How can I tell if my ridge vent is working?

I have a 16 ft. ridge vent on a hip roof .The soffits are all slotted and about 2ft wide around entire house .How can I tell if it has air flow or not? I am concerned that I dont have enough ventilation in attic space to remove the heat.

light something on fire in your attic, then go outside and see if smoke comes out of the vents.

Nice Agape… :lol:

One trick I learned to test boiler up draft is to light a stick of incense and see if the draft hood sucks the air up the vent. I guess you could try that with your attic space.

Smokers usually have air flow testing equipment on hand, you could ask one of them. Or an even cooler idea, go rent one of those dance floor foggers and set it in your attic and see if it vents out your ridge.

Smoke bomb from a noverty shop or firecracker shop placeed on a bread pan to prevent fire or some kinf fireproof container

You could try an A/B test. Put a thermometer in the attic. Check the temperature in a consistent temperature time (right now, it is about 100 here every day). Then cover the ridge vent openings, and measure the attic temperature again.

I don’t personally think ridge vents disperse much hot air, as compared to turbines or power vents. Anyone with stats otherwise can post them. Mine is just a common sense observation.

Of course, make sure your soffit vents are clear of insulation.

You can tell on a very warm day or even on a frosty day. On a really warm day, say 21 degrees Celsius or higher you can literally see the blurriness (if that is a word) of the air exhausting from the ridge vents if you look at them from a distance. Also, on a frosty day you should notice that the area around the vented ridge has signs of defrosting or melted ice compared to the rest of the roof. A good thing to have in order is proper intake ventilation that is unobstructed. Intake channels (or some call them baffles) that are made of either plastic or polystyrene definitely help.

First you want to see it come in the soffit vents and out the ridge vents.