ventilation is an important factor in keeping your home as energy-efficient as possible and it’s an area that not many homeowners look at closely enough. “Out of sight, out of mind” may apply here, for if you don’t see that area of your home very often you may not consider why attic ventilation is important.
           

Consider a couple of reasons why you need to think about attic ventilation:

• Temperature – in the summertime, the attic is most likely the hottest place in your house (when the outside temperature is 95 degrees the attic temp can get up to around 150 degrees). With all that excess heat up there keeping the room(s) in your home cool means that the air conditioning system has to work harder.

• Moisture – if vapor barriers are not used in the ceiling any moisture that is produced in the living areas can migrate to the attic. With inadequate attic ventilation this moisture condenses and can cause deterioration in insulation and the roofing structure.

One way to help ventilate your attic in the summer is through the use of an attic fan. The idea here is that the fan pulls in air from the outside (which is cooler than the air in the attic) through vents at the same time pushing the hot attic air back to the outside. Two situations can cause a problem with this: 1. If the attic vents (located in the soffit) are blocked and/or 2. If the attic does not have a good seal off from the living area. If either or both of these come into play, the attic fans will pull the cool (air conditioned) air from your living area meaning your AC system has to work a lot harder to keep the rooms cool. So, one consideration for proper attic ventilation is to remember to never put insulation over the attic soffit vents.

At first glance, attic ventilation seems to be contradictory to what we are trying to achieve. Think about it – you try to get your home sealed, insulated and weather-stripped to the point where no air can get in or out, the idea of ventilating the attic – letting it breathe – seems counter-productive. But the attic is a unique place in your home so the traditional thinking does not necessary apply (at least not completely). Above the attic is all the “bad stuff” outside – rain, hail, heat, cold and all other types of inclement weather. Below the attic is the perfect environment (your home), which is climate controlled virtually all the time. Since the attic resides in between those two extremes it has to flex a little in terms of temperature and it has to breathe. That is what attic ventilation is all about.

Another great thing you can do to increase attic ventilation is to have a ridge vent installed. This is installed on your roof at the peak. This is screened and it replaces the top row of shingles that bridges the roof peak. The ridge vent allows air to flow in or out of the attic area along the entire peak of the roof. If you have soffit vents they will work wonderfully in combination with a ridge vent. The heated air from the attic rises and goes out of the ridge vents, while cooler air is entering the attic from below via the soffit vents. The nice thing about this type of system is its uniformity; there are no “hot spots” of non-moving, overheated air.
If your house was built more than about 20 or 30 years ago, chances are the attic ventilation was not a high priority item. Home construction has come a long way since then. We can take a look at your situation and advise you on the best course of action to have an attic that “breathes” and a home that is more energy-efficient.

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