Hot Air Rises? Three Ways Heat Moves in Your Home and How We Fix It

It’s a common misconception that hot air always rises. The truth is heat moves from warmer areas to cooler areas through conduction, convection, and radiation. This means that the heat and contaminated air from your attic is easily able to infiltrate your home, and that the conditioned air in your home’s living spaces can easily move into your attic. This is called energy loss and it’s estimated that 20% of all the energy lost in your home happens through air leakage.

Air leakage takes place in your attic via gaps, holes, and cracks in the attic floor. This comes through wiring and plumbing penetrations, top plates, recessed lights, registers, smoke detectors, and more.

Whole house fans and attic fans are an efficient way to help keep your home and attic cooler, but when operated without air-sealing your attic first, can actually worsen your energy inefficiency and indoor air quality.

We always recommend that homeowners air-seal their attic, especially before installing a whole house fan or attic fan. Failure to do so may lead to not only poor indoor air quality, but also paying more for heating and cooling and a more uncomfortable home.