attic fans? (Wake Forest: renting, house, water heater)

[DanielChang]

I was reading this thread about heat in the triangle and I know my upstairs is noticeably hotter (think sauna) than my downstairs. I know with two story house, especially a two-story-great-room, the upstairs A/C unit does a lot more work. Would an attic fan help in situation like this? How do I help the attic have better ventilation and cooling in the summers?

[coltank]

Depends on how old your home is. Most newer homes use ventilated soffits and ridge vents to promote better airflow. We are also starting to see some homes with sealed attic spaces.

[sacredgrooves]

does your house have a ridge vent at the roof peak? attic fans typically cost more in energy than they save as they pull conditioned air from inside the house to the attic if the office's vents do not deliver enough volume(they rarely do). They are also a leading cause of house fires because the fan motor burns out, the fan seizes yet, the thermostat is still calling for airflow so it overheats.
Advanced Energy is a group of building scientists out of NC State and they have some great articles on attic ventilation, among other things.

[Huckleberry3911948]

Originally Posted by jinxor

I was reading this thread about heat in the triangle and I know my upstairs is noticeably hotter (think sauna) than my downstairs. I know with two story house, especially a two-story-great-room, the upstairs A/C unit does a lot more work. Would an attic fan help in situation like this? How do I help the attic have better ventilation and cooling in the summers?

i love them. cheap and easy to install and thermostat controlled.
cannt say nuf good bout them.
stephen s
san diego ca

[SunnyKayak]

They may feel great in spring or in the late fall but as mention above it going to pull any air condition air out of the house. In order for the fan to have the best circulation you will need to have windows open and now you are going have to deal with humidity and pollen being blown into the house.

[gastric]

The OP didn't post whether he was referring to whole-house attic fans which suck the air out of the house and blow it into the attic or just a small powered attic ventilation fan which is just to blow the hot air already in the attic to the outside.

I know my walk-up attic is hotter than I would have imagined and I have a ton of insullation, rafter baffles, ridge vents everywhere, and one gable vent in a hard-to-access part of the attic. Doesn't seem to do squat as it must be 140 degrees up there when it's 90 outside.

I've been considering some sort of powered attic ventillation to help cool the attic down. They have solar ones that cost more initially but don't use any electricity obviously. I'm personally more concerned about the NOISE they make than anything else. I don't want to have to hear a droning attic fan while I lay in bed.

[Wanna Leave Penciltucky]

I got an attic fan when I lived in NC. If your house is above 2300 sq ft I would get 2. We lived there 1 season without it and then I got someone to come do it. The airco bill went down. I had a rancher built in the 80's.
If your home holds hot air it is never a good thing. It causes your airco to work harder.
I did it, it helped, it saved money.

[southward bound]

Can anyone recommend someone in the Triangle/Wake Forest areas to install an attic fan?

[gastric]

Most HVAC people I talk to strongly recommend AGAINST them for the reasons listed here. They'll tell you they pull conditioned air from inside your house and into the attic.

A better avenue would be some sort of radiant barrier that reflects the suns radiant heat away from your house as that's where the heat is coming from. 90 degree outside air doesn't magically make your attic 145 degrees. It's the radiant heat.

With that said I'm not personally aware of an appropriate product. I'd think it'd need to go under the shingles but above the roof deck. I've seen foil-backed insulation installed in the roof truss/rafters, but I'd think that'd be trapping/reflecting all that heat back through the decking.

Bah! What do I know! All I know is my attic gets about 15 degrees hotter with each step you take up there.

[NC little foot]

Our hot water heater is in the attic and yesterday the pilot went out, I originally thought my Husband didn't pay the bill. Anyway, the gas co. guy came over and he said because we have no window or Attic fan in the attic there is very low oxygen and therefore snuffed out the pilot light due to extreme heat. If I wasn't renting this place and owned it I would definetly put in an attic fan.