Patent Application
20060240762
This invention relates generally to a soffit vent system that provides for venting of a building or other structure while preventing insects and environmental elements, such as water and snow, from entering the structure through the ventilator and can be made to fit a variety of pre-existing and newly constructed buildings.
A soffit or eave is the exposed undersurfaces of any exterior overhanging section of a roof eave. A soffit vent is typically an air inlet source located at the downslope eave or in the soffit of a roof assembly. Soffit vents typically comprise perforated, louvered or baffled vent openings in the underside of the eaves of an overhanging roof or the fascia covering the ends of roof rafters when the roof has no soffit or has very narrow soffit. Soffit vents are commonly part of an attic ventilation system that may comprise roof vents, ridge vents, gable vents, power vents, roof louvers, turbines and the like.
The vent openings allow outside air to flow into the structure. This air exchange helps to prevent degradation of the roof structure, reduces the accumulation of condensation in the insulating material covering the floor of the attic cavity thereby increasing the efficacy of heating and cooling of the interior space in the building covered by the roof structure.
A soffit vent is typically used in conjunction with a roof ridge ventilator overlying the open roof along the length of the roof for exhausting the air from the space below the roof and the ceiling of the attic, i.e., as the air entering the attic through the soffit vent mixes with the warmer air in the attic, it has to be expelled through an opening in the roof ridge where the lighter, warmer air accumulates. Desirably, the volume of air intake through the soffit ventilator should be balanced by the volume of air exhaust through the roof ridge ventilator.
The terminology “Net Free Open Area” or NFA means the cross-sectional area of a ventilator system which is open for passage of air therethrough. This area value does not always correspond to a specific volume of air intake/exhaust through a soffit ventilator and roof ridge ventilator. Thus in many existing and newly built buildings there tends to be an out of balance soffit/roof ridge ventilation system. This, in part, is due to the fact that the normal stack effect movement of air results in low air intake volume. The stack effect is caused by outside air being more dense than air inside a building structure. Therefore the reduction in pressure with height is more rapid outside and the absolute pressure inside the structure is greater than that outside at all levels above the opening.
The total pressure difference distributed across a structure can be modified through design of building components i.e., soffit vents because it depends upon the relative resistances to flow. A soffit vent may be a part of an active venting system or a passive venting system. Much of the prior art suffers from the problem low NFA, and reduced air intake volume.
This invention provides an improved soffit vent that increases airflow into the building structure thus maximizing the efficiency of a ventilation system or natural ventilation. The soffit vent comprises a curved bottom panel with extending side walls adapted to be fixed to the soffit area of the building structure creating a front opening and channel for conveying air. The bottom panel can be contoured to direct and/or streamline the flow of air. The side walls can also be contoured to direct and/or streamline the flow of air.
The soffit area is generally of an even plane at the undersurface of an exterior section of a roof. The present invention provides a vent that comprises an inlet or front opening dropping below the soffit area plane to scoop and direct air from the environment exterior to the soffit area.
The vent is adapted to receive fastening means that can include but are not limited to nails, screws, adhesives and clamps that fasten the vent to the soffit area of a building structure. Preferably, the side walls are adapted to receive fasteners that fasten the soffit vent to the soffit area. The bottom panel has one or more openings. The openings allow for the passage of air and can be louvered with slats that are fixed or movable for admitting air and shedding rain. The opening can be substantially covered by an air permeable material. The openings preferable allow for the easy passage of air but do not provide for the passage of insects or other elements into the building structure.
The bottom panel of the vent preferably extends at its proximal or distal end to create an angle relative to the soffit area of the building structure of 1-180 degrees. The bottom panel may also curve of a given radius from the proximal or distal end to the opposite end. Alternatively the bottom may extend in a substantially planar design to the opposite end. This design provides for increased movement of air as the vent is positioned away from the eave overhang surface, thereby effectively increasing wind-aided air volume. The bottom panel and side walls can extend above the soffit area of the building structure. This embodiment provides for greater direction of airflow into the building space being vented.
The vent can comprise a unitary bottom panel or a plurality of curved bottom panels with extending side walls fixed to each other and adapted to be fixed to the soffit area creating substantially the same profile as a unitary or integrated design. The vent can also comprise individual channels aligned in substantially the same profile with or without spacers between the channels.
The present invention provides an improved soffit vent that maximizes the flow of air into a building structure through a vent in the structures soffit. In
The slats can be fixed or movable, horizontal, vertical, or inclined and admit air while helping to shed rain. The slats 45 direct the flow of air and wind blown air through the vent and into the structure space 20. In one embodiment the openings 41 on the distal side of the vent 40 may be covered with an air permeable material to allow the flow of air but prevent other elements from entering the vent 10.
The vent may have short slated louver sections with one or more supports between the side walls as shown in
In
The soffit vent is fixed to the soffit by known methods including adhering, clamping, screwing, nailing, or by sliding into a grooved channel. The ends of the side walls, the distal and proximal ends of the bottom may provide for the vent being fixed by screw or nail holes, nail gun, glue, preapplied glue or adhesives, and other known methods. Additionally, the soffit vent can include pre-inserted nails or other fasteners.
In
In
Accordingly, it should be readily appreciated that the soffit vent of the present invention has many practical applications. Additionally, although the preferred embodiments have been illustrated and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention. For example the openings of the vent do not have to be louvered but instead may be completely unobstructed or partially covered with any known design. Additionally the opening of the vent in any embodiment may be fixed at any angle substantially ranging from 1 degree to 180 degrees. Such modifications are to be considered as included in the following claims.
