Ridge Vents or Wind Turbines

literally just researched the crap out of this as i got a new roof a couple of weeks ago. You either only want one or the other unless you only have a small amount of ridge, as they work against each other. however, the ridge vents only work if you have proper air flow through your soffit. I ultimately just stayed with ridge vents. i didnt want the hassle of having to cover the turbines in case of another week of freezing weather.

Very loaded question with no definitive answer. Biggest thing as mentioned above is airflow from the soffits. If you don't have enough soffit vents, doesn't matter what you use up top.

Builder friend who studied this extensively swears by turbines. As long as they are installed properly, which is within 1.5' of the ridge of the roof. A lot of them are installed too low because the homeowner doesn't want to see the top of them from the front of the house. I've built 5 of my own houses and have used turbines every time.

Turbines do a much better job of moving hot air out of the attic. They are better in every way except for aesthetics

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What about electric fans to remove hot or cold air from the attic?

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From my research and experience do not do the electric fans, the bearings in the motor go our consistently and the are energy hogs in the summertime because they are constantly running. If you did not have ridge vents then I would put in the turbines. At my previous house I owned it had one electric attic fan and I had to replace it 4 times in nine years before the last time I just said screw it and disconnected the wires and capped them off in the box. I changed it when we sold the house as it came up on the inspection report as the only thing that needed to be fixed. They are a bitch to change and they are typically going to go out in the hottest part of the summer. They do nothing to remove cold air as mine was on a thermostat and the lowest it would go was 90 degrees so doubtful it would work in the winter.

High quality turbines, all day, everyday.

Negatory. They last about 3-5 years. At least in my experience.

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Had limited ridge vents due to steep angle/design of the roof. Added two whirlybirds and the difference in attic temperature is noticeably lower now.

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Exact same scenario as me.

Adding the whirlybirds dropped my attic temperature significantly.

I'll pass. Acadian style and from attic floor to top is a good twenty feet.

Ridge vents work fine in my gable end house—-so it has a really long straight ridge line for venting over most of the house. No mechanical parts to replace. It did leak a tiny bit during the last hurricane, but wind was blowing ridiculously hard, and neighbor lost his power vent, so....

Ridge vent plus radiant barrier

Snow blows in ridge vents around here so I'm going with turbines.