Building Science Attic Venting

In a hot climate the primary purpose of ventilation is to expel solar heated hot air from the attic or roof to reduce the building s cooling load and to relieve the strain on air conditioning systems.

Building science attic venting.

In mixed climates ventilation serves either role depending on the season. Building science fundamentals see all events a building science consulting and full service architecture firm specializing in building technology for all types of buildings including commercial institutional and residential. See energy smart details in fhb 218 for more on ice dams. Attic ventilation works on the principle that heated air naturally rises primarily utilizing two types of vents.

As such there is no energy benefit to vent an attic in a hot humid climate but there is alarge moisture penalty due to the moisture being brought into the attic by venting the attic. Intake vents located at the lowest part of the roof under the eaves allow cool. The model building codes allow both vented and unvented roof assemblies. The choice of venting or not venting is a design and construction choice not a requirement determined by the physics or by the building code.

The applicable physics impacts the design of attic or roof systems as does the applicable building code but neither limit the choice. In hot climates the primary purpose of attic ventilation is to expel solar heated hot air from the attic to lessen the building cooling load. This is a vented attic and it s probably one of the most unappreciated building assemblies we have in the history of building science. In mixed climates ventilation serves either role depending on the season.

A well ventilated attic has almost no impact on radiant transfer of heat between the underside of the roof deck and the top of the insulation. For 20 of the effort it gets us to 80 of optimal performance and it works in hot climates in mixed climates the arctic the antarctic the amazonian rain. The amount of roof cavity ventilation is specified by numerous ratios of free vent area to insulated ceiling area ranging from 1 150 to 1 600 depending on which building code is consulted the 1 300 ratio being the most common. In a hot climate the primary purpose of ventilation is to expel solar heated hot air from the attic or roof to reduce the building s cooling load and to relieve the strain on air conditioning systems.