Keeping your home cool in the summer and warm in the winter is one of the biggest goals for most homeowners. There are a number of ways to insure this, including upgrading the windows to more energy-efficient models and seasonal maintenance of your heating and cooling equipment. However, one of the most overlooked ways to influence the temperature throughout your whole house, starts with the attic. Automatic vents could be a great and highly effective alternative for you.
Hot Attic, Cold Attic
It's common knowledge that hot air rises. The true question is, where does all that hot air go? If your attic isn't well ventilated, it can build up within the space. With that hot air lingering with no place to go, it increases the temperature within your home. Although, this may be great during the winter when you're trying to keep your home warm, you can see how this might be a problem in the summer heat.
You can easily run into the opposite situation, as well, if you have open vents in your attic. Heat can escape easily, but if it's cold outside, you'll find that it likely escapes faster than you'd like. This causes heat within your house to escape faster, making it harder to keep the home warm in the winter.
Regardless of which situation you might fall into, the result will be higher energy costs to keep your house cool in the summer or warm in the winter.
Proper Attic Ventilation
If you have attic vents, you have to open them to expel heat during the summer and then you have to close them during the winter. Even if you don't mind doing this manual prep during each season, the truth is, unless you open and close the vents during all temperature fluctuations throughout the year, you're still spending more money on heating and cooling.
Automatic Attic Vents
I do have a solution for you! Automatic vents are connected to thermostats to monitor the attic temperature and they open or close as needed. If the temperature gets really hot during the summer or if it gets too humid, the vent opens and lets that unwanted heat and humidity out. During the winter, the vents close to keep the warm air within the home. Of course, being in Texas, our weather can fluctuate dramatically from one day to the next, so this ensures constant temperature control!
There are several types of automatic vents available to you. Some are very simple and don't have much functionality beyond the automatic opening and closing. Others include connected fans to force air in or out of the attic for a greater impact. Regardless of the type you choose, adding one to your attic should make a noticeable difference to your home's temperature (and heating and cooling bills!) throughout the year.
Installing New Vents
If you want automatic attic vents, but aren't sure where to start, I've got you! Roofers install them and my go-to recommendation is Arturo Garcia with Hello Roofing. He can be reached at 214-893-5693 and works throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. For any other recommendations, let me know!
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