Continuous attic ventilation is a hot-button topic for many homeowners, particularly those who own older houses but want to retrofit them to meet current energy efficiency standards. While today’s builders design attics to include vents, homes built 40 or 50 years ago were typically sealed off completely. It was an age of lower energy costs and less concern over energy consumption and efficiency, making the benefits of vents a lower priority. This began to change during the 1970s, when the energy and oil crisis made efficiency a central concern of cash-strapped homeowners.
So, how does continuous attic ventilation work to keep your home’s climate control costs down? The answer lies in the principle of air exchange. In the vast majority of homes, the attic is the only site where continuous ventilation can be implemented, given that it is not typically occupied and is the site where rising hot air will collect. During the summer, exchanging the indoor air that collects in the attic with fresh air from the outdoors allows you to eliminate hot air that naturally rises into your attic with the cooler air from outside. After the sun sets on a summer’s day, continuous ventilation gives you a natural and effective means of expelling hot, stuffy air that collected in your home’s upper reaches over the course of the day, which in turn allows you to lower your thermostat a few degrees and save yourself some money.
Continuous vent strategies have other benefits in addition to savings on heating and cooling costs, too. It helps you avoid the potentially costly problem of a rotting roof, and if you have asphalt shingles, you may also qualify for extended warranty protection if your attic has continuous vents.
At Paschal Heating, Air & Geothermal, we want to help you lower your home’s heating and cooling costs while providing you with tools that help you control humidity levels and maintain good indoor air quality, and continuous attic ventilation is one of the strategies we recommend. If you have any questions or want to arrange a consultation, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information, click here to download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
Paschal Heating, Air & Geothermal services Northwest Arkansas. To get started, check out our website.
479.900.0784
