Best Way To Vent Your Attic

Because the simplest and cheapest way to insulate an attic is to add material to the floor.

Best way to vent your attic.

In other words the entire vent opening doesn t count as vented space. Hot air exhaust vents located at the peak of the roof allow hot air to escape. As the sun shines on the top of your house the heat is absorbed by your roof. In addition insulation baffles must be installed at the point where the attic floor meets the roofline to prevent the attic insulation from migrating into the cavities and restricting the airflow from the soffit vents.

Vents come in various styles. Reflective materials keep things cooler. Stop using your attic for storage. Start with the attic floor.

Air flows in through the soffit vents and out through the roof vents. Powered attic ventilators are the worst way to try to keep your attic cool. Generally speaking you need a ratio of 1 300 where for every 300 square feet of ceiling space you need 1 square foot of attic ventilation. This will then make the attic hot.

For the best results place roof ventilation near the roof s peak and soffit vents in the eaves. But if the floor is covered in plywood you can t stuff enough insulation beneath it to do the job sufficiently not even in warm climates. For this kind of system you need soffit vents and ridge vents. That said air resistance and interference such as vent grates reduces the area of true ventilation.

Soffit vents are intake vents located under the outside eaves of your home. If you see dampness or frost you need better roof ventilation and some attic vents. The best form of attic ventilation for your home is a balanced system where the intake vents are separate from the exhaust vents. These thermostatically controlled fans are supposed to push out the upper attic hot air and draw in cooler outside air usually through the soffit vents.

If two different types of exhaust vents are combined for example a ridge vent and a gable louver the primary path of air becomes the distance between the two types of exhaust vents. The soffit vents allow convective air movement from the soffits of the residence to the ridge vent. They ve been well discussed here and other places but briefly they re not cost effective don t deal with the problem where it starts are using convection to solve a radiant heat problem and can even be dangerous by backdrafting combustion appliances and.