With roof ventilation everyone’s an expert, there are forums, papers on the science as well as salesmen from roof ventilation companies and salesman from insulation companies etc, etc, the list goes on and on. Some claim volumes from wind tunnel tests – which can show some evidence for aerodynamics, most information available on roof ventilation is handed down from salesmen to salesmen.
Anyone seems to make claims to suit their own purpose – this one does this and that one does that however how many of the designers of these products or purporters of any type of roof ventilation product, or roof insulation companies making comments on roof ventilation have had any type of roofing experience. How many of these people have physically removed a roof and seen how effective roof ventilation can be. I have re-roofed 100’s of houses and have seen what happens to the roofspace of homes that have not been effectively roof ventilated.
How many of these purporters and experts have been asked to solve a massive condensation problem? I have and did achieve excellent results. Yes, I designed a roof ventilation system that solved a massive condensation problem for one of my customers and many more since.
I have seen all the damage to roofing materials without effective roof ventilation and bathroom and kitchen fans that dump into the roofspace – I have seen what condensation can do to the materials in the roofspace - dry rot in timbers, moisture saturated insulation breaking down the R value, I have seen termite infestation of the roofspace due to condensation moisture.
Ask the experts was their purported product designed to specifically remove the moisture problems of the roofspace will it make a real difference to the comfort for the cooling of the home in summer.
When it comes to effective roofspace ventilation no paper on the hypothetical effects of roof ventilation or any volume testing can predict the elements of Mother Nature when it comes to roof ventilation.
Ventilators need to be able to harness all the principles for fluid dynamics. You need to break your roofspace into zones and have an inlet ventilator and an outlet ventilator in each zone. This is the way to effectively ventilate a roof cavity to achieve a dry roofspace, a cool home in summer and keep all the negatives from the roofspace. Our ventilators have been designed to solve real problems for real people in real homes.
With forums I have seen some good information and some so ridiculous it beggars belief most salespeople are using handed down information. Most papers are written by office jockeys with no practical experience in any field.
This is not to say that I am right and everyone else is wrong, however just remember you need to install roof ventilation that is proven to work for real problems and real people, in real homes.
See BLOG on this site “Warning! Read Before You Design Your Next Housing Project”.