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Attic Cooling Help

Name: huy  City: houston

Question: Hi, I live in houston, Texas, where the weather is in the high 90s and the humidity is always near 100%. My problem is that when my parent's roof got changed, they removed the attic fan (the thing on the roof, i have no idea what it is called but its shaped like a circle when sticking out of the roof and is powered by a motor) and they put a huge line of ventilation on the top of my roof. My mom kept complaining about how the A/C is always on so i told her that a attic fan would help. Her and my dad dont believe me, they say the ventilation holes on the top of the roof are enough and all a attic fan would do is waste energy. Ive worked with computers for quite a bit, and although a house isnt a computer, i know that a computer, even if it had all the holes in the case it needed, it still would run hotter than a case with a fan to exhaust air. So whos right and whos wrong? Would an attic fan save us money, reduce temps and lower usage of the A/C? Also, what are those aluminium or tin blower look alike things on roofs that spin around? Thanks

Name: joe | Date: July 21, 2005, 5:34
Answer: Generally speaking, your parents are correct....Provided that your roof system has the recommended 1 square foot of roof ventilation for every 150 square feet of attic floor space, a ridge vent or other type of passive roof venting is much more economical than an attic powered vent/fan....Powered vents are a very poor way to ventilate attics because they can run almost consistently and actually increase your overall energy consumption....And while 'whirlybird' or turbine vents can be better than passive vents, the REAL solution here is that you need to increase your attic insulation to keep the house cooler and your AC costs down.