attic ventilation

I own a 1 year old home in Raleigh, NC. The front of the home faces south and gets quite warm in the summer, causing the 2 front bedrooms to stay warm even w/central A/C. After fixing some new construction A/C problems last summer, by cooling guy noted the temp in the attic reached 140 deg. F. He suggested adding ventilation in the attic to help cool off the attic. The house has an existing ridge vent on the roof. Any suggestions for a POWERED or nonpowered roof fan? Any suggestions on how to safely install this on my own to the roof of a 2 story house? If a helper is suggested, how would I keep myself from sliding down the roof? Since I'm an avid DIY type, I plan to tackle this myself but I've never tried a roof project on a 2 story house having an average pitch.

So I guess I have 2 issues - attic venting to help my upstairs HVAC to work better and If I do - how to work on the roof w/o falling?

Any ideas?

 

You shouldn't have to get on the roof to ventilate your attic. Simply install a fan at the gable vents to push air out of the attic. These fans are thermostatically controlled, and all of the work is done in the attic. Just do it now, before the summer heat makes working in the attic too uncomfortable.

 

Lefty is correct. You want to get the fans that pull the heat out of your attic. Many people put one on each end. have your thermostat wired in as a plug in type appliance. That way you can unplug it in the winter. If you are not a roof man, don't even try to get up there. Good Luck

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Jack the Contractor

 

I only have one gable in the front which is framed in as sort of a false architectural thing. From a height standpoint it is way below the ridge line. Will putting one out-take fan there do the job? I'm not crazy about having the fan noise in the front of my house either.