I don't use air conditioning, I use an evaporative cooler on the roof. I live in inland Southern, California, not in the desert. It gets hot here but not as hot as it does in the desert. I don't use AC because of the cost to use it. I never installed it.
Most houses around here use air conditioning and their attics are barely vented. What I did was changed my attic entry door to an air conditioning return vent by framing some 2x4's around it. When the evaporative cooler comes on, excess air vents through the attic and out the vents at the top of the roof and eave vents. It drops the temperature in the attic enough for the ceiling temperatures to drop significantly. The attic is insulated but the heat that generates in it during the summer is significant. My house doesn't have any gables but it does have 2 vent caps at the peaks of two roof sections. I put in a bunch of eave vents on the southwest side of the house to encourage ventilation some time ago. That helped too.
I notice the difference in the summer when that vent isn't in the attic entry door. The ceiling gets warm and radiates heat into the living spaces. With the vent in place, the ceiling doesn't radiate noticeable heat at all.
I never used turbines. The neighbors that do, most put a cover on it in the winter. They will leak. Any addition to venting the attic and using lighter colored material to cover the roof will help. The thing to remember is the attic not only needs a place to vent the heat at the top but needs outside screened inlets at the bottom of the attic for cooler air to enter. The better the draft, the better it will transfer the heat.
After I had a new roof put on I decided to put a larger downdraft evaporative cooler on my roof. It required a larger duct and a larger opening in the roof for the vent. I went ahead with it and cut into the new roof. It worked out OK, it leaked a few times afterwards but I found the leaks and it has never leaked again. The original vent was in a valley in the roof too so it more complicated to seal than a normal cut in the roof would be, but it worked out.
Just my own war for comfort and affordability.
Steve
On 5/29/2012 7:13 PM, Ray Kornele wrote:
A friend of mine in the southern California desert installed a vent fan in the louvre at one end of the attic, controlled by a thermostat that comes on at 85 degrees F. His power bill went down about $175 per month during the summer months.
No hole in the roof.
KrazyKyngeKorny (Krazy, not stupid)
On Tue, May 29, 2012 at 9:11 AM, <larencorie@axilar.net> wrote:
Posted by: "Doug Kalmer" dougkalmer@gmail.com
> It takes energy from the rising hot air to turn the turbine, that
> slows the air down. Anything put into the hole in the roof restricts
> air flow. Insect screening also slows air flow. Oh yeah, mine also
> leaked in heavy rain.
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