Why Would You Need The Volume Of An Attic

In freezing temperatures during the day if the attic temperature is more than 15 degrees warmer than the outside snow will melt at the higher areas of the roof where heat accumulates in the attic and refreeze when it cools off by the eaves.

Why would you need the volume of an attic.

Warm air in your home rises ultimately reaching your attic. However an attic usually doesn t have straight walls. If it does not need to be heated it is best to keep it outside of the protected volume. Rather than baffle you with too much information here s why you need attic baffles.

In cold climates the primary purpose of attic or roof ventilation is to maintain a cold roof temperature to control ice dams created by melting snow and to vent moisture that moves from the conditioned space to the attic ventilation acts to bypass the vapour barrier created by most roof membranes. The formula for figuring out the cubic footage of a rectangular solid like the interior of a room is length times width times height. Another effect of improper ventilation is that it may increase cooling energy consumption. The term protected volume refers to the part of the home that has to be heated.

Proper attic ventilation consists of a balance between air intake at your eaves soffits or fascias and air exhaust at or near your roof ridge. The standard joke about that which works better when you re saying it out loud is that an hvac contractor who doesn t do the v is a hac. It requires a specific type of air movement that needs to be high volume and ongoing. Learn more at the little shop of physics at colorado state university.

Federal housing authority recommends a minimum of at least 1 square foot of attic ventilation evenly split between intake and exhaust for every 300 square feet of attic floor space. Improper ventilation can contribute to heat and moisture buildup in the attic and can even increase the temperature in your living space. Warm air holds more moisture than cool air so the moisture we create in our homes from bathing and cooking travels to the attic. You can do this by insulating the attic floor.

Help prevent ice damming in the winter. Effective ventilation provides year round benefits creating a cooler attic in the summer and a drier attic in the winter. The smaller this volume is the more energy you will save. A lot of people look at the extra volume in an encapsulated attic but the heating and cooling loads on a house are based mostly on the surface areas.