Understanding Roof Ventilation: Why It Works and Why It’s Important.
Some of the functions of the roof vents include: ensuring your home remains healthy and ensuring you spend affordable amounts of energy. They provide ventilation to your home and control the internal environment’s temperature as well. Incorrect ventilation means that your attic becomes a hot box during the summer and a moisture trap during the winter months. Both are recipes for trouble. Check this website
The Two Types of Roof Vents:
Roof ventilation requires both an inlet and an outlet which are equally efficient. Intake vents commonly reside along the soffit or near the drip edge to allow cool fresh air into the attic. Roof exhaust vents at the top of the roof allow the hot and stale air to escape from the house. It’s a continuous cycle.
Popular Intake Vents:
● Soffit Vents: To be installed under the eaves they facilitate the flow and distribution of cool air into the attic.
● Drip Edge Vents: Sited along the roof perimeters, they allow intake ventilation as well as excluding pests.
● Fascia & Over-Fascia Vents: Situated on the fascia board to enhance the intra-hood air flow, usually utilized together with soffit vents.
Popular exhaust vent:
● Ridge Vents: Located to sit on the top ridge for ease of hot air expulsion and installation of low-profile systems.
● Box Vents: Plain rectangular apertures that enable attic warm air and moisture to be expelled.
● Gable Vents: Models of decorative airs that are most likely to affect effective ventilation.
● Cupola Vents: Ventilated rooftop structures that also impart architectural aesthetics.
● Turbine Vents: Turbine venting is a kind of vent that rotates to afford attic heat.
● Off-Ridge Vents: Placed apart from the top to produce hot air filibustering.
Powered Roof Vents:
Electric and Solar Options:
There are powered roof vents Electric vents have wires connected to the power source to remove hot air. Solar vents on the other hand are Roof vents that work from solar panels without the addition of power costs.
Benefits of roof vents:
● Provides fresh air circulation, thereby sparing the AC unit’s workload and the owner’s electricity bills.
● Ice barrier in winter stops ice dams and thus least roof damage and least moisture accumulation.
● Prevents roof decking and insulation from being damaged through moisture penetration.
● Protects underlayment to increase the lifespan of shingles and to ensure they do not wear out, crack, or deteriorate due to high temperatures or low temperatures respectively.
● Removes indoor air pollutants and helps to maintain a good level of humidity indoors.
● Ensures that fresh air circulates freely all over the home hence promoting a healthy living environment.
Signs of Poor Ventilation:
- extreme heat in summer in the attic.
- Moisture, frost, or mold in the attic.
- Shingle damage or curling.
- Winter ice dams.
- Musty or bad attic odors.
Choosing the Right Vents:
- Hot climates: Intake and outtake vents for favorable circulation at the ridges and soffits.
- Cold climates: Ridge and box vents to restrict the access of snow.
