Should I fix broken eletrical attic fan?
OsiTech.Net
weeks. Home ownership is new to me and one thing I have quickly found out is
that I have to become a jack of all trades.
I went in into my attic this afternoon to poke around up there and I found
that my motorized attic fan was not working anymore. Are these things
necessary? I went to home depot and found a new unit for only $50 which is
quite palatable to me but I want to make sure first that I NEED to fix it.
--
OsiTech.Net
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http://www.ositech.net
Art Chimes
If you are referring to the vent fan that exhausts hot air from your
attic, and if you are in a warmer climate, the answer is yes. For modest
cost you can reduce the a/c load and lengthen the lifespan of your
shingles.
I even use mine as a whole-house ventilator in shoulder season by
opening the pull-down stairs to the attic halfway and throwing open the
windows. Works great!
Art
The tool man
You probably need the attic ventilation. It keeps it cooler in the
summer (prolonging shingle life) and reduces moisture buildup in the
winter (prolonging everything else).
I had a similar problem in my previous house a few years ago. Instead
of spending $50 to replace the fan, I spent $80 and bought enough ridge
venting to do the whole house. It was a lot of work, but the ridge vent
is passive, silent, and doesn't use any electricity. Also, in my
situation, it allowed me to vent parts of the attic that the fan
couldn't have reached. I don't know what the attic temperature was when
the fan was working, but the temperature dropped from 125 degrees to 100
degrees F when I installed the ridge vent. If you're concerned about
appearances, you can get corregated ridge vent that can be covered with
matching shingles to make it nearly invisible.
Installing such a vent on an existing, shingled roof is not the easiest
or safest thing to do, but it can be done. E-mail me if you want to
know how I did it. If you decide not to go with the vent, replace
the fan. Good luck.
Regards,
John.
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Before you buy.
Rick Matthews
>I even use mine as a whole-house ventilator in shoulder season by
>opening the pull-down stairs to the attic halfway and throwing open
>the windows.
What time of year is "shoulder season"?
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Jonathan Kamens
suppose that ridge vents may be an acceptable alternative (but I'm not
convinced that a fan wouldn't do a better cooling job). If, on the
other hand, the purpose of the fan is also to exhaust the entire house,
the fan really needs to be replaced. If the attic is closed off from
the rest of the house, then the fan's purpose is probably just to vent
the attic; if the attic is open to the rest of the house, then fan's
probably supposed to be a whole-house exhaust fan.
For example, our attic is finished and connected to the rest of our
house by an open stairway. We have a whole-house exhaust fan right in
the middle of our attic. It's on a timer so that it turns on for a
couple of hours in the middle of the night, when it's coolest outside.
We open windows all over the house before we go to sleep to allow the
cool air to be sucked into the house by the fan, and then we close the
windows in the morning before it gets too hot.
We have a couple of window air conditioners, but we usually get away
with only using them for a couple of weeks each summer (during the real
heat waves). For the rest of the summer, sure, it gets warm in the
house during the day (and it gets HOT in the attic where my office is),
but the whole-house exhaust fan, combined with ceiling and table fans
in several rooms, does a good enough job.
If your attic currently is NOT connected to the rest of the house, and
the fan there is currently intended only to exhaust the attic, you
might want to do what Art Chimes suggested and open your attic stairs
(or access panel, or whatever) to ventilate the whole house when it's
cool outside. If you do this, however, you need to find out how much
air the fan is rated to circulate -- if it's a small fan only intended
to ventilate your attic, it may not be powerful enough to suck much
air from the rest of the house.
Jerry Eveleth
running attic fans exceeded the benefit in reducing air-conditioning costs.
Attics obviously get very hot in hot climates. However there is the question of
how much of that heat actually affects the living area. FAR better to add
insulation than to use an attic fan. This is for the city of Livermore which
tends to have temps in the 90's to low 100s in the summer months. (the issue of
snowbelt climates and attic fans may be another issue, and I have no experience
with that). Good luck as a new homeowner.--Jerry
Craig
and an attic fan will have the same effect. I can buy an attic fan for
about $50 and it costs about $30 to run for about 6 months. I can
probably buy 1,500 square feet of R-19 insulation for about $500.
Assuming negligable winter heat savings from the additional insulation
(as may be the case in Livermore), the break even point would be 15
years. Insulation would never pay for itself if I took the $420
differential and invested it at 10%. I would guess if professional
installation were involved, it would cost much more to put in the
insulation than install the fan.
Additional insulation without the attic fan will cause the roof to need
replacement sooner than if the attic fan were involved. Roof
replacement is often triggered when a house is sold - Deduct approx
$5,000 from profits.
Daniel Hicks
>
> To start, thank you all for accommodating all of my questions the past few
> weeks. Home ownership is new to me and one thing I have quickly found out is
> that I have to become a jack of all trades.
>
> I went in into my attic this afternoon to poke around up there and I found
> that my motorized attic fan was not working anymore. Are these things
> necessary? I went to home depot and found a new unit for only $50 which is
> quite palatable to me but I want to make sure first that I NEED to fix it.
This is one of the biggest problems with these fans. They tend to seize
up within five years or so of installation. Replacing can be simple or
a pain, depending on whether the new unit is an exact replacement for
the old. (If so, you can just swap out the motor proper from inside the
attic, saving the need for any rooftop work.)
It is debateable whether the powered vents work any better than a set of
properly installed passive vents along the top edge of the roof. If
nothing else, having several static vents distributes the airflow more
evenly, vs having it all flow through one point.
Daniel Hicks
in which case it would take far less than an additional R19 to make up
the difference.
Craig wrote:
>
> I would hold that study suspect. Assume an additional R-19 insulation
> and an attic fan will have the same effect. I can buy an attic fan for
> about $50 and it costs about $30 to run for about 6 months. I can
> probably buy 1,500 square feet of R-19 insulation for about $500.
> Assuming negligable winter heat savings from the additional insulation
> (as may be the case in Livermore), the break even point would be 15
> years. Insulation would never pay for itself if I took the $420
> differential and invested it at 10%. I would guess if professional
> installation were involved, it would cost much more to put in the
> insulation than install the fan.
>
> Additional insulation without the attic fan will cause the roof to need
> replacement sooner than if the attic fan were involved. Roof
> replacement is often triggered when a house is sold - Deduct approx
> $5,000 from profits.
>
> Jerry Eveleth wrote:
> >
> > Re your attic fan issue, our city did a careful study and found that the cost of
> > running attic fans exceeded the benefit in reducing air-conditioning costs.
> > Attics obviously get very hot in hot climates. However there is the question of
> > how much of that heat actually affects the living area. FAR better to add
> > insulation than to use an attic fan. This is for the city of Livermore which
> > tends to have temps in the 90's to low 100s in the summer months. (the issue of
> > snowbelt climates and attic fans may be another issue, and I have no experience
> > with that). Good luck as a new homeowner.--Jerry
> >
> > "OsiTech.Net" wrote:
> >
> > > To start, thank you all for accommodating all of my questions the past few
> > > weeks. Home ownership is new to me and one thing I have quickly found out is
> > > that I have to become a jack of all trades.
> > >
> > > I went in into my attic this afternoon to poke around up there and I found
> > > that my motorized attic fan was not working anymore. Are these things
> > > necessary? I went to home depot and found a new unit for only $50 which is
> > > quite palatable to me but I want to make sure first that I NEED to fix it.
> > >