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Ranch 1959 home. Soffit vents present but no ridgevents. 75% of ground floor airsealed in attic. Home in GA.

I plan on re-roofing the first chance I get which may not be until next year. I'm not sure why I hadn't noticed this in the 3 years I have lived here, but there are soffit vents but no ridge vents or gable vents. Which has me wondering, should I put in a power vent with a dual humidistat/thermostat since it won't be a while until I am able to replace the roof? Or should I just wait the additional time until I re-roof and add ridge vents and soffit baffles?

I will install everything myself, so part of my question involves cost, that is, would installing the power vent reduce the attic heat, thereby lowering home heat transfer, enough to justify its year long use? I have a shed I could install the power vent into once I am done with it.

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  • Depending on the type of ridge vents you get, installing them now should not interfere with roof replacement after. I tend to like stuff that does not cost money to use/run after install and is reusable.
    – crip659
    May 13 at 21:22
  • I'm not sure I'd bother for just one year.
    – Huesmann
    May 14 at 12:13

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Power vents are a mixed bag. Go wander around Green Building Advisor and you'll find plenty of evidence to support the argument that they are not particularly useful. And I'm going to leave it at that, because it's an opinion-based question to some degree and thus not appropriate to answer on this SE.

What I would say is to go for the two things you can do right now: finish your air sealing, and add ridge vents. You can add ridge vents to an existing roof fairly straightforwardly. Assuming the rest of your roof sheathing is in good condition, you'll be able to just leave the ridge vents in place when you re-roof next. Nothing will be wasted.

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