Attic venting issues - too many vents?

Howdy all, fairly new homeowner here (Jan of '20). Love the house but she's got her issues. One of these issues is heating. The attic gets incredibly hot; subsequently the top floor stays pretty warm pretty late in the day, even with the AC running.

I was looking at getting some of those interior soffit channels to keeo the insulation from blocking the soffit vents, when I realized I may have a bigger issue. I have a ridge vent, and some smaller, non-continuous soffit vents, but I also have gable vents at either end of the attic. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this just makes too many vents for the attic to breathe, venting the hot air through the ridge vent while pulling in cool lower air.

Am I right? If so, is my next step closing up the gable vents and installing continuous soffit vents to aid the heat exchange?

 

Just to note this subject varies wildly all across the country.. Heed the advise of people inside of your climate zone.

IECC climate zone map

 

I suppose it would have helped to add a location lol. I'm in Maryland, Zone 4

 

Do you have radiant barrier in your attic? In a couple of houses I have owned this is a night and day difference for attic temps.

 

To my knowledge, no. Not that I've found, either. The house was built in '77 and the attic had that spray-in insulation on the floor, a few plywood sheets overtop for storage. It's probably time to look into redoing all that.

 

Did you completely line yours? Or did you mostly stick to either the roof or the floor?

 

Why not add a couple roof mounted exhaust fans. I live in SE Pa, not too far from you. The fans are triggered when the attic hits a certain temperature. It helps.
To your house having too many vents, I would say it certainly gives the heat a place to escape.

 

The thing about heat escaping, as I understand it, is that in order for that to cool the attic, cool aor needs to come in as the heat escapes. When you have a ridge vent and soffit vents, the exhausting of hot air through the ridge vents draws cool aor through the soffit vents, like a straw. If you have gable vents as well, from what I have been able to research, it sounds like it doesn't force the hot air out since there are more in/outlets. But again, I'm new to this and still trying to figure it out.

 

It has become a standard in my region. Roof boards installed come lined with the radiant barrier attached.

If you are going to do more or less vents make sure you don't create a negative/positive environment. You don't want to pull conditioned air out of the home and dirty attic air into the home.

 

That's probably not a terrible idea, at least doing the underside of the sheathing.

 

Well, hot air rises and will escape through an elevated release point I.e. ridge vent, soffit vent

 

Not an expert but yes...our older homes need the sofit vents open AND open more.
Just had a GAF roof installed last Oct. Full ridge vent with added "roof scoops" all around. This summer, my attic is at least 20°f cooler than last summer.

 

True, but the gable vents then allow a warm blanket since the soffit vents wouldn't pull air in:

"Too many exhaust vents work against each other. In situations where ridge vents and gable vents are used in combination, we see the gable vents act as the soffit vents would: drawing in the upper warmer air, which moves up and out through the ridge vent. This creates a layer of stagnant air near the attic floor that allows moisture and heat to combine. This layer of air traps heat in the living space as well as trapping moisture that condenses in the cooler winter months." Source: https://www.homeserve.com/en-us/blog/home-improvement/gable-vent/

 

Never heard of roof scoops before. Are those in lieu of soffit vents, or do they work together?

 

Pictures of roof style please

And do you have insulation currently in attic? If so how old/whats the R value?

Maybe it’s your hvac system? How old is it?

sounds like you have plenty attic venting already

 

THIS. I've been reading about this approach.

Good luck OP.

 

Never heard of Roof skewps!

 

In this photo, you can see the apex roof, the soffit vebts, and you can kind of see the ridge vent.

HVAC is fairly new, 5 years or less, I believe?

I can't even estimate the R value on the loose blown-in up there, probably when the place was built in 77. I know it's thin, and I plan to add more.

I have plenty of venting, but I'm thinking the recent ridge vent (roofers put it in last year) changed the air exchange dynamic

 

I’m gonna guess it’s a insulation or HVAC condition/sizing issue. Doesn’t sound like a ventilation issue from what you’re describing

 

Maybe an attic fan. Then you have forced ventilation. Once the outside air temperature drops in the evening the attic will cool much faster.

Or possibly a whole house fan the pulls the hot air from the top floor venting it into the attic. This removes hot air and force ventilates the attic.

I libe near the beach so I don’t have many really hot days. But a whole house fan keeps it very comfortable without the AC running.