Whirleybird vs roof vent

We went with ridge vents but we have alot of them. We also vented the entire soffit instead of a vent every 6 foot or so. Between that and radiant decking it’s hot in the attic but not nearly as hot as my old house with a single power vent.

If you can fit them in the budget, look into Attic Breeze solar powered vents

Turbines move a lot more air than static ridge vents. In Louisiana, I would go with quality turbines and make sure you have enough ventilation in the soffits as the other poster stated. Your shingles will generally last a good bit longer.

Do not use ridge vents if you have a steep hip roof as you generally won’t have enough air flow due to the reduced size of the ridge.

Usually when you see a roof with both ridge vents and turbines or power attic vents, it means the roof wasn’t venting properly and the attic was too damn hot OR the roofer didn’t know WTF he was doing.

If you insist on ridge vents because of looks, make sure the roofer cuts the decking and the felt to allow for proper air flow.

If you go with blown-in insulation, make sure they don’t cover your soffit vents. If you go with spray foam insulation you won’t vent the attic at all.

Whirleybirds for the win

I got a new roof about 5 years ago and wanted vents. The roofing contractor is a guy that I've known for a long time and I trust. He convinced me to get whirlybirds, so I got them ..he said something about the vents not moving enough air unless you have some kind of fan system, which I didn't have.

The birds are on the back side of the peak so you don't notice them from the front of the house and work well enough for me.

If you have enough ridge, then ridge vents work well. I do not;

I have power vents on my house. But I am also pretty handy, so I can change out a thermostat or motor fairly easily. Part of that is because I wired in an outlet to allow me to unplug them if I needed to replace anything.

My experience with whirlybirds goes way back to the 1970s. Our house had them; the bearings on them eventually froze up, and they quit spinning. That effectively makes them very small passive vents and almost useless. Happened to both our neighbors' houses as well.

And whirlybirds do require at least 5 mph winds for you to get the most efficiency out of them, so if you live in a normally windy area, they make a lot of sense. If you rarely have wind where you are, not so much. They are also the vents that will let in the most rainwater.