Is an attic exhaust fan worth the cost ?

[DALEPQ]

We recently purchased a ranch home in T.V.
It does not have any attic exhaust fans.
I have noticed many homes that have multiple exhaust fans on their roofs.
Do they provide a value that justifies their cost?
Thanks.

[TheSolarGuys]

We would be happy to help you with attic ventilation. We have several options and a local showroom just north of the villages on Hwy. 484 with our products on display. You can give us a call 866-669-5259 or find out more information about our products at www.TheSolarGuys.com (http://www.thesolarguys.com)

[MartinSE]

We recently purchased a ranch home in T.V.
It does not have any attic exhaust fans.
I have noticed many homes that have multiple exhaust fans on their roofs.
Do they provide a value that justifies their cost?
Thanks.

We used the SolarGuys to install a garage exhaust fan. It accomplishes a similar thing and in addition he's keep the garage a bit cooler.

I can highly recommend them, we were completely satisfied with their work and their customer service.

As to whether it justifies the cost, if you mean does it reduce your AC bill enough to repay the investment? I don't know, the reason we did it was to keep the garage cooler not to save money.

[retiredguy123]

We recently purchased a ranch home in T.V.
It does not have any attic exhaust fans.
I have noticed many homes that have multiple exhaust fans on their roofs.
Do they provide a value that justifies their cost?
Thanks.
Are you sure those are exhaust fans and not just round roof vents? The builder typically installs round roof vents, but there is no fan.

[Toymeister]

Short answer: no it's not worth it, solar fans are 1,000 no it's not worth it.

Here's why.
I had a 110 volt attic fan and a whole house electricity monitor which checked the mains 10,000 times a second and used machine learning to identify individual consumers of electricity. I had two years worth of data on the fan (because it operated on 110) and the HVAC. I had this data on my first home.

Solar fans economy is easiest to debunk. The fan was thermostatically operated. During the hot months the fan would come on between 11 am and 2 pm and run to 11pm to 2 am. Clearly, the sun isn't around when the attic is hot. I won't get into the math of why the claimed cubic feet per minute ratings of solar fans are a stretch of marketing. Let's just leave it as the they don't remove much hot air.

The 110 fans vary in consumption of power depending on the motor type. The types that are sold at home improvement stores are affordable but energy hogs, they simply cost more in kilowatts than they save. The more efficient fans have, potentially, a very slight savings but they cost more to purchase and install then they save over ten years.

What does have a decent RoI (return on investment)? Additional static, non fan, roof vents if you install them yourself. I did this on my current home.

The vents on your home meet the state's minimum attic ventilation requirements. In my opinion, minimum is not good enough. I added an additional 80% more ventilation for 75.00.

[davem4616]

IMHO it would depend upon what you planned to store up there

we don't store anything that could be damaged by heat up in the attic

we don't have an exhaust fan attic...even if we did, it'd be hot up there in the summer

[DAVES]

We recently purchased a ranch home in T.V.
It does not have any attic exhaust fans.
I have noticed many homes that have multiple exhaust fans on their roofs.
Do they provide a value that justifies their cost?
Thanks.

Worth doing? Everything is questionable. There is more to improving attic ventilation then sticking a fan up there. Realize a fan will in theory pull hot air out of the attic. Remember hot air rises.
Your roof likely does, should have openings at the highest point to allow hot air out. Also, air needs to flow into the attic. Sort of like trying to suck air out of a coke bottle. You do not want to pay for a fan to pull air conditioned, cooled air, into your attic.

[Garywt]

Most of what you see are vents. We did have a solar fan installed by the Solar Guys for $950. Has nothing to do with storing things up there as we having nothing up these with no plans of putting anything up there. The plan is if the air is moving and keeping the attic anything less temperature wise it will help with AC. Keeping the temp at 80 in the summer we might/should be saving some on the electric bill. Are we, who really know but it was relatively cheap to do so we did it.

[asianthree]

Most of what you see are vents. We did have a solar fan installed by the Solar Guys for $950. Has nothing to do with storing things up there as we having nothing up these with no plans of putting anything up there. The plan is if the air is moving and keeping the attic anything less temperature wise it will help with AC. Keeping the temp at 80 in the summer we might/should be saving some on the electric bill. Are we, who really know but it was relatively cheap to do so we did it.

