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Solar Gadgets for Home: Solar-Powered Attic Fans

solar-fan

Here at Baker Electric Solar, we like to stay updated on the latest solar gadgets for home use. For this post we are going to focus on solar-powered attic fans and why they are a necessary addition to your beautiful San Diego home.

What is a Solar-Powered Attic Fan?

The goal of a solar-powered attic fan is to help keep a healthy and energy efficient home. Improperly ventilated attics can lead to a number of issues like high electricity bills and deterioration of your roof and attic. What’s the best part about solar-powered attic fans? They deliver at no cost and no maintenance.

Protecting Your Home

During warm San Diego summers, you can expect temperatures to range from mid 70’s to high 80’s down by the water, but in places like Escondido, summer temperatures can rise as high as 90 on a regular basis. While this warm weather is great for outside activities, you don’t want these long summer days to ruin your indoor lifestyle. If your heat isn’t ventilated properly a lot of things can start happening in your home. First off, your living spaces can become hot, sticky, and generally uncomfortable. This means your air conditioning unit will actually start working harder to keep your home cool. And we all know what this can lead to – rise in utility costs! Solar attic fans are designed to remove this excess heat and give you a more comfortable living area, all while lowering your electricity bill.

Even though San Diego doesn’t necessarily have the coldest winters, those months can still affect your attic. Take a moment and think about all the ways we keep our homes and ourselves warm in the winter. Everything from warmer and longer showers to humidifiers in your rooms contributes to moisture accumulation and can ultimately damage insulation and framing materials. Once again, solar fans can solve these issues by equalizing temperatures and saving your home from excess damage.

Lastly, reduction in attic temperature will directly benefit the preservation of your home. Solar-powered attic fans will let your attic breathe properly and extend the life of your roofing and attic construction materials.

Solar vs. Electrical Attic Fans

Electric fans are the more traditional solution to solve attic ventilation issues. However, they come at a high cost. The electricity used to ventilate your family’s attic can cost up to a couple hundred dollars per year. Not to mention that you are adding to your overall carbon footprint. These costs often prevent most people from installing attic fans.

But, as we’ve discussed earlier, attic fans are crucial to maintaining the health and long life of your home. That is why many homeowners are turning to solar-powered attic fans. These fans are protecting your home while running on free, clean solar electricity. After a simple installation you are able to benefit from the same effects of an electric fan but with no cost and no maintenance.

If you don’t already have a solar-powered attic fan in your San Diego home then we hope we’ve convinced you of its necessity.