The purpose of attic ventilation is to remove moisture and heat from your roof. This can be accomplished by installing vents in the gable ends, ridge vents, soffit vents and/or ridge vents.
Venting allows hot air to escape through the soffit or ridge vent while also drawing cooler air into the attic through wall or gable end louvers. In addition to keeping your home cool in summer months (and warm in winter), proper ventilation helps prevent ice dams from forming on your roof during freezing weather conditions because it prevents condensation buildup on insulation boards beneath shingles that could cause water damage if not properly vented out through a ventilated attic space
Types of Attic Ventilation
There are many types of attic ventilation. Ridge vents, soffit vents and gable vents are all common types that can be used to help your home stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Other options include power vents, turbine vents and static vents.
How Attic Ventilation Works
Attic ventilation is the process of moving air through your attic. It’s important for two reasons: it helps control the temperature and moisture levels in your home, and it promotes air circulation.
Air exchange occurs when warm air rises to the top of your home’s envelope (the roof, walls, windows and doors), where it escapes out through vents or openings in the soffit area–the space between your roof line and exterior wall plane–and into the atmosphere below. As this happens, cooler air moves into its place inside the house through cracks around windows or doors; through gaps between insulation boards; under insulation boards; around plumbing stacks; etcetera.
Factors to Consider When Choosing Attic Ventilation
When you’re choosing the right attic ventilation system for your home, there are several factors to consider.
- The size of your attic is one of the most important factors in determining how much ventilation it needs. If you have a large attic that’s not well-insulated, then more air will be able to flow through it and out through vents at a faster rate than if you had a smaller or better insulated space. This can help keep temperatures down in both summer and winter months by preventing hot or cold air from getting trapped inside the roof space.
- Type of roofing material also plays an important role in determining how effective any given type of vent will be at moving air out from under it (and thus improving insulation). For example: metal roofs tend not only reflect heat back down toward earth instead of letting it escape upward into space but also block airflow because most metallic surfaces aren’t porous enough for wind currents generated by fans installed within them; wood shingles allow some amount of moisture build-up between layers but still let plenty through due their porous nature; asphalt shingles are generally considered less effective at allowing heat loss than other types due partly because they tend towards being nonporous rather than porous like most other common types found around homes today such as slate tiles do not feature any sort whatsoever so therefore cannot function properly without additional assistance such as installing something else nearby like solar panels which convert sunlight directly into energy stored within batteries located inside each unit itself.”
