Turbine attic ventilators provide better ventilation without power. All roofs need ventilation to remove moisture, heat, and smells. There are different types of roof vents, some are just pipes with caps over them to prevent water getting in. Turbines are the rounded spinning vents that you see on some roofs that look like a turban headdress. Two other kinds of vents have good airflow, but they are motorized, either running on electric or a solar collector mounted right on the vent cap. Turbines are great way to have increased airflow without raising your power needs, and are lower cost than solar vents. Unfortunately, they only work when the wind is blowing.
One house we looked at had a metal roof, with turbines on it. We were called because of a leak over the bathroom that caused the ceiling to fall in. When we checked on the roof, there were turbines, but not all of them were working, some had somehow gotten stuck and no longer turned, which reduced their airflow. But the biggest cause of the problem with the bathroom ceiling was incorrect ventilation. The dryer vents had been shunted up into the attic, filling it with moisture, more than the turbines could handle. This moist humid air had condensed against the bottom of the metal roof, dripped down and soaked the insulation into great big pools of water. From there, water found its way to the drywall and that was the end of that!
We went in, rerouted the dryer vents to exit the building through the wall so the moisture didn’t end up in the attic. Then we replaced the old turbines with new ones. We calculated for proper balance of airflow through soffits and turbines.
The new turbine attic ventilators worked wonders in alleviating the airflow problems.
Written by: https://roof.net/
