How to Lower Utility Bills with an Attic Fan

Hot air rises, which means your attic contains the hottest air in your home. Unfortunately, that hot air doesn’t just stay in the attic. It seeps down into your living areas, causing a rise in the temperature in your home. This increased home temperature causes you to run your air conditioner more, which then increases your utility bills. It is a vicious cycle, but one that can be curtailed through the use of an attic fan.

In addition to helping to lower your overall utility costs, having adequate ventilation in your attic helps provide cleaner air throughout your home and protects your roof.

Lower Your Utility Bills

The primary way an attic fan helps to lower your utility bills is by reducing how much air conditioning you need to use to keep your entire home cool. That, combined with the lack of proper ventilation in the attic, means the air conditioner is working harder to maintain the temperature programmed into the unit. The attic can get very hot, especially in the summer, causing the entire home to be warmer than it could be.

How Does the Attic Fan Help?

When you choose the right kind of attic fan — such as the QuietCool AFG ES-1500 Attic Fan — it helps to keep the attic approximately 30 to 40+ degrees cooler on hot day. This means it keeps living areas cooler as well, which further reduces how much your air conditioner is used throughout the whole house. It not only lowers your utility bills by keeping the attic cooler, but by lowering the temperature in the entire house and avoiding stagnant air from the attic, you help to improve your home’s air quality.

Installing the Attic Fan

Choosing the right attic fan depends on the size of your attic and how large your home is. If you have a larger home that needs cooling, you may need a high-powered attic fan. You can save even more by choosing a solar-powered attic fan. The fan is installed at the roof’s highest peak or as close to the peak as possible.

Additional Benefits of an Attic Fan

There are also other benefits of attic fans, beyond saving money on your utility bills. It also helps extend the life of your roof by protecting roof shingles from getting too hot and breaking off. You also reduce mold and mildew with less moisture in the attic. In the winter, ice damming is prevented by circulating warm attic air and melting snow on the eaves of your home.

An attic fan can lighten the workload of your air conditioner, and in some cases eliminate to turn on the air conditioner in the first place. Consider getting an attic fan if you want to lower your utility bills, keep your home cooler, and extend the life of your roof.