Has anyone installed a garage attic fan?

Living in Texas tought me how well a 25,000 BTU 220 wall unit will work in a four stall garage. I carried that thinking back to Michigan in '99 when we moved back north. Baring A/C I think your best bet would be to install a serious fan 2' to 3' in diameter in your end gable to suck all the hot air out. The one that either faces south or better yet east. Jer
 
tallhair said:
Ross, this attic fan is supposed to force hot air out of the attic through the vents. The house and attached garage has ridge vents and soffit vents. There is also one vent on the top front of the garage. Do you think the extra vent on the front of the garage is messing with the flow of the air out of the attic?
Click to expand...

I've also been reading up and watching some video on gable vents and the attic vent company suggests that it would be good to use a fan on the gable vent opening to work in tandem with the garage / attic fan.

But I'm wondering if it's a bad idea to have a gable vent at all with a ridge vent at the same time .. the other roofer told me when we were having my mothers houses re-roofed last summer that it's an either or. Meaning to always use soffit vents, but only use ridge vents OR gable vents not both as that would cancel out the air flow or something.

I took a break and I've just been up looking at the garage / first floor attic and the gable vent is decorative as it's got plyboard over it so it can't be seen from inside the attic. Would it be good to open it up and put a thermostatically controlled fan on it to suck the air coming in from the garage fan out? Or BAD idea considering I have ridge vents?

the gable fan I'm talking about is something like this .. go to abut the 3:00 minute mark

[video=youtube_share;EbslnyZ6Ncw]http://youtu.be/EbslnyZ6Ncw[/video]
 
BIGBARNEYCARS said:
Living in Texas tought me how well a 25,000 BTU 220 wall unit will work in a four stall garage. I carried that thinking back to Michigan in '99 when we moved back north. Baring A/C I think your best bet would be to install a serious fan 2' to 3' in diameter in your end gable to suck all the hot air out. The one that either faces south or better yet east. Jer
Click to expand...

The decorative gable vent (boarded from inside) is approx 2' in diameter so i could open it up and put a thermostatically controlled fan on it. It faces West though.

edit .. Looks like Ross confirmed what the other roofer said .. don't mix gable and ridge vents. Since I have ridge vents I'll leave the gable vent boarded shut.
 
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Stormer said:
You can't mix roof mounted power vents with any other type of roof vent, it has to be one or the other.

Good balanced attic ventilation + R30 attic is about all you can do. Good insulated windows make a big difference too.
Click to expand...

I'm planning to change my man door to put one in with a window (security type though) and maybe putting a double hung insulated window in for additional light and because I like to look outside and so I can put in a window A/C if it gets to that.

It looks like you answered the question on using a gable AND ridge vents here with the post above.. sorry I didn't put it together earlier.

BTW the garage attic is open to the rest of the first floor attic. The upstairs has a separate roof so it's not connected.. all ceilings including the garage are finished and insulated. walls insulated too.

so unless you say otherwise I'm thinking of just using the garage ceiling mounted attic fan which should force air out the ridge vents. (misspoke earlier when I said soffit vents too ... I'm assuming that's not going to happen).

Any more warnings or suggestions Ross? Or thumbs up on the plans?
 
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Stormer said:
Thumbs up. No gable vents.

What shingle are you using?
Click to expand...

Architectural .. pretty top of the line brand but I can't remember what it is. My roofers only use two brands and i can't remember either one..but they are both good. Our house is light gray / blue vinyl with rose colored brick front I would change to more of a multi tone gray shingles but the wife want's to stay with the black or slate colored ones for the look. I'm not gonna argue with her as it does look great, but I know the lighter ones would absorb less heat and probably last longer. Hail damage in southern IL is something you can set your calendar to though so the ins will replace the roof before it ever wears out.

What do you suggest on ridge vent brand? Do you think there is a difference on performance? I think the shingles they use are 3M and Corning maybe :dontknow: I can't recall but I know it was companies whose names I recognized.
 
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Just got back from the garage and it's 80 percent humidity and 84 degrees and I'm covered in sweat
 
Ever been to Louisiana??? My last trip there the weather was hot and the humidity was 97% and it wasn't raining..picture a fan blowing that air.
 
do you only have ridge vents at the top for the exit air ?

no whirlybirds or anything?

I think if you 'pressurize' the air going into the attic by a motorized input fan (your attic fan) you need to be sure you have enough exit volume up top or its gonna try to go out the soffit vents and mess up your flow.

I redid my roof and insulation last summer, have 5 whirlybirds up top, and added 2 layers of insulation on top of the R-nothing crap the builder put in, one layer runs long, then on top of that another layer running the other direction. huge difference. no attic fans though...
but the whirlybirds are supposed to pull air through the soffit vents... not sure what a fan is going to do to your air flow
 
tallhair said:
I'm not sure who you are talking to Red but I'm not talking about a roof fan of any sort.
Click to expand...

What is this???? Ok, its a ceiling fan but its still an exhaust fan....

GF-14-Fan-full-720x720.jpg
 
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