Proper attic ventilation will remove excess heat and moisture. At Green Energy of SA, we can help install proper attic ventilation systems and ventilation fans that will keep your home cooler, extend the life of your roofing, and help prevent mold buildup.
Contact us today to discuss how Green Energy ventilation will work for you.
Attic ventilation is simply circulating the air in the attic. Your attic must breathe, but unfortunately, many homes in San Antonio don’t have adequate ventilation. Ideally your attic should breathe by intaking cooler air from soffit vents and then pushing out hot air through ridge vents. Proper attic ventilation may also require ventilation fans to move otherwise stale air through the space. Ventilation should reduce stale air by allowing soffits to intake new, cooler air, and ridge vents to remove hot, stale air. As hot air rises, much of the humidity and moisture in the air can become trapped in the attic, and without proper ventilation, this air not only increases your home temperature, but can cause mold development.
The humidity causes condensation in your attic, which causes mold. During the summer, the drastic change in temperature from day to night causes condensation. Likewise, during the winter, warming the house causes the cold air in your attic to create condensation, further damaging the integrity of your attic.
Green Energy of SA will install both ridge vents and soffit vents to provide maximum ventilation in your home.
Soffits are the underside of roof eaves, which is the small overhang between the roof and wall of a home. Soffit vents are installed in these areas to bring cooled air into attics, as they receive little to no sunlight. Imagine the air that a soffit brings in as the air a home inhales during proper ventilation.
Ridge vents are vents placed at the top of your roof, allowing hot air to escape your home, while cooler air is brought in from the soffit vents. As hot air rises, it’s pushed out of the attic through the ridge vents, bringing down the temperature in your attic, and keeping a steady circulation of air, reducing moisture. Learn more.
Attic fans keep air circulating through your attic, which significantly helps reduce temperatures as well as mold in your home. As hot air rises, the attic fans push the hot air out of the attic, resulting in a cooler, efficient energy solution.
Ridge vents are vents that run along the ridge (top) of your roof. Recent advancements in ridge vents use external baffles to create a negative pressure system in attics. This difference in pressure from outside your home and inside your attic pushes the air out of the attic, which allows the hot air to escape, and fresh air to be brought in through the soffits. This lowers the overall temperature of the attic, and protects the attic from moisture. The other benefits of ridge vents are plentiful, as they cost nothing once installed, and circulate air silently in your attic.
Green Energy of SA Attic Ventilation Fans have many benefits to your home, in all seasons. The temperature in your attic can reach extreme temperatures when the hot San Antonio sunlight is beaming directly onto your roof. That heat can make your cooling costs rise significantly inside the home, as the attic air acts as an insulates your attic, requiring your home air conditioner to work harder.
Even when an attic is properly insulated, poor attic air ventilation can increase your energy bills by up to 30% in the summer.
During nighttime and during San Antonio’s generally mild winters, a poorly vented attic space can result in moisture buildup, which can ultimately lead to wood deterioration, or mold. Adding a ventilation fan reduces the moisture that leads to mold, extending the life of your roof, as well as making the air in your house safer to breathe.
As the sun shines on your roof, the hot temperature slowly dries up your roof shingles, and as the shingles warm in the sun, so too does the wood in your attic. With enough heat, your wood starts to sweat what looks like brown syrup bubbles. This is called attic ambering, and Green Energy of SA sees it in about 1/3 of the homes we work on in San Antonio.
Attic ambering degrades the wood in your attic, and retains moisture, which leads to the growth of mold.
As temperatures drop at night and in the winter, the moisture in the air condenses and the water vapor condenses in the attic rafters. The wood absorbs much of this moisture, which leads to mold and mildew development. Once mold spores attach to the wood, they multiply rapidly.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s publication, Mold Remediation in Schools & Commercial Buildings,
“All molds have the potential to cause health effects… Since mold requires water to grow, it is important to prevent moisture problems in buildings. Moisture problems can have many causes, including uncontrolled humidity. Some moisture problems in buildings have been linked to changes in building construction practices… Some of these changes have resulted in buildings that are tightly sealed, but may lack adequate ventilation, potentially leading to moisture buildup.”
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