A cupola vent not only takes the place of any other roof venting, it is superior. A Hip roof lends itself naturally to excellent cupola venting, as the lower vented soffits go all the way around the house, pulling up air from all sides. A Gable roof just pulls air up from two sides but it can make up for that with large gable end peak vents.

But soffits only allow the air to enter the attic, which it won't do if there is no way out. Putting standard roof vents near the top of the roof allows for this airflow but it is restricted somewhat in the design of the covered vents and their position below the roof peak. My cupola is above the peak and the vents are vertical so any breeze blows through and induces a natural suction by the Bernoulli Principle. This is further enhanced by the "chimney effect" or "stack ventilation" which creates its own suction without any breeze at all. The lower, cooler, but "higher pressure" air is drawn up by the higher, warmer, but "lower pressure" air.

Therefore, if you built a tall enough chimney and had a hole in the side at the bottom you could install rotor blades to fit precisely into this hole and they would spin indefinitely. With a "generator" attached to this rotor you could have a constant supply of free electricity - in theory.

In practice, the chimney would have to be so massive, tall and expensive that it wouldn't be that feasible.

Building the frame on my deck.  Next, to add the 1"X3" fascia.

"...inactive minds confound familiarity with knowledge, and conceive themselves informed of the whole nature of things..."   Samuel Johnson

Added the custom built (drip edge, fascia and soffit) - made from one piece of aluminum - then tar paper on the roof.  Then the Cupola was placed on top of the scissor lift's railing.

Lifting the Cupola off the deck with my homebuilt forks attachment.

A peek inside before adding the last vent.

Taken from my scissor lift while trimming the top of a cedar tree that had started blocking the winter sun from the solar array. The tree tops below only appear to potentially block a winter sun but it's just a matter of the perspective from my position. The Sunny Boy inverter (from the Solar Array) is in the right shed with the light grey roof.  Another finished Cupola picture is shown on the Your Own Greenhouse page.

      The top plug that the cupola rafters connect to.

It's a 4"X4" post cut out on my mitre saw.

"A law of physics, not understood, seems like magic."  D. J. Huggett

I could feel the heat pouring out of the attic.

I carried it up from the scissor lift (at eavestrough height) and after removing the rooftop shingles and sheathing, I screwed it to the rafters, then added the flashing and shingles.