Static in the attic

I played this game today!

Today was one of those aggravating days when I ended up spending waaaay more hours than I wanted on the internet.  The day went like this:  I was reviewing the informal "one year" checklist Big Ag and I had talked about when we moved in, regarding things we wanted to repair and/or improve on our new home as soon possible after moving in.  

We did a lot of what we said we'd do.  We ripped out the cat pee stained carpet and replaced it with wood flooring.  We installed a pellet stove for more energy efficiency in winter.  But one thing had fallen through the cracks:  installing either a whole house fan or solar attic fan to help keep the house cool in summer.  And here we are, on the cusp of summer as we speak.

So I consulted that wondrous oracle known as Google, and began doing research.  I looked at solar attic and electric attic fans.  I looked at whole house fans.  And it soon became apparent, through research on both those things and some manual observation of our house, that we have a severely under-ventilated attic, which may be why our cold water comes out of the tap at about 120 degrees on summer afternoons (the pipes run through the ceiling).

And unless you have good ventilation, neither a whole house fan or solar attic fan will work....the former because you need to be able to vent the hot air out, and the latter because you need to be able to draw cool air in.

Well, crap, I thought.  Actually, this was not the word I was thinking of most of today, but it can be a tame stand-in for what I was thinking.

I absolutely hate when a simple project becomes complicated.  New Google search:  Why in the world would a home builder construct a house in California with almost no f**king attic ventilation? Oops, I didn't use the stand-in word that time.

Finally, Big Ag and I consulted this evening and came up with a solution -- not ideal but workable.  Install a whole house fan, coupled with an electric attic fan with a switch, so we can manually ventilate the attic whenever we turn on the whole house fan and begin pumping air up there.

I'll be talking to our contractor this week and discussing the feasibility of this idea, but until then, I remain hopeful that he'll say, "Wow, you guys are really smart to think of that."  Actually, as long as he doesn't say "Well, that's a stupid idea -- it'll never work," I will be happy.