The summer months are notorious for ushering in high humidity and often unbearable heat that can lead to a number of health issues in people who are not properly taken care of. It’s important to make sure that your home is fitted with a system that will keep the temperatures cool enough to at least be bearable, if not comfortable. While you may decide to purchase cooling unites, such as a central air system or air conditioning window units, the cost of these is not always feasible for every family or every home. As such, the next option would be to utilize wind power, namely by using fans, to cool off the home, which can be a very economical option.

However, no matter how hard you try to keep the temperatures a bay, there are some areas of the home that will probably never cool off enough to be even livable. Attic spaces are well-known to be very inefficient at conducting heat. In the summer months, the air in an attic space is absolutely stifling and is too much for the body to handle over a long period of time. This is partially because heat rises and all the warm air that you are flushing out of your home, is rising to the rooms above the first floor and may get trapped in areas with poor ventilation, such as an attic space. The other reason this tends to happen is because attics are usually the last barrier between your house and blistering sun. During the day, but especially around noon time, when the sun is directly overhead, the sun beats down on your rooftop and your attic almost soaks it in. This principal is especially true when you have a dark colored roof, such as one with tar-based or black shingles.

Its important to have some type of ventilation system in place for your attic as the heat that it absorbs and subsequently traps inside of the walls and other spaces can be harmful to your house. Over time, the heat that remains inside of the attic can cause damage to the overall structure, drying out wood and insulation as well as causing materials to shift and crack. If your attic is a completely closed space, considering hiring a professional to cut some holes and place a ventilation system in the attic to release some of the heat build up.

One way to use this space more efficiently is to install an attic fan. A whole-house attic fan is a unit that is placed around the home to suck warm air out of the house. The air is then transferred to the attic and pushed outside through attic vents. While the attic space itself may not be cooled as much, the rest of the house will cool down considerable and it’s a great way to use the space overhead for a beneficial purpose. Also, these types of fan units are very economical and may help you save as much as 25% on your electric bill.