Trying to find the perfect amount of insulation for the attic and roof of your home can be tricky. On the one hand, airflow to the attic is important to extend the life of a roof. On the other hand, a lack of insulation allows air to enter the rest of the house, which affects energy costs and overall efficiency. Can a roof ventilator be the answer for your home?
Why Roof Ventilation Is Important
Roof replacement ranks among the most expensive home improvement projects, so you’ll want to maximize your roof’s life span as much as possible. Proper ventilation allows cold air to enter your home’s attic during the winter, which allows your roof to stay free of damaging ice dams. In the summer, the presence of warm air keeps a roof’s shingles from cracking and breaking from exposure to the sun.
This system of airflow doesn’t affect the energy efficiency of the rest of your home when the attic floor is fully covered with insulation of the appropriate thickness. ENERGY STAR warns not to overinsulate an attic by covering soffit or rafter vents. Homes should allow air to move in and out of the home through the vents to ensure proper ventilation inside the home.
Roof Ventilator Pros and Cons
From the silver, circular ventilators you’ll see on industrial buildings to subtle vents on gabled roofs, homeowners have many options when they want the ideal amount of airflow into the attic. The silver “whirly” ventilators work in conjunction with ceiling fans to circulate moist air out of your home. They do not require any power source to operate. They work noiselessly and need no maintenance. These ventilators aim to remove the excess moisture and heat that creep into a home during the peaks of the hot and cold seasons.
On the negative side, roof ventilation only works effectively when your home is fully air-sealed and the attic floor is insulated properly. You cannot use an attic floor for storage because the insulation will be damaged, leading to drops in efficiency.
Seeing Home Performance From Multiple Angles
It’s normal to become confused by some principles of home performance and efficiency. Counterintuitive measures such as allowing air into the attic of your home on purpose make sense when you see the complete picture of HVAC work. For any home to perform at a high level, it needs leak-sealing, insulation, modern heating and cooling devices, improvements to air quality and even control over the temperature in different rooms.
An energy audit by Reliable Heating & Air technicians will highlight the many ways your home is losing energy in the course of a day. Whether the solutions are simple tweaks or larger projects, the end result always increases the comfort level and efficiency of a home.
Reliable home performance experts can advise you on what type of roof ventilator would work best for your home. Any effort to extend the life of your roof could equal major savings down the road.
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