[williep]

I have a solar roof fan, and I need to get some garage door vents installed.
Does anyone have a recommendation for someone that can install the vents?
Thanks, Bill from MA & Duval

[REDCART]

You may wish to call Larrys Garage Door Inserts,352-454-5376. Larry lives in the Villages and has a good reputation for installing both garage lites (windows) and garage vents in the door. The steel garage doors are paper thin and cutting inserts is easy if you have the right tools. Larry installed two vents for us. They're vinyl with screens and cost about $35 ea. installed.

George

[Rag Bagger]

Originally Posted by williep

I have a solar roof fan, and I need to get some garage door vents installed.
Does anyone have a recommendation for someone that can install the vents?
Thanks, Bill from MA & Duval

Unless you have holes in your garage ceiling the solar vent will not pull fresh air through the garage. Even vents in the ceiling will only help slightly. Roof vents get fresh air from the perforated sofit that is around the entire perimeter of your house. Air takes the path of the least resistance so the only air that will evacuate the garage will be natural upward flow of hot air if you have openings in the garage ceiling.
BTW holes in the garage ceiling may be a code violation.

[Larryandlinda]

Originally Posted by Rag ******

Unless you have holes in your garage ceiling the solar vent will not pull fresh air through the garage. Even vents in the ceiling will only help slightly. Roof vents get fresh air from the perforated sofit that is around the entire perimeter of your house. Air takes the path of the least resistance so the only air that will evacuate the garage will be natural upward flow of hot air if you have openings in the garage ceiling.
BTW holes in the garage ceiling may be a code violation.

unless you don't need to move much air or maybe have a smallish place, we recommend an AC (wall current/wired in) vent.
The solar ones may not cover it, though by default our AC vents are solar powered as our home is powered mostly by rooftop panels.

As for holes in the garage ceiling.....
we just pull down the garage-to-garage attic stars and the cooler-than-hot-garage outside air comes in, does its thing in the garage, then goes on to bring the attic from the 110-140F to below 100, thus cooling the house or cutting down on the climate control.

We have a roof fan in the steamy DC suburbs too and it comes on automatically when the attic gets hotter than outside.
We pull the stairs down and it pulls that air through the house before the attic.

It works great and no need to worry about 'code' unless the 'don't pull the stairs down police' go after you

L and L

[REDCART]

I'd heard that Sears stopped selling attic fans with thermostatically controlled switches because in the event of a fire, the attic fan would come on and accelerate the fire by sucking air into the house. It makes sense to have the fan come on but you can readily see the downside of doing so. I wonder if a smoke detector couldn’t over-ride the thermostat?

[getdul981]

I wonder if the fan coming on would make that much difference in event of a fire. You've already got a hole cut in the roof and that will act like a chimney. Don't the firemen climb on the roof and cut a hole to let the hot air out anyway? Seems like I've seen that done somewhere.

[REDCART]

According to what I've read on the Internet (and we know how accurate that can be), a powered attic ventilator can significantly accelerate the progression of a fire. To address this issue, some local codes require a "firestat" to cut power to a ventilator when gases reach a preset temperature.

Amazon has a Ventamatic XXADJTSTAT 15 amp Adjustable Thermostat with Firestat for Power Attic Ventilators for about $16 with a 15-Degree differential. Temperature range from 60 to 150 Degrees Fahrenheit.

Granger also has a firestat switch, (more expensive) if circulated air reaches temperature indicative of fire.

My guess is this would be more appropriate for a commercial building but it couldn't hurt in a residential setting.

[Rag Bagger]

Back to the original question. Clopay makes a vent panel that replaces the bottom panel of a garage door. It has louvered slots stamped in along the very bottom edge. They are also screened to keep bugs out.
Contact James at J.B. Mathews they will have the best price I believe. They are in Apopka. Nice guy to work with.

They provided windows for our garage doors that were also a replacement panel with the windows factory installed from Clopay. It eliminated the issues of cutting holes in a door that is wind load rated and voiding the warranty or even worse a code violation. They were way less than Romac.

[golfnut]

I used larry for garage door vents and windows, it's so nice to walk out into the garage since the windows were installed, he did a great job...gn

Used Larry and was very happy with the job he did.
Nice to have the light in the garage when we go out during the day.