Replies

1. 
   Guest_ | Mar 23, 1999 07:27pm | #1

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   Donna. If you believe James Dulley it is better than sliced bread.If you have the typical leaky ceiling--the ceiling below the attic--in your house: recessed light fixtures, ceiling nounted bathroom exhaust fans and all the holes in the top plate from wiring, and a masonry chimney plus the vent stack, you have a leaky ceiling.

   If you install an attic fan, whether solar powered or grid powered, it will make your house more comfortable in the hot summer time because it sucks the heat out of the house through the leaks in the ceiling. But the penalty is that it sucks the heat out in the winter as well.

   If you don't have a leaky ceiling, the fan will reduce the attic temperature by 20 or 30 degrees.Alas, the lowering of the attic temperature has little or no effect on reducing the house's total air conditioning costs.

   The solar powered fan cost nothing to operate, otherwise it is no better than the grid powered one.

   The most effective and least costly way to deal with summer attic heat getting into the rooms below is with cellulose insulation. If you have blkown in fiberglass in the attic blow in some cellulose insulation over it. Low desnity fiberglass insulation readily allows heat to ove through it. This is less of a problem with cellulose because it is denser than fiberglass.

   By the bye. all those leaks must be sealed.GeneL.

1. 
   Guest_ | Mar 23, 1999 08:06pm | #2

   *Donna. If you believe James Dulley it's the only way to go.The only advantage of solar powered fans in no electric bill.Futhermore you cannot "flush"radiant heat out of an attic. There has been lots of research into attic fans to determine if cooling the attic has any effect of the total air conditioning load. Now if the ceiling below the attic is full of recessed lights, Casablanca fans,and so on, an attic fan will make the house cooler. The fan will suck the heat out of the rooms below through all the openings in the ceiling. BUT :-] it also sucks the heat out in the winter time as well.Research also shows that even if they reduce attic temperatures by 20 or 30 degrees it has little effect on the house's total air conditioning bill. Researchers found that insulation is a more effective and less expensive way to reduce the amount of heat entering the rooms below the attic.So forget the fans and beef up the insulation in the attic. Blow-in cellulose over the existing fiberglass insualtion. Low desnisty fiberglass insulation readily allows heat to pass through it. Cellulose greatly retards the heat. good cooling. GeneL.

1. 
   Guest_ | Mar 23, 1999 10:32pm | #3

   *Gene REALLY!!!That certainly didn't merit repeating.The question was regarding information about one product versus another, not a soapbox for you to stand on and frighten people. Stop giving blind information to a house you haven't seen.

1. 
   Guest_ | Mar 24, 1999 05:31am | #4

   *Gabe,I'm with Gene on this...I don't understand why you are always gunning down those of us who are believer's in modern Building Science...On The Mountain Near The Stream,J