I think I know the answer to this, but I want to get some feedback.
We live in a hot climate. The second story of our house was built into the attic. The upstairs and downstairs have separate air conditioners. The attic is reasonably well insulated and vented, but it had two attic fans. About two years ago one of the fans quit working. About a year ago the one on the other end quit working. Now starting about noon or 1PM on hot days we can feel hot air coming down the stairwell. The upstairs a/c can't keep up - it gets up to 5 degrees above the thermostat setting. The a/c seems to be working, it just can't keep up when the attic gets so hot. It gets over 120F in the attic.
It would be worth it to get the attic fans fixed, right?
I have the same two attic fans not working problem, but haven't had the problem of the upstairs A/C not keeping up. I too have two-zone HVAC. It's too early for me to tell if there is a noticeable difference in my electricity bill, and after spending almost $800 5 years ago to have my two fans installed, the question for me is, will yet another $800 investment ever realize a return on investment of saved A/C over time.
I now plan to replace my fans (again).
Two factors:
How much longer do you expect to live in your current house before (if ever) moving.
If you eventually move, you will be required to repair/replace your attic fans beforehand, unless you negotiate with the buyer some type of credit for not replacing them yourself. At that point you might as well repair/replace them a few years beforehand to at least get some value out of your investment.
You might also want to have more insulation installed in the attic, and make sure that the attic access door is covered with a large bat of insulation to keep hot air from leaking into your upstairs through the access door. Just move it out of the way when needing to enter the attic. I did this two years ago (added more attic insulation and a large bat at the access door) and have noticed an improvement.
Is the A/C not keeping up solely due to the attic fans? In other words, did you not have this problem when one or both attic fans were working? I would be surprised and would think the main issue is not enough insulation and inadequately insulated attic access door.
You could also consider some type of reflective material on the underside of your roof at the top of the attic.
You might want to consult an insulation company for their recommendations. In the long run you'll need to get your fans repaired or replaced, especially if you sell and move.
They worked in the first place, so should work in the second place. If you don't run the AC and just let the upstairs remain unlivable, no loss. If you run the AC, you are overworking it to early failure and wasting money unnecessarily. Replacing/repairing the attic fans will more than pay for itself.
Absolutely. Think of a car with its windows rolled up tight and how hot it gets v. one with the windows wide open. That huge amount of hot air in your attic needs to be vented, and fan venting (with a pull/push arrangement) will cool things down tremendously.
Don't replace them. Wait until you try to sell the house and you're forced to replace them as required repairs. You wouldn't want to enjoy the comfort provided in the meantime. Spend the money on table fans instead. When you get a good sweat going, the table fans will really cool you down.
As I understand it you made the attic into a living space so my advise is forget the attic fans. In fact close off the holes from them and insulate the heck out of the whole attic. Don=92t leave any place between the attic and the outside that is not very well insulated, turn on you A/C and enjoy.
Where I come from, attic fans mean fans between the attic and the floor below. And are only turned on after it gets cooler outside.
Fans in the roof are called somehting I forget that I consider ambiguous. I call them roof fans. I think if that's what you meant that would be far less consufins.
I'm had one for 27 years. Someimes the motor lasts 8 or 10 years, one as little as two. That's the way the first two were and they both came from the fan manufacturer. I haven't tried to oil or repair them. Can they be oiled? Now I buy motors locally at Eledric Motor Repair. The current fan is maybe 8 years old,
Maybe, just maybe if I had more insultatoin in the floor of my attic, I wouldn't benefit from my roof fan, but when the fan is broken, it's much hoter on the second floor, as you can see yourself
I have one in my garage, it wasn't working, turned out to be the $30 thermoswitch - fan was fine. Worth looking into. Drink lots of gatorade before and after troubleshooting. (BTDTGTTS - I get a screaming headache if I get too dehydrated and then I'm worthless.)
Fixed, not necessarily replaced. A new motor is one heck of a lot cheaper than a complete new install.
If you do replace the units read your new warranty carefully. A lot of the fan makers will provide a new motor for a failed one for as long as you own the house. And yes, I have collected on that warranty at least twice.
Don't think so. The more the attic space can be ventilated, the better. Most homes have ridge vents or whirly-gig thingamajigs. A significant number have attic exhaust fans.
Whichever scheme you use (and you can use more than one - I have both ridge vents and whirling dervishes) remember Axiom I of attic ventilation: You can't have too many soffit vents.
One pundit advised COVERS for the soffit vents to be put in place during hurricanes, much like storm windows, so that giant wind gusts won't blow off the roof. Sounds reasonable. (During Hurricane Yikes, I did have one whirlie gizmo blow off.)
Good advice, but if the fan ain't working, it's going to be brutally hot even after dark. Maybe if you have one of those cheap box fans strap it to a truss or something if you can.
Attics would be an awesome application for LED lighting. Mine currently has 500W of construction lights up there, which put off more heat than you'd think. Even working up there in December, I was comfortable in jeans and a T-shirt. If I have to go back up there again soon I'll be unscrewing all but one or two bulbs.
Good advice, but if the fan ain't working, it's going to be brutally hot even after dark. Maybe if you have one of those cheap box fans strap it to a truss or something if you can.
Attics would be an awesome application for LED lighting. Mine currently has 500W of construction lights up there, which put off more heat than you'd think. Even working up there in December, I was comfortable in jeans and a T-shirt. If I have to go back up there again soon I'll be unscrewing all but one or two bulbs.
nate
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Good advice from both of you but a roof mounted attic fan motor ( my assumption) is replaced from the roof, not the attic.
I was envisioning something like I have which is more correctly called a "gable fan" - looks like just a box fan set inside the gable vent with a little shroud around it. If the OP has one of those there's no way around it, you gotta do it from inside the attic.
Would have been nice if the POs of my house had installed the things you describe when they put on a metal roof, but they didn't. OF course replacing one of those would involve being 30 feet or more in the air on possibly slick metal, so there's other concerns involved there...
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