Roof vents are certainly among the most compulsory items for households. When it comes to roof vents, there can be concepts and myths that have yet to be clarified. In the article below, answers to questions about roof vents, including the definition, types, and benefits of roof vents would be revealed to readers.
What Is The Roof Vent And What Is It Functions?
Roof vents or roof ventilation are simply devices or systems that allow airflows to circulate through your attic. Their major duties would be to keep down the heat levels and reduce the chance of condensation of moisture.
The working mechanism of roof vents is comprehended as creating flows. For those who aren't in the industry, we would put it this way: the roof vent creates an airflow or so-called wind. The rules of roof vents for creating winds are to have inhale and exhale effects on the building or house it is working upon. The cool air goes in and the hot air goes out.
Some roof vents are powered through electricity and others are by solar energy. We would discuss the matter more thoroughly in the section on types of roof vents, which is also the main focus of this article. Now it would be our classification of roof ventilation systems and what the types in each system are.
Types Of Roof Vents And Explanation
"Numerous" is the word for types of roof vents. There is more than one and the types are divided into groups. We would be having two primary groups which are an active ventilation system and a passive ventilation system. Some people would also call the full name - the active or passive attic ventilation system.
The System of Active Attic Ventilation
The working mechanism of the active attic ventilation’s system is still based on the mentioned regulation. To be more specific on this point, let's just say that the system for active attic ventilation pushes cool air from the outside into your building and pushes the hot air inside out.
One side is pushed in, at the same as the inside party is forced to come out. The whole operation of an active attic ventilation’s system is to ensure that the airflows move around uninterruptedly. For this system, there are four types that are now available on the market.
Turbine vents
Turbine vents are one of the most popular, and they have a history. Turbine vents came into existence in the 1910s, under the work of Samuel Edward. The mechanism of the turbine is creating airflows even when there is no wind around. Many shoppers would claim a false statement is that turbines allow rain or snow to get in, but the truth is the word "allow" has never happened.
Ridge vents
Ridge vents are even more popular because they don't show themselves if you are watching from the ground. They excellently blend into any scene. Ridge vents, however, have one drawback is that they don't have filters. This can easily lead to snow, rain, and insects invading your house through the space left.
Power vents
The third type mentioned in this system of active attic ventilation is the power roof vent. The vent takes energy directly from the electrical source. They perform powerfully and outplay the two above for effectiveness.
However, the motor can be breaking down at any time, and you should always be prepared to replace it. One more note on this type is that in the winter, you may have to purchase a humidistat to prevent moisture condensing.
Solar-power vents
Solar-power vents are not so different from the power ones. Nonetheless, they are more energy-efficient and eco-friendly than ordinary vents. The downside of solar-power vents is that they can sometimes work unstably, and some even turn off automatically when charging.
Passive Attic Ventilation System
The second type of attic ventilation system is passive, which relies 100 percent on natural sources such as wind or convection. The passive attic ventilation system requires no maintenance, creates no noise, and contains no moving parts. The types of roof vents included in the passive attic ventilation system are static vents, ridges without baffles, and gable end vents.
Static vents
Static vents look just like little boxes on your roof. The ventilation method is that these vents rely on convection to push out the hot air, ensuring the heat level does not exceed the limitation. You may have heard other names of the vents, which are turtle or box vents.
Ridges without baffles
The two have barely any difference from one another. The only distinguishing point of the ridges and ridges without baffles has already been spoken in the names. But this is a downside too because without baffles, the ridges would then allow rain, snow, and insects to invade your home.
Gable end vents
A gable end vent is a device installed on your exterior walls below your attic, exactly where the two slopes meet. The vent relies 100 percent on the wind to ensure air circulation is working properly.
Benefits Of Roof Vents For Your Home
There are three major benefits of purchasing roof vents you should know. We would be listing them down as energy efficiency, lengthened lifespan of the roof, and temperature conditioning. We will now explain them in order as below.
Temperature conditioning
Temperature conditioning is the most evident and also one of the leading functions of roof vents. When the temperature goes too low or too high, they would partly retain the heat level back to the normal state. As a result, this becomes extremely helpful for burning summer days or freezing winter days.
Creating energy efficiency
For the temperature conditioning, you would now be beneficial from its energy efficiency created. As the temperature level is more pleasant, your air-conditioning system would not have to work so hard to produce a cool or warm environment with double or even triple productivity anymore.
Lengthening the roof's lifespan
With prevention from moth development and moisture condensation, your roof's lifespan will definitely be lengthened. Along with this, the cost for maintenance would be much lower.
Additional information around the matter of roof vents
The last part in the article of types of roof vents would be the added information we have collected about the weather compatibility and issues can occur with poor ventilation. On the first hand, it cannot be more true that roof vents help in every season. The major function still remains, which is to eliminate the hot wet air in your house. This function no matter what season would always come in handy.
The second statement is about issues that can occur with poor ventilation. The fastest consequence is the moth development, and the further one is the shortened lifespan of your roof. Moth development is thanks to moisture, which can condense in every season. As it forms, it slowly causes severe damages to the roof, and later on, leading to your maintenance costs and efforts.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, you have got your answer for types of roof vents and all the additional information needed. There are two systems of ventilation - active and passive. Each type is divided into smaller branches. You can base on the features of vents to choose the most compatible with your needs and expenses.