June 1 to September 30 from 2010 to 2016, our temp set at 81°in a PV, Cottage, and stucco Designer. No one in house except home watch weekly.

2017 same Parameters same houses, set temperature at 77°.

Adding the KWH, for a date parameters, cost increase was $3.8112 extra per month.

If we leave the house for a vaca always leave temp at 77, savings of a few dollars per month not worth it for us, to bump temp to 81.

[spinner1001]

June 1 to September 30 from 2010 to 2016, our temp set at 81°in a PV, Cottage, and stucco Designer. No one in house except home watch weekly.

2017 same Parameters same houses, set temperature at 77°.

Adding the KWH, for a date parameters, cost increase was $3.8112 extra per month.

If we leave the house for a vaca always leave temp at 77, savings of a few dollars per month not worth it for us, to bump temp to 81.

Do you mean that controlling for the change in electricity rates, the electricity cost of each of your houses fell only $3.81 per month on average over those summer months by increasing the thermostat from 77 to 81 degrees?

[thevillages2013]

Worth doing? Everything is questionable. There is more to improving attic ventilation then sticking a fan up there. Realize a fan will in theory pull hot air out of the attic. Remember hot air rises.
Your roof likely does, should have openings at the highest point to allow hot air out. Also, air needs to flow into the attic. Sort of like trying to suck air out of a coke bottle. You do not want to pay for a fan to pull air conditioned, cooled air, into your attic.

Wrong! All of these houses have continuous eave / soffit vents . That is where the air is being pulled from if one has a roof vent with a fan.

[Cher1119]

We are in our third home here. We had the Solar Guys install solar fan and three solar tubes in each of our homes. They did a great job and were quick!!

[midiwiz]

We recently purchased a ranch home in T.V.
It does not have any attic exhaust fans.
I have noticed many homes that have multiple exhaust fans on their roofs.
Do they provide a value that justifies their cost?
Thanks.

we have one since the ventilation put in when they build these houses is the minimal to pass code yet nothing close enough to ventilate the attic space - IF - you have no blocked spaces, of which, I have heard is common in some of these houses. Yet another flaw.

I do know temps prior to the fan are higher than they are after, however I'm not convinced in total yet as I need more than a week of 80+ days to judge it.

What I can tell you is, you have 2 choices - pay to have more vents installed or get an attic fan. Our last house had enough ventilation and never a problem in the attic or garage. of course it was insulated, however I was able to breath well and not break into a sweat in seconds either and yes nothing melted... (funny viewpoint)

I did get a cost on installing additional vents since the caps aren't adequate and poorly constructed leaving those out - it as cost prohibitive. So the fan was the only real choice. Face it they have built a feeding frenzy for contractors here. I have had to correct several items that "just made the passing marks on code" so that they would be better off in the long run - not pretty some I can't even fix as I'd have to tear into walls.

Try the fan, this isn't about electric bills it's really about over all condition of the house.

[Luggage]

On several federal government websites, insulating your attic immediately above your living space is the best payback. Further if you ever go in and out of your garage or do work in there I would suggest an electric vent fan and several standard vents at a lower level to draw the air out of it on a regular basis. Especially if your air conditioner and water heater are based in your garage

[Travelhunter123]

Short answer: no it's not worth it, solar fans are 1,000 no it's not worth it.

Here's why.
I had a 110 volt attic fan and a whole house electricity monitor which checked the mains 10,000 times a second and used machine learning to identify individual consumers of electricity. I had two years worth of data on the fan (because it operated on 110) and the HVAC. I had this data on my first home.

Solar fans economy is easiest to debunk. The fan was thermostatically operated. During the hot months the fan would come on between 11 am and 2 pm and run to 11pm to 2 am. Clearly, the sun isn't around when the attic is hot. I won't get into the math of why the claimed cubic feet per minute ratings of solar fans are a stretch of marketing. Let's just leave it as the they don't remove much hot air.

The 110 fans vary in consumption of power depending on the motor type. The types that are sold at home improvement stores are affordable but energy hogs, they simply cost more in kilowatts than they save. The more efficient fans have, potentially, a very slight savings but they cost more to purchase and install then they save over ten years.

What does have a decent RoI (return on investment)? Additional static, non fan, roof vents if you install them yourself. I did this on my current home.

The vents on your home meet the state's minimum attic ventilation requirements. In my opinion, minimum is not good enough. I added an additional 80% more ventilation for 75.00.

Interesting and makes sense

[Travelhunter123]

Most of what you see are vents. We did have a solar fan installed by the Solar Guys for $950. Has nothing to do with storing things up there as we having nothing up these with no plans of putting anything up there. The plan is if the air is moving and keeping the attic anything less temperature wise it will help with AC. Keeping the temp at 80 in the summer we might/should be saving some on the electric bill. Are we, who really know but it was relatively cheap to do so we did it.

How noisy is the fan? My neighbor disconnected his as it was loud

[GpaVader]

If I weren't going to store things in the attic, I probably would not. But since we do, we did. You can feel the difference, we used the Solar Guys and put a couple in. But if I weren't going to store items in the attic, I probably wouldn't.

[MandoMan]

We would be happy to help you with attic ventilation. We have several options and a local showroom just north of the villages on Hwy. 484 with our products on display. You can give us a call 866-669-5259 or find out more information about our products at www.TheSolarGuys.com (http://www.thesolarguys.com)

These guys are terrific. Trust them.

[Fitnusbuf]

Interesting and makes sense

Fans at a high point in the roof tend to get air from the easiest source. That would probably be the other closest vents and this will disturb the natural airflow between the soffit vents (lower intake) and upper passive mushroom vents.
Adding more upper exhaust openings should help air flow to lower temps in attic.
The question is how many and where to locate them.
Where do you put them?

[OhioBuckeye]

I agree, I say they are just vents, no fans in them! I agree that vent fans help but only to a certain degree. As hot as Florida is you would almost need a 3 ft. Chicken coop fan to make it worth while. Those little vent fans MIGHT just maintain the heat up there to a certain degree. So when you get your vent fan installed, go to your attic & come back here & give us your honest evaluation how cool your attic is! I had a 2 ft. vent fan put in our house & personally it was still very hot up there, couldn’t tell it cooled nothing.

[BigSteph]

I used power vents in the mid-atlantic.

In the summer, that area is as hot as Florida -- just for less time -- maybe 3 - 4 months.

I found that the motors burnt out often and it is a real pain to replace them. Each time a fan burns out, it is somewhere between $40 - $65 to replace the motor. Some of the roof domes are better designed than others -- some require the top to come off and others can be replaced from the inside. Regardless, it always seems they burn hot in the heat and are a miserable affair to replace.

Still, I could not believe it when my neighbor, a former contractor, told me that all our Power Vents were just the domes without any electrical fans. I had never seen them installed unpowered. I don't even think you can buy them withou motors without a special order.

[Boffin]

We recently purchased a ranch home in T.V.
It does not have any attic exhaust fans.
I have noticed many homes that have multiple exhaust fans on their roofs.
Do they provide a value that justifies their cost?
Thanks.

Install radiant heat reflective insulation.

[Garywt]

How noisy is the fan? My neighbor disconnected his as it was loud

I have never heard it. I wonder sometimes if it is even working, lol.

[JohnN]

We used the SolarGuys to install a garage exhaust fan. It accomplishes a similar thing and in addition he's keep the garage a bit cooler.

I can highly recommend them, we were completely satisfied with their work and their customer service.

As to whether it justifies the cost, if you mean does it reduce your AC bill enough to repay the investment? I don't know, the reason we did it was to keep the garage cooler not to save money.

We too used Solar Guys for an electric fan that keeps the garage cooler. It also pushes air through the attic and I'm convinced it keeps the house cooler and reduces utility costs. The fan is 10 years old now and works like a charm.

[craigrmorrison]

We recently purchased a ranch home in T.V.
It does not have any attic exhaust fans.
I have noticed many homes that have multiple exhaust fans on their roofs.
Do they provide a value that justifies their cost?
Thanks.

Absolutely! Even if it is not efficient in dollars and cents, it will add to the creature comforts we all beg for in August and September.

[jpvillager]

We had a 110v attic fan up north. Considered one for here and decided I did not want a 110 grounded devise mounted in the roof to attract lighting.

[RICH1]

I bought one from Lowes and had a friend install it! It brings the heat from the outside , thru the garage and out through the attic… doesn’t do any good except I can smoke cigars in the garage without stinking up the place!