Solar Fans vs. Wind turbines

[Michael B]

Whatever you do decide to do, pay attention to total venting area. If you don't have at least one square foot vent opening per 300 square feet of vented space, your shingle warranty is likely to be void. But I suggest twice that, 1 foot per 150 square ft of vented space. Owens-Corning says square footage, with no regard to how it's done. And do the math. Area is pi times radius squared. A 12" turbine has a radius of 6". Squared it's 36. So the square footage for that vent is barely 110", certainly less than a square foot for each turbine.

Make sure you've got good soffit venting, too.

[JIMMIE]

I maintain some solar powered equipment but I have to monthly clean the array or the batteries get where they will not stay charged. I definitely would not want to have to keep going up on the roof to clean them. Besides that that much walking on your roof isnt good for it. Why not an AC powered vent fan?

Jimmie

[Han]

Michael B wrote in news:7b0d98b0-530c-4686-a089- [e-mail]:

What to do when there are no soffits to speak of?

[Bob F]

Did the drum immediately collapse?

[HeyBub]

Then the air will be sucked out of the living space: Cracks, gaps around light fixtures, holes containing pipes and vents. With that goes your conditioned air.

[HeyBub]

Right. The one foot should be equally divided between intake and exhaust. That is, for a 3000' home, you need 100 sq ft of ventilation space: 50 sq ft of exhaust and 50 sq ft of soffit vents.

As a corollary, you can't have too many soffit vents.

[SteveBell]

Reason #1: Round here, the general consensus is that they *use* more energy than they save. At best, it's a rough break-even.

Reason #2: A couple of years after I bought my first house, I woke up about 2:00 a.m. After I talked to John, I noticed a very low hum. I figured my refrigerator motor or something was about to die, so I roamed around listening. I never found the problem, so I went back to bed.

A few months later, the same thing happened again. This time I noticed that the hum lasted 90 seconds, then stopped to two minutes. It was very regular. But I

*still* couldn't track it down. Oh well, something will quit working soon, then I'll know what it is.

A bunch more months went by, winter came and went, and the hum got loud enough to hear during the day. I finally tracked it down the the powered attic vent. The motor had seized. It came on until it overheated, the emergency shutoff did its job, the motor cooled down, and the cycle started again.

I replaced the fan--my first ever real home maintenance job--and wondered how close I came to burning the house down.

[Michael B]

There is a product that amounts to a drip edge to be installed during the roof job. It has a vent space on the underside, only causing it to extend out a little further, still directing water into the gutter. So it functions as a soffit vent. I haven't checked lately, but the number 1-800-ROOFING is likely to still be a way to check with Owens Corning about questions and available products and distributors.

[Han]

Michael B wrote in news:39260186-1632-4ffb-a7ed- [e-mail]:

Thanks Michael!