Air Conditioning

We have a modest sized ranch home. The house required LARGE amounts of air conditioning above 85 degrees F.outdoor air temperature. We lived with this situation for too many years before I decided to investigate the air conditioning needs.  It turns out we already had 20 inches of insulation.

What we didn’t have was ventilation in the attic. No soffit vents. No power exhaust.

We had a gable vent and two hot air rising powered roof turbines. The attic was HOT!!

My first attempt at a fix was to block the gable vent and cut the hole for a thermostatically controlled direct drive fan from the big box store. Problem solved!! Wrong!! The fan would come on and operate the roof turbines in reverse! I needed a fresh air supply to the attic.

I cut a couple of vents into the soffits. I did this on a hot day and as the center of the cut fell out, the sawdust in the air was sucked in like a large vacuum cleaner.  I was on the right path.

After a total of six 9X12 inch vents were added to the soffits, the gable fan could operate and roof turbines would turn in the correct direction. I was heading in the right direction!!

The air conditioning usage dropped significantly. Prior to adding the vents/fan combo, the central air would run constantly after 2P.M. on a 90 degree+ day until after 7P.M. Now the AC would shut off frequently at any temperature.

Power usage of the gable fan was found to be only sightly more than a 100 watt light bulb. I was happy!!

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