Learning Curve

We're still underneath the mountain of information we've gathered in preparing to make our attic more energy efficient.  This has been a 20-hour crash course in knowledge, often conflicting, sometimes disappointing.  But in the spirit of education, I will share it here, in case you ever need it and would like a truncated course in what we've learned. Here's what we know so far:

1.  Our home has an incredibly under-ventilated attic, which is kind of a crime considering the climate zone we live in. Yes, a construction crime.  I think a badly wired electric chair should be in order for that, but that's just me.

Anyway, in general any house needs about one square foot of net-free ventilation per 300 square feet of home.  That means, for a well-ventilated attic, we would need about 7 feet of ventilation, since our house is about 2100 square feet.  We're way behind the curve there: currently have about 2 feet.

2.  Fire safety has to be taken into account.  The less well-ventilated your attic is, the greater your fire risk from degraded electrical wiring (Duh. Wiring will degrade faster in a 160 degree attic than a 120 degree one).  But in a wildfire area such as ours, you have to be very careful to install ventilation that will not allow embers to enter the attic, in the event of a wildfire.

3.  Most contractors do not believe power fans in the attic, solar or otherwise, are a good idea, except in two story homes.  In a one story home, all they do is draw cool air up from the house, into the attic.  In a two story home, they draw cool air from the ground floor up to the second story (then into the attic), so they are of some help.

As you can see, a simple wish to install an attic fan and whole house fan has turned into a doctoral thesis on ventilation, but at least we are more educated now.  I suppose I should be grateful, as a lot of people would probably have just installed the fans and then wondered why it didn't make much of a difference on their electric bill.

The attic fan is now off the table, for the reasons listed above, and we need more ventilation in our attic before we can make a whole house fan work for us.  Next week we are planning on having a roofer come out and see if we can install some fire-safe ventilation, which may, just by itself, lower the temperature in the attic.  Then, we will move on to the whole house fan.  So we are getting there.  But as Murphy's Law of Life teaches, whatever it is you want to do, build or grow will probably take twice as long as you think and cost twice as much. 

I'm exhausted from the learning curve now and just want to go do some manual labor, or have a drink, whichever comes first.  Or maybe do both at the some time, which could provide some interesting results.

Speaking of which, has anyone been watching the YouTube series of "My Drunk Kitchen?"  Absolutely hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atCfBuLmTxo