Should I prioritise installing thermal insulation in my roof at home?

Do I need to install thermal insulation in the roof of my house or flat?

Essentially, it comes down to this: it’s expensive, damaging to the environment and, fundamentally, makes little sense to pump your home full of powerful heating for it all to simply escape through a roof that lacks any decent thermal insulation.

In an average home, heating makes up around 62% of the residents’ energy consumption. That means looking at how much energy you use on heating - and how much thermal energy you waste by letting it escape straight through the roof - is a great place to start if you’re looking to cut down on your home energy bills.

So, should you prioritise putting in effective roof insulation? If you’re looking to reduce your home energy costs and run a more environmentally conscious home while staying toasty warm, the answer's obvious. Thermal roof insulation is a winner!

What’s more, installing thermal insulation in your roof is a relatively simple and quick process. Of course, the specifics will depend on the design, type and layout of the roof of your house or flat, as well as the type of insulation material that you choose for your roof space.

Plus, did you know that thermal roof insulation is just as handy in hot weather as it is during the colder months of the year? By insulating the space around the rafters in your roof, you’ll be able to keep more of the sun’s thermal energy out of the home in summer, as well as keeping more thermal energy from your heating in the home in winter.

That means your roof insulation will save you money on those energy bills for air conditioning while it's hot out, too. Plus, the added benefits of insulating your roof space don’t stop there: roof insulation is effective at keeping out noise pollution as well.

Need we say more? There are multiple reasons why prioritising putting in effective roof insulation for your house or flat is a smart choice, from a variety of standpoints. Bring down your home energy bills, reduce pollution and keep thermal energy in your home comfortably under control, all year round.

How should I choose the right insulation for my roof space at home?

Over the years, the options out there for roof insulation have grown rapidly. Now, you can choose from multiple types of insulating materials, to find the best fit to keep heat in among those roof rafters.

Depending on the design and layout of your roof space, your budget and how far you want to reduce your home emissions, you can choose between:

• Synthetic roof insulation
• Mineral roof insulation
• Roof insulation made from natural substances (e.g. plant or animal material, such as sheep’s wool)
• Heat-reflective roof insulation
• New generation roof insulation based on the latest advanced technology

Within these categories of roof insulation, the following are the most popular for use in home roof spaces:

• