# Attic Insulation



## SPS-1 (Oct 21, 2008)

Thats pretty bad there. If you have soffit vents, no air is getting through them. The guy who said the baffles could not be installed, I would cross him off the list. I expect its going to be a real pain to do it. Because not only does he have to put the baffles in, he has to clean out the area too. The guy is going to be crawling on his belly, in a hot dustly attic, trying to clean out the area and put the baffles in. But the way I figure it, if you are in the insulation business, its part of the job. 
A professional might have a vacuum that can remove the insulation from the soffits. 
Actually, the slope doesn't look too bad from those photos anyways.


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## picflight (Aug 25, 2011)

Slope is not bad at all and the vents have to clear for proper air flow. Your attic looks very similar to mine.


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## Msradell (Sep 1, 2011)

Another question is why are you taking out the attic fan? Your profile doesn't show where you live but if you have AC, removing excess heat from the attic with the fan (air coming in from the soffit vents) will help reduce the load on it! If you do end up removing it you can just mount a box and terminate the wires in it (be sure to put the cover on when you're done).


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## Windows on Wash (Aug 30, 2011)

You need to correct the ventilation. All the make up air that is getting out of the attic is largely coming from the home which = bad.

As far as the attic fan goes, they are not ideal.

Here is a report from Dominion Power on the subject.

Increased attic ventilation has long been promoted by roofing material and attic ventilator 
manufacturers as a way to increase shingle life, decrease attic temperatures and lower cooling 
costs. Unfortunately, there is no scientific data to validate any of these points and mounting 
evidence and research to the contrary. 
Attic ventilation was added to the nationwide building codes to prevent/eliminate roof damage 
caused by trapped, moisture-laden air migrating into the attic during winter. This code change 
followed the widespread introduction of indoor plumbing and central heating systems. As the 
use of attic insulation increased, ventilation proved valuable in controlling another problem, ice 
damming. Ice damming occurs when certain areas of the roof become warmer than others, 
causing a thaw- freeze cycle that allows accumulated snow to melt, then re-freeze on colder 
portions of the roof. This re-freezing creates an ice dam that works its way under shingles only 
to later melt and create roofing leaks. Ventilation ensures the roof deck temperature remains 
consistently cold so ice damming cannot start. 
At some point, the original purpose for attic ventilation was forgotten and/or replaced, in cooling 
climates, with the belief that it was to reduce roof and attic temperatures, thus lowering cooling 
expenses and increasing shingle life. This was further compounded by the leap of faith that 
increased or powered ventilation would be even better. While sounding logical, there is simply 
no research to validate it. In fact, scientific testing has shown that attic ventilation has almost no 
effect on roof surface/ shingle temperatures and very little effect on attic temperatures. 
There is however, a growing list of research, computer modeling and field data that indicates 
powered attic ventilation can be a detriment to health and safety and actually increase cooling 
costs. The latest and most compelling findings by Natural Florida Retrofit and the AEC Applied 
Building Science Center found that in all the homes they studied, powered attic ventilators 
(PAVs) offered no benefits and sometimes caused serious health and safety problems. The 
attached diagram shows just how PAVs unintentionally effect the house during operation. Their 
research found three reasons why PAVs are not a good energy investment: 
1. PAVs can create negative pressures in combustion appliances causing the back- 
drafting of flue gases such as carbon monoxide in the living space. These same 
negative pressures can also draw increased levels of moisture and soil gases, such 
as radon, from the crawlspace. 
2. PAVs can draw conditioned air out of the house and into the attic, causing the air 
conditioning to run more. Conditioned air is then replaced with moisture laden outside 
air, creating increased humidity levels inside the living space. 
3. PAVs can increase utility costs substantially because of the increased energy 
necessary to run the fan and cool/dehumidify the outside air being drawn into the 
home.


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