Roof ventilation is essential in warmer areas of Australia, including Perth. Without enough ventilation, the space below your roof can become excessively hot. This heat can eventually penetrate the ceiling and increase the temperature inside your home, all the while creating stifled air. This means your air conditioner must work harder to keep your home cool, increasing energy usage.
In Australia, roof spaces can heat up to as much as 35 to 40 degrees. Once the temperature inside your roof space exceeds 30 degrees, that heat can begin entering your home. Poor ventilation can cause your roof to weaken a lot faster due to heat stress. Ventilating the roof space with a constant flow of air can prevent these issues, ensuring your home is comfortable, durable and energy efficient.
Passive Ventilation
Passive ventilation is an economical way of supplying air to and removing air from indoor spaces without using mechanical systems. It involves using natural sources of heating and cooling, such as sunlight and cool breezes to keep your roof space cooler. It can be achieved by strategically orientating your home and designing the building envelope (where the walls, windows, roof and floors are) to maximise airflow.
Installing roof vents, maximising thermal mass and using evaporative cooling methods (such as incorporating shrubbery and ponds in a property) also helps with passive ventilation. Using foil insulation and light-coloured roofing plays a big role in reducing the amount of radiant heat that flows into the roof space.
Roof Vents
Roof vents are an excellent way to ventilate your roof space as well as minimising moisture build-up in the roof cavity. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes with different features depending on your needs. Flat vents are static vents with no moving parts that encourages airflow through natural convection. They are installed over an opening that’s cut into the roof.
Ridge vents cover the entire horizontal edge of your roof, maximising the amount of natural ventilation possible. You can also get powered vents with motor-operated fans to drive the hot air out of your home. These are best used when solar power is available to operate them as there is some debate over whether their effectiveness is justified by their running cost when powered by grid electricity.
Whirlybirds
Also known as a turbine vent, whirlybirds are most of the best approaches to improving ventilation in your roof space. These are cylindrical domes with fins that spin with the wind, creating a vacuum that sucks warm air out of a roof cavity, keeping your home cooler. You can either get passive vents that move with the wind to create a vacuum, or active vents which are mechanically driven, turn continuously and create a permanent vacuum regardless of how much the wind is blowing.
Whirlybird Installations and Roof Repairs in Perth
Air Roofing has provided quality whirlybird installations as well as roof inspections, maintenance and repairs across Perth for over 30 years. To get a whirlybird or for any other maintenance or repair services, get in touch with us today by calling 61 8 9361 6088 or contact us online and we’ll solve your roof problems at your earliest convenience.
