This disclosure relates generally to attic ventilation and more specifically to fascia vents.
Modern attic ventilation systems usually include outlet vents high on a roof through which hot air escapes from the attic, coupled with inlet vents in the soffit or eve regions of the roof. The outlet vents might, for instance, comprise ridge vents that extend along and cover a slotted roof ridge while inlet vents might include a plurality of louvered vents covering openings cut in the soffit. As hot air escapes the attic through the outlet vents by means of convection, which may be aided by vent fans in some cases, it is replaced by cooler outside air that is drawn into the attic through the inlet vents.
Many styles and configurations of inlet vents for attic spaces have been designed and used in the past. These include independent louvered soffit vents, continuous strips of louvered soffit vent, ventilating material installed behind or atop fascia boards, and complicated louvered fascia vents. A need persists, however, for an inlet vent that is effective, easily installed by the common carpenter, and virtually undetectable when installed. It is to the provision of such an inlet vent that the present invention is primarily directed.
Briefly described, a combination fascia board and vent, referred to as a fascia vent, comprises an elongated fascia board having a width appropriate to form the fascia of a gable roof overhang. In one embodiment, the fascia board is fabricated of extruded plastic composite material, which may be formed with a hollow interior having longitudinally extending ribs forming longitudinal channels on the interior of the strip. Other materials, such as, for instance, solid plastics, solid composites, blown and skinned plastics, and wood may be used. In any event, the fascia board is formed on its inside face with a plurality of spaced slots arrayed along a bottom edge and each slot extends laterally only part way across the width of the fascia board. The fascia board is installed by being fastened to the lower ends of the roof rafters with the array of spaced slots facing inwardly and with their bottom ends exposed to ambience along the bottom edge of the fascia board. Soffit boards are installed beneath the overhang between the fascia boards and the outside wall of a dwelling in the traditional way.
The exposed bottom ends of the slots in conjunction with the lengths of the slots provide vent paths for outside air to enter the attic. The number and spacing of the slots is selected to provide appropriate ventilating capacity to support the effective replenishment of the attic with fresh outside air as hot air exits the attic through the outlet vents. Thus, circulation is established that helps reduce the temperature within the attic as was as helping to prevent formation of mold and mildew due to trapped stagnant moist air. The fascia vent of this disclosure is thus an effective inlet vent for a variety of roof constructions including any roof with a ridge or gable or power exhaust vents. Further, it requires no special talent or tools to install since it is applied by a carpenter in the same manner as traditional fascia boards. Since the installation of the fascia board and vent are accomplished in a single operation, significant time is saved as compared to installing soffit or eve vents separately and in addition to the installation of fascia boards.
In another application, the fascia vent offers the additional benefit of providing for the venting of intake air into a structure that does not have conventional soffits or overhangs. In such installations, the fascia vent is installed against the outside wall of the structure beneath the roof decking. The slots in the back side of the fascia vent provide air passages for the flow in inlet air into the attic above.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the fascia vent disclosed herein will become more apparent upon review of the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing figures, which are briefly described as follows.
Reference is now made in more detail to the drawing figures, wherein like reference numerals refer, where appropriate, to like parts in the several views.
In the embodiment of
The fascia board 12 is formed with an array of slots 21 that are spaced apart along the inside face 14 of the fascia board. Each of the slots 21 extends transversely from the bottom edge 17 of the fascia board a predetermined distance to upper ends 23. In the embodiment illustrated in
The slots 21 on the inside of the fascia board 12 are open to and communicate with ambience on their lower ends and extend upwardly above the soffit board 32 so that upper end portions of the slots are exposed to and communicate with the interior of the otherwise enclosed soffit bay. It will thus be seen that the slots together form a vent extending along the entire length of the fascia through which outside air is free to flow, as indicated by arrows 31, through the bottoms of the slots, into the soffit bay, and thus into the attic of the dwelling. In this way, the attic can be replenished with cool fresh outside air as hot attic air is expelled through ridge vents or other outlet vents higher on the roof.
While the fascia vent is illustrated in
The size and spacing of the vent slots 21 are predetermined to present a total net free ventilating area (NFA) at the soffit areas of a dwelling that compliments that of typical ridge or roof vent products. In this regard, a slot configuration that presents a total NFA of between 6 to 18 square inches for each foot of roof is preferred. In one particular example, a fascia vent according to the invention is provided with six vent slots per linear foot of fascia board. The width of each vent slot is 1 inch, the length of each slot to the semicircular top portion is 2 inches, the radius of the semicircle at the top of each slot is 0.5 inch, and the depth of each slot is 0.5 inch. With this configuration, the final installed NFA presented toward the attic space is about 11.3 square inches per linear foot of fascia vent where a 0.5 inch thick attic board is used for the soffit and about 9.9 square inches per linear foot of fascia vent where a 0.75 inch thick attic board is used. When the fascia on both sides of a roof are considered, these numbers are doubled to about 22.6 and 19.8 square inches for each foot of roof. Also for this example, the NFA per linear foot of fascia vent of the air inlet to the vent (i.e. the exposed bottom ends of the slots) is about 6.1 square inches per foot for a single fascia board and thus about 12.2 total square inches for each foot of roof. It thus will be seen that, for this example, the effective NFA for each foot of roof is about 12.2 square inches, which is within the preferred range and compliments well the NFA of typical ridge and roof vent products.
The invention has been described herein in the context of preferred embodiments and methodologies considered by the inventors to represent the best mode of carrying out the invention. It will be understood, however, that various modifications to the illustrated embodiments, both subtle and gross, may be made by skilled artisans without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For instance, while preferred materials for the fabrication of the fascia vent have been presented, any material or fabrication process suitable for making the fascia vent is intended to be included herein. Further, the particular configurations or shapes of the slots, their sizes, and their lateral extent all may be modified to meet a particular commercial application or need. The slots need not extend completely through the inside face of the fascia board along their entire lengths, but may, for instance, be enclosed at their bottoms and open within the soffit bay area of a roof. The scope of the present invention is not limited by these and other details but rather is defined and circumscribed only by the language of the following claims.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20100043311 A1 | Feb 2010 | US |