Why attic fans are bad?

Electric Attic Fan Problems Overview They can draw moist, moldy air into the house from a basement or low-rise space. They can roll back a water heater, oven, or boiler. Countercurrent can cause incomplete combustion, which can cause carbon monoxide in the air you breathe. Even though an attic exhaust fan can gradually reduce the temperature of a very hot attic, using a fan does not stop the radiant heat source.

During the day, any cooler air introduced by the fan will be immediately heated by the surrounding structure. At night, after the sun's radiation source stops, the structure will remain warm for some time. Any cooler air brought in from outside will eventually lower the temperature of the attic structure, but that will happen VERY slowly. As soon as the sun rises in the morning, the radiant heating process will begin again.

Attic fans work on the premise that they suck in outside air and help extract it through the attic. But, more often than not, the negative air pressure in the attic draws air conditioner from the living space. This will achieve the purpose of cooling the attic, but at a great cost. Attic roofs and hatches are not airtight.

Attic fan will draw air from living room to attic. It was expensive to cool the air in your living room, so letting it flow into the attic is a waste. An attic ventilation fan can help reduce humidity in the attic and therefore inhibit mold growth. According to Home Improvement Contractors of Staten Island, the main reason is that electric attic fans can create negative air pressure inside the home.

If you love your attic fan mainly because, like me, you enjoy a lot of air circulation in your home, Ramon recommends including a variable drive motor in your oven along with a high-efficiency air filter. If your house has a warm attic and roof during the summer, the solution is not an electric fan for the attic. If you have appliances that burn natural gas (or propane), such as water heaters or ovens, installing an electric attic fan can cause carbon monoxide poisoning. Some of that heat goes into the air above the hot materials in the attic floor, but heating the attic air is a side effect.

Of course, a gable attic ventilation fan minimizes this risk because it is not installed on the roof, but vertically on the gable wall. This heat transfer mode is most effectively limited by increased attic insulation, a truss-mounted radiant barrier, or a white reflective roof surface that limits solar gain to the attic structure. Yes, air movement can cool hot objects, but there are some significant differences between a radiator fan and an electric attic fan. And it's part of the reason my state, Georgia, has banned electric attic fans (unless they run on solar energy, which was a necessary concession to ban grid-powered fans).

Attic fans work best at night, when the outside temperature cools and air enters your warm home to cool it down. I challenge you to a battle of applied knowledge in this field any day, it's people like you who make people who need an attic fan ask themselves without talking to a real professional. For example, if the attic is at 150 degrees and you circulate air through it that enters 110 degrees from the outside, then you can expect the cooling effect to lower the temperature of the attic to about 125-130 degrees. The vent must be covered and the fan should only have one hole the diameter of the fan to mount it.

Running the attic fan will draw this cool air up and into your living spaces, which could cause the temperature to drop significantly. .

Brad Heidmann
Brad Heidmann

Amateur pop culture aficionado. Amateur social media geek. Hardcore webaholic. Extreme web evangelist. Freelance music buff. Extreme music specialist.

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