Seeing as heat rises, wouldn't it be common sense to put them as high as possible?
Naturally, but doesn't it also depend on roof style? That works best for hipped roof style, where there is no peak but rather a horizontal ridge board.
I suppose it wouldn't be quite the same with those roofs where all 4 hips meet at a single peak at the top of the house.
BTW, No response from the company to my email requesting info on the Solar Star a week ago. Slack! (And now 3/3 companies to ignore emails/contact requests through their website in the last few weeks!)
Wouldn't you want the ventilators to be working at night as well? I thought possibly even MORE SO at night. How will that happen with solar powered ventilators?
HI ,
I live in Melbourne , built a new house and did not have any cooling other than the blow in insulation.
During summer as we all know it gets hot.
I installed 3 whirley vents on a 27 square single story house ( tiled roof ) keeping the house closed up and the curtains closed on the hot days , with fans going I found that we were about 5 degrees cooler with the whirley vents installed .
With a tin roof you will need eve vents about 1200 apart right around the house and at ktast 3 whirley vents ( depending on the size of your roof ) , I am sure that you will notice quite quickly that the air drawn from inder the eves is significantly cooler than in the roof space and given that this happens 24 hours a day then you will start with a cool roof space before the sun rises and so will stay much cooler than without the whirly things.
This has the added advantage of removing any moist air that is in the roof also.Ceiling fans usually located right over the showers * lots of steam straight into the roof space. Where would this go without the whirley things .
After we had installed evaporative cooling we also found that ours works much better than other people we know .
We can be at 24 to 25 on a 40 degree day ( makind sure that curtains etc are kept closed from early morning and windows only open enough to cope with the escaping air.)
In my mind there is no way I would have a house without the whirly vents , BUT yoyu must install the eve venst for a tin roof for tiles , these are not required as there are enough gaps for the air to enter ( but does work better with some eve vents )
Good luck and keep cool
regrds
Greg
Great info, Greg, thank you!
I hope it's easy enough to retro fit whirlies into eaves ...
Just remember you have winter to contend with
all the letting out of hot air will be an issue in a few months.
Some compromise is necessary and is where solar gain is your friend and not your enemy, like in summer.
Just remember you have winter to contend with
all the letting out of hot air will be an issue in a few months.
I think the argument here for whiley birds in winter is that they keep the roof space dry during winter months, which tend to be moist due to condensation.
The problem here is that batts work far better when the air is still. Stir it up with a whirly which is constantly drawing in cold air from outside and the warm air pockets within the batt disappear. The insulation loses its effectiveness.
Condensation results when warm moist air meets a cold surface. Why would that occur? If the air from a heated room hits a cold uninsulated ceiling. Or if warm, humid air from outside hits a cold insulated ceiling (air conditioned room below).
[link removed] has some great eco sustainable designs in their gallery...
Great topic, roof ventilation is an extremely important part of the home.
We just moved into a new home and purchased a solar ventilation unit to put on the roof. It's made a huge difference, and we're really excited to see its effect over summer.
Has anyone else installed a ventilation solar whirlybird? We ended up with the solar whiz because of the air flow capacity output being 3,000 cubic meters of air per hour.
That's the same way I've just bought for my new home build.
The important thing to ensure is that you have a easy way for the air to be drawn in to the roof, be that slotted vents in the soffits or vents in the ceiling inside the house.
I'm also considering wiring a switch between the panel and the fan, so I can switch it off in the cooler months.