Summary: It takes only a few minutes for turbine vents to return the hot air from your attic. The heat buildup in the vent is sent out of the roof with the wind blowing them away.

Soffit and continuous soffit ventilation has been quite popular for roof ventilation during the last decade and a half. These systems are almost undetectable. The air that enters the attic space floats gently throughout the attic space.

The peak of the roof has small gaps through which air from your attic space exits all through the year. There are a variety of products that cover the gaps which allows the air through but prevents insects, snow or rain from entering the attic at the same time. The roofing shingles located at the peak invariably cover the vents as a result of which one cannot see them.

The way by which air moves is quite simple to understand. The air gets heated up during the warm weather in your attic. The air being warm rises up and floats up to exit through the high ventilation. The air which is cooler outside is drawn in by the convection movement replacing the warm air that exited.

The air is vacuumed from the attic space by the wind which blows across the roof during the air. A partial vacuum is created on the side facing the direction toward which the wind is blowing across the roof. A substantial part of the air which is in the attic space gets sucked out when the blowing of the wind is at the right angle.

Large volumes of air according to me can be pulled out from the attic space better by the time-honored wind turbine vents. The direction the wind blows does not matter in this system. This method is often called as whirlybird vents. These vents are round metal vents. The fins in these vents stick up about 18-20 inches from the surface of the roof. A housing which is dome-shaped houses the fins. They spin every time the wind blows across it. Its rotation of the turbine depends on the wind. The rotation of the turbine is faster when the wind speed is higher.

For a long time now, the turbine vents are installed in commercial residential, industrial and agricultural buildings. Not are these vents affordable, they are easy to install. Large amount of air is pumped from the attic spaces by these vents.

347 CFM (cubic feet of air per minute) can be removed from the attic space with 5 mph (miles per hour) wind speed using a turbine vent with only a 12 inch diameter. 1,342 CFM of air are expelled with a turbine vent by means of a single 14 inch diameter at wind speed of 15 mph. The air drifts upwards and moves out of the attic space when the wind is still but in small volumes.

You may feel that the amount of air moved is not impressive. For instance, an attic space in a reasonably sized home with dimensions of 50 feet length, 36 feet depth and 10 feet height would mean 18,000 cubic feet of air. With the breeze outside at 5 mph and with a turbine vent with a diameter of 12 inches will take 52 minutes to completely replace the air in the attic space. The air change in the attic at wind speed of 15 mph with a unit of diameter of 14 inches will take 14 minutes. So you can think of what it will be like if you were to install two or three simplistic turbine vents on your roof at the backside and out of eye sight.

There are people who think that the vents will leak when there is a rainstorm. But the reality is otherwise. When there is rain accompanies by strong wind or a storm, the turbine spins and blows away the rain drops from the vent. It is the same with snow.

It takes actually less than 15 minutes for the roofer hired by your builder to install a turbine. It cost only $50 for a good quality turbine bent. The best turbine vents have ball bearings that are permanently sealed as a result of which these are maintenance-free for a number of years.

The turbine vent with external braces is the strongest one. If you want one such, you can get this turbine vent. The external braces are actually simple metal braces which protrude out past the spinning turbine. The turbine is stabilized by these braces as the wind blows.

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