Solar Attic Vents and Fans
Solar attic vents and fans are a great way to help keep your house cooler without any additional electricity usage. They are used to help create an air flow in the attic space to help pull hot air out of the attic. Even with proper insulation in your attic, the heat generated and stored in your attic space still causes your home to be warmer and for your air conditioner to work harder. By creating air flow in the attic, the air is not as hot and thus does not warm your home as much. This equates to a cooler house and less work on your air conditioner. And since the solar attic vents and fans are powered by the sun, they have zero operational costs.
So what is the difference between a solar attic fan and a solar attic vent?
Solar Attic Vent
A solar attic vent is traditionally mounted over a cut-out hole in your roof near the peaks. The solar powered vent contains a fan which helps pull out the hot air, thus creating an air flow in the attic. Usually, a solar attic vent has the solar, or PV, panel connected to the vent. If your current attic vents are not positioned to have access to the sunlight, you may want to look for solar attic vents with a separate PV panel to mount elsewhere.
Solar Attic Fans
A solar attic fan is traditionally a fan that is mounted on your gable that also helps pull the hot air out of the attic space. A solar panel, or PV panel, is mounted separately (most solar attic fan kits provide a cable anywhere from 20 to 40 feet for connecting the PV panel to the attic fan), positioned to get full access to the sun.
However, you will see attic vents called attic fans and vice versa. Some terminology even use solar attic vent fans. But then end result for all is similar – remove hot air from your attic.
Filed Under Solar Attic Vents/Fans, Solar Power Applications
Tagged With solar applications
