Are Attic Fans Worth It

Attic fans are not recommended if you have central air conditioning because when you turn the fan on in the summer it depressurizes the attic but also reaches down into your house and starts drawing off air conditioned air effectively driving up your cooling costs.

Are attic fans worth it.

Heat can push down into your home making it very uncomfortable especially if your attic isn t properly insulated. Ad the infrared rays from the sun are powerful. It can also depend on the materials used in the manufacture. You can compare according to your budget using our reviews earlier.

The primary reason attic fans are not helpful is that they can depresureize the attic and draw air out of the house. Studies have shown that energy costs in a home with an attic fan can be up to 30 lower. Many houses have significant leaks in the air barrier attic floor and it would be easy for the attic fan to draw a significant amount of air from the house. However there are certain circumstances where they can prove useful.

Three years ago i wrote an article titled don t let your attic suck power attic ventilators are a bad idea nearly a hundred thousand page views and 93 comments later it s still generating lots of heat. The problem with making a definitive statement on attic fans is that every house is different. There are different climates all around the country some climates are more beneficial to attic fans. Are attic fans worth it.

Nevertheless attic fans are available in different prices and some can be pretty expensive. It depends on the brand features and functions. The effectiveness and safety of attic fans is a debated subject but studies show that standard line powered fans actually cost more to operate than they generate in savings. Attic insulation that is less than r 19.

It may be starting to sound like attic ventilation fans aren t worth the hassle and could cause more problems than they solve. There are too many different ways you can better insulate your home to avoid energy loss. I don t know why so many people are so defensive about power attic ventilators but here are a few of the things they ve said to me in the comments. Attic ventilation fans could be effective if your home has.

Also adding more penetrations to your roof is cause for more roof maintenance and potential roof leaks. The solar attic fans all moved less than 1 000 cubic feet of air per minute cfm and they did nothing to lower the temperature inside my own attic. My belief is solar attic fans are not worth it. Attic fans make your home more comfortable.

And they can create zones of negative pressure which risks pulling conditioned air from the house into the attic and the dangerous possibility of pulling gases from combustion appliances back into the house namely carbon monoxide. If you have good continuous soffit venting and a ridge vent then any type of attic fan may be totally unnecessary.