Summer is here, and Florida is experiencing scorching weather once again. In some areas of South Florida, extreme heat advisories are in place, and Florida residents have nowhere to retreat to except the cool breezes found in an air-conditioned home. ACs aren’t magic – the amount of energy and power they use to keep the air at lower temperatures can be exceedingly large if you don’t take active steps to help lower the burden on your system. One way that Florida homeowners can keep their entire house feeling cool is by utilizing an attic fan. Unsure of what an attic fan is and how they work? Continue reading to learn more about their unexpected benefits.
Dangers of a Hot Attic
Attics become dangerously hot during Florida Summers, exceeding temperatures of 150 degrees in certain scenarios. You might not think about your attic that much and wonder why you should care – but that is precisely why it can be so dangerous. Unfortunately, there are numerous reported cases every single year of people who go into their attic during the Summer without worrying about the heat, only to pass out and lose their life due to the remarkably high temperatures. If nothing else, you should make an effort to reduce the temperature of your attic to a safe and manageable level if you ever utilize it.
Additional Benefits of an Attic Fan
Besides just cooling down your attic, an attic fan can affect the rest of your home in surprising ways.
- Cooler Home Temperatures: Attics reach such high temperatures because hot air naturally rises above cold air. While it might seem tempting to let this hot air accumulate in the attic, this can have unexpected drawbacks on home temperatures. First, it doesn’t allow hot air to circulate up to the attic, leaving the top floors of houses noticeably warmer than the bottom floors. Second, moving air keeps your body cooler, just like how sitting under a fan would help cool you down. Air circulation is important for an overall feeling of relief from the heat.
- Energy Efficiency: As mentioned, an attic fan will help to circulate air and prevent elevated areas of the home from staying excessively warm. By mixing the air and keeping airflow constant, your AC has an easier time reducing the air temperature of the entire house. This will prevent it from working overtime to cool down the higher areas that stay hot and help prolong the life of your system. Additionally, when your system has time for small breaks and less overall strain, you will pay less in energy bills due to lower AC usage.
- Property Damage: Simply put, higher attic temperatures can cause potential damage to the undersides of roofs and shingles, as well as support beams and any other items you store in the attic. Attics fans that cool the area will reduce the chances of these possibilities.
- Mold Prevention: Hot attics, especially on humid days common in Florida, are a perfect breeding ground for dangerous types of mold that can infect the air supply and severely impact the health of everyone within the home.
Despite all these benefits, attic fans are not a substantial investment, especially if you imagine how much use they will get every summer. Installing an attic fan is also a perfect time to have an expert re-evaluate your AC system and find ways to upgrade or improve it for the following summer.
Promise Electric provides electrical services for Sarasota area home and business owners. Contact us today to learn how we help keep Sarasota residents cool, even on the hottest days.
