How To Install Solar Attic Fan

Installing solar fans is relatively simple, but there are a few things you need to be aware of to make sure you put them in the right place and get them working as expected. Don't worry, there's nothing too technical and we'll go over each of them below.

1) Make sure you have attic ventilation

Your solar fan will exhaust the hot air from your attic, so what will replace that air with? Most attics have ventilation points under the eaves of the roof, in the bottom corners. This is called gable venting. Before installing a fan, you need to make sure your attic has such ventilation to draw in more cool air as the fan exhausts the hot air.

A good guideline is to make sure you have 4 square feet of gable venting per fan. If your gable venting is protected by a grille or lid, then you should increase it to 8 square feet per fan.

2) Grounding is important

Your solar fan contains metal, and you put it on your roof. One word, lightning. To protect you in the event of a lightning strike, your solar fan needs to be grounded. Your solar fan should contain a ground wire; you just need to make sure it is properly connected. This is easy to do, but it is very important.

3) Where should you place your attic fan on the roof?

In the northern hemisphere, solar panels that point south receive the most sunlight. Therefore, ideally, you want to place your solar fan on a south-facing roof slope. If this is inconvenient, then you should purchase a solar fan with tiltable solar panels. Tiltable panels give you the flexibility to put your solar fan on an east or west facing roof and then turn it to the south.

Ideally, you should place your solar fan on the central part of the roof. This will allow cool air to ventilate evenly through the gable ends of your roof.

Now you have all the information you need about what solar attic fan to buy and where to install it. If you are an avid home renovator, then you can do the installation yourself. Or, any competent professional can do the job for you. Just make sure you agree with them on the following things.

The location of the solar attic fan

The tilt angle of the solar panel

Confirmation that the panels are grounded