# Solar Attic Fan?



## stitch (Aug 22, 2007)

An attic fan will reduce attic temperatures in the summer, reducing the heat transferred to the conditioned areas of your home and also the heat transferred to any air conditioning equipment or ductwork in your attic.

There is a good calculator on this site you can use to size your fan: http://www.solar-attic-fan-info.com
You also need to make sure you have adequate free inlet area (soffit vents, ridge vents, gable vents) to let fresh air enter the attic to replace the air drawn out by the fan. If there is not enough free inlet area, the fan may draw air from the conditioned areas of your home, and you don't want to lost that air you paid to heat or cool.


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## Leftyho (Apr 12, 2009)

Hi,

Electric fans have slightly more power then the solar fans of the same size.

4 vents does not sound like enough.


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## mboxwell (Jul 1, 2009)

Agreed, the solar attic fans are much lower powered than their AC-powered equivalents. My gut feel says you would need eight solar fans rather than four, but without knowing a lot more about your house it is difficult to say for sure.


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## DaveB1963 (Oct 15, 2009)

*Homedepot Solar gable fans*

Bought 2 gable fans, exhaust 1 to the north and 1 to the south drawing 800 cfm out each way. It has dropped the up-top heat drastically. Yes, a hard wired fan does move more air, but I've had mine running 3 years now and have had no problems. Solar panels are mounted out of site at 65 degrees in a SSW direction.


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