Using a power attic vent to cool your attic may seem like a good idea.
- But they don’t work as advertised.
Why it matters: Attic ventilation depends on balanced intake and exhaust.
- The air leaving the attic — through a power vent, a turbine, ridge vent — has to ENTER the attic from somewhere.
🥊 Reality check: When it comes to power vents, intake is the problem.
- I routinely re-roof houses with turbines or ridge vent that need more soffit vents.
- Power vents require DOUBLE the soffit vents as turbines.
🙋 What if there are enough soffit vents for a power vent to work?
- Remember this —> physics wins.
- Just like water finds the path of the least resistance, so does air.
😮 A power attic vent is 30 times more powerful than your average bathroom fan.
- Unless your attic floor is tightly air sealed — especially recessed can lights — the power vent isn’t just pulling air from the soffit vents.
- It’s pulling cold air from inside your house into the attic.
✅ For your Smart Homeowner list
- If you already have power vents, you have two priorities —> make sure you have enough soffit vents and air seal your attic floor.
- If you have other ventilation, focus on the same two priorities … and don’t waste money adding power vents.
Best,
Travis
P.S. Happy to help you with the calculations on intake. Just shoot me an email.