Roof cooling alternative

[Pierre David]

I know that one of the most important aspects of keeping a house cool is to vent the roof properly with appropriately sized vents in the eaves / soffits and on the ridge, all of which I have added to this house since I moved into it a couple of years ago. I also installed a power vent on the gable; however, it triggers very frequently on sunny, fairly cool days (60-65 degrees F)--- even though it is set at

105 degrees F --- and therefore I think I am still facing a problem with my attic.

It's my first house with a black (heat sink!) roof, and was wondering whether it would be worth a try to arrange a soaker hose (or another similar contraption) on the ridge that could be used to occasionally thoroughly wet the shingles to cool them down.

I obviously would have to make a system that I can drain completely in the winter, that would be seriously grounded, and that I could turn on and off at will, maybe with some sort of a timer. Honestly, I don't think that there are major construction issues there.

From a cost stand-point, in our area at least (Ohio), water would be much cheaper than the electrical power used to cool the house or power the vent, so I think that it would be an advantage: I could actually use the run-off for watering purposes, but that'd be somewhat more involved than I want to tacke right now. I cannot figure out that it would do any damage to the shingles, but I am less certain; it should be no worse than a sudden thunderstorm in the summer.

However, I am wondering whether anyone had already done such a thing, and whether any of you foresee problems that I am overlooking.

Thanks in advance.

Pierre

[mark Ransley]

I dought it would be effective , and would be a waste of time and water,

[MF]

I have been experimenting with attic ventilation, and even here in Texas I have not seen a 40 degree difference in attic vs outside, so I think something may be amiss with the power vent if it is set to trigger at 105.

Do you have a separate thermometer in the attic to take some temperature readings to compare to the outside temp? Tom Tynan who hosts a show called The Home Improvement Hotline here in Texas says the ideal situation is to have the attic temp the same as the outside temp regardless of what time of year. He is a fan of soffet vents and ridge vents done properly, with no powered vents whatsover. Obviously this is not always possible in some of the homes that do not have a roof and attic conducive to Ridge vents. However it is a good start.

Do you have pictures of your house and roof? I would like to talk further with you, [e-mail]. I am not a roofer, just enjoying this topic. I have some puzzling results going on with mine since getting a new roof and converting from turbines to ridge vents, and I am waiting for a hot, sunny fairly windless day for a final test of sorts. One thing I can say, with the wind blowing and partly cloudy yesterday, the outside temp was

96 and my attic temp was 98 at around 5 pm central time, with the two new ridge vents and grossly insufficient (or so I thought) soffet vents.

More later,

Maury

[mark Ransley]

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[Space Cowboy]

The best thing I did a couple of years ago is install a whole house attic fan. This one blanced on a rafter and you cut a whole in the ceiling for the louvres. When it's running in the summer you don't won't be be near a soffet or gable vent from the forced attic hot air venting. The house stays cool, the attic stays cool, you stay cool.

Jim