Attic Vents Closed In Winter

You probably already know that attic vents are important both to your roof s longevity and to keeping your energy bills down during the summer.

Attic vents closed in winter.

Measure the height and width of the. When the attic becomes too warm due to closed vents snow and ice on the roof readily melts. This causes free flowing water to run between shingles and down to the gutters. Although air should circulate year round through the attic your house will probably be more comfortable if you cover the foundation vents in the winter.

Unless your roofing system has insulation on the roofing deck and is designed without ventilation your furnace should not be heating your attic. In winter when the air is drier the vents are closed to reduce the chance that the pipes in the crawl space might freeze how to close crawl space vents. When the attic becomes part of the home to be heated and cooled open wall gable vents and roof vents are no longer feasible but the underside of the roof the sheathing and rafters can still get. According to tom silva the simplest way to close foundation vents for the winter is to plug them from the outside with foam blocks made specifically for this purpose.

How to close an attic vent during the winter. Roof vents allow air to circulate through your attic and exit your home. Just remember to remove the plugs when the weather turns mild in the spring. You probably won t notice a temperature difference but your system will be happier without the closed vents and you will be saving money.

Don t shorten the life of your hvac system unnecessarily by closing off your vents. Blocking the vents can even harm your home by trapping moisture inside the attic. If not the air pathway through the attic will be short circuited flowing only from the gable vents to the ridge vent and not ventilating the lower part of the attic. A hard wire runs directly from the.

Remove the grate from the attic fan. They need to be open in the summer. If you really want to save some cash on your bills keep your vents open and allow the air to flow freely throughout your home but consider lowering the temperature a few degrees. In the winter the vents will cause the attic to become cold but this should not damage your home or increase the energy use of your home so covering the roof vents is not necessary.

Poor insulation is usually the culprit although if you enter the attic on sunny winter day your attic space can be warmed by the sun more than your furnace. So in a way the idea of closing those vents during the winter also makes sense because theoretically this would help prevent heat from escaping your home during the winter when you re trying to keep it in. According to the guy who writes the home improvement column in the local paper if you add a ridge vent you should close off the gable vents. Hitting uneven roof temperatures caused by blocked vents leads to the refreezing that is troubling.

Set the grate aside.