What Kind Of Venting Required For Whole House Fan?
Just bought a house with a whole house fan that is already installed. The roof was repaired due to tree damage a few years ago and the knobs have been removed from the controls to the whole house fan. This makes me think they attempted to disable the fan after the roof repairs because they possibly neglected to add the necessary venting after the repairs were made. (That is me possibly overthinking this.)
The only vents to this attic are soffit vents. I was under the impression that due to the volume of air a whole house fan can move that I would need roof vents or a gable vent to allow the air to escape. Unfortunately I’m not familiar with how much venting is required.
Can anyone enlighten me on the recommended requirements or best practices?
Thanks!
Replies
Soffit vents without matching rooftop vents are worthless anyway. And you probably need 15-20 8x16 soffit vents and an equivalent square inches (1000 or so) of rooftop vent to accommodate the standard whole house fan.
Thanks for the reply, DanH. I'm going to have to do some research to find out how I want to tackle this project. Not sure if this space will remain an attic space of if it will be finished in the near future. So I guess that would help me to decide if I want to put in roof, ridge or gable vents. Or even a powered gable vent, and of course additional soffit vents.
I guess maybe I should start reading A Crash Course In Roof Venting before I go asking any more questions.
Attic Venting
Measure the dia. of the fan, look at new fans of equal sizd to determine the cfm of your fan and add vents as required. Ridge vents, gable vents, low profile roof vents and even maybe a nice cupola style vent.
Thanks oops. I'll see if I can't get a model and serial number off the fan to help me determine the CFM. As I mentioned above, I'm trying to determine the use of the space so that will help me somewhat determine what type of vent to get. Thanks.
Whole-house fans come in different types and sizes. Their sole purpose is to move vast quantities of air. They work very well in climates that have moderate to low humidity. As the sun goes down and the outside air temperature begins to drop, a whole-house fan can create pleasant breezes through any and all rooms of a house. One way to achieve the necessary ventilation area quickly is to install simple and affordable spinning roof turbines. These wonderful roof ventilation products may not look as sleek as the hidden continuous ridge and soffit ventilation you already have, but they also allow massive amounts of air to readily escape from your hot attic space.
From what I've read the spinning turbines are mostly worthless.
Well, tests have shown that the turbines are no better than the equivalent simple vent. Which is probably one reason why you don't see them much anymore (in addition to being ugly and noisy).
yeah right, anyway thanks for sharing your thoughts :)