Power ventilator for your attic will keep you cool.

With summer on its way I wanted to share some great advice on how to keep your home 10-15 degrees cooler on hot summer days. As a home inspector, part of my job is to inspect attics. In the summer attics can reach temperatures in excess of 150 degrees! During the day the insulation in the attic starts absorbing the heat. By evening your insulation is very hot, and because of its properties, it holds the heat for a long time. In late afternoon, that heat in the insulation starts to radiate through your ceiling into your home and continues to radiate late into the night. During those hot days, the ceiling in your home becomes a radiant heater, much like the radiant ceiling heat they use to install in homes in the 1970’s. The problem is you can’t turn the heat off. But you can prevent it.

The solution is an attic power ventilator fan. An attic fan mounts on the roof, or in the attic behind a gable vent. The fan has a thermostat mounted in the attic which activates the fan when the attic starts to get warm, about 90 degrees. The fan pulls or pushes the heat out of your attic, bringing in cool air from the eave vent, keeping your attic and insulation much cooler.

Even if you have A/C, the power ventilator fan will keep your home cooler and take much of the pressure off the A/C system. Those who have A/C know that on very hot days the A/C does not keep your home cool, especially if you have a two-story home.

My experience is that an attic fan will also extend the life of the three-tab roofing on your home. With a cooler attic your roofing doesn’t heat up and the life of the roofing is extended anywhere from 5-8 years, depending on care and conditions.

Attic fans can be purchased at most home centers and they even make solar powered fans. Having an attic fan installed is about one tenth the cost of having A/C installed. If you are handy, you may be able to tackle all or most of the project yourself and save some money.

Do yourself and your home a favor by installing a power ventilator fan now before the summer heat is here.

Lance Larson

WIN Home Inspection Salem