The Attic

Warning - this will be boring if you're not a homeowner. Just letting you know. With the baby on the way and Susan working from home, we now keep the house a cool 75 degrees during the day, but our upstairs has not been very cooperative. Lately it has been only able to cool to 79 during the peak heat of the day (usually 95 degrees outside), so I've been forced to take some measures to keep things cool. My first thought - the AC needs to be charged or cleaned, but after speaking with my father I found the best place to start is attic ventilation.

There's a couple things going on here - first, you need to have enough ventilation that air moves through the attic and keeps it cool. This prevents hot air from leaking into your home and thwarting your AC. Now it's time for some Beakman's World up in here....

Through convection (basically hot air rising), air flows through the soffit vents on the underside of the roof and up through the turbine, square, or ridge vents on the top of the roof. If either the top or bottom doesn't have the right amount of flow, then you're attic becomes hotter than normal.

Ok, so how do you tell if your attic has enough ventilation? Use this simple calculator to find out how much intake/exhaust ventilation you need, and which vents you should add. If you need a roofer, I just used Technology Contractors (Houston) who charged me $200 to install 3 turbine vents (I provided the turbine vents from Home Depot for just $36 each)

Result - we are now at 75 degrees all day long - we are expending the same energy as before, but now we get to enjoy it. Only problem is that the AC never shuts off, meaning that it is barely keeping pace at 75. So, here are the next options:

1) Insulation - make sure the attic is properly insulated, including the attic door. Insulation comes in rolls or in "blow-in" cotton-candy style packages that you can distribute yourself (use a mask) to help fill any gaps.

2) Radiant barrier - this is basically a foil sheet or spray on lining that can be applied to the underside of your roof to help block the radiant heat from the sun and keeps things even more cool in the attic. I am installing this soon and will report back.

3) Have your A/C checked - I have heard this both ways - yes, have your A/C checked every year, and then I have heard no, only if it breaks. So I am going with a compromise - if the A/C ever begins to under perform it's normal benchmark I will call for service. Otherwise, it will ride as is.

There you go - boring if you don't own a home, and probably boring if you do own a home. But hey, I'm not sweating it...(sweet pun intended).