Does A Solar Attic Fans Save Money

My husband really thinks it s a great idea to buy a solar attic fan but i don t want to waste the money if it does little or nothing.

Does a solar attic fans save money.

It s usually better to take the money you would spend on an attic fan and instead spend it on increasing the insulation levels in the attic and the airtightness of the attic floor plane. Depending on what your utility charges that s about 40 per year. Even though electric attic fans can lower your air conditioning costs they cost more money to run than what they save you. Attic fans are not recommended if you have central air conditioning because when you turn the fan on in the summer it depressurizes the attic but also reaches down into your house and starts drawing off air conditioned air effectively driving up your cooling costs.

These ventilation fans are usually mounted in the upper slope of the roof and are designed to cool the attic save energy on cooling costs and extend the life of the roof shingles. As hgtv points out cooling a 1 000 square foot home with solar attic fans can save you about 40 per year in a warm climate like florida. That means it could take between 10 15 years to get back to even with this investment. They ll find little gaps inside the walls where wires run and things like that and it s been shown that using an attic fan can actually increase air conditioning costs.

Using a whole house fan can result in a savings of over 300 each month of running a 3500w a c unit during the hottest part of summer. When exploring the best attic ventilation practices consider installing an attic ventilation fan to keep the hot air from settling in. Danny s tests of solar attic fans showed that in florida where there s abundant solar energy yearly savings from installing two fans in a house with just over 1 000 square feet of air conditioned floor area amounted to only 460 kwh. Bridgett w tampa fla.

Meanwhile solar attic fans are free to run lower your electric bills and have few costs beyond purchase and installation. If you can improve ventilation in your attic and reduce the amount of heat the space holds and pushes into your home you ll reduce the cooling load on your air conditioner and save money on your utility bills. Find out whether it is economical to run an attic fan. Because those fans can be so strong that they depressurize the attic and then reach down deep into the living spaces of your house and pull out air conditioned air.

Instead of installing a fan just make sure your attic is well ventilated.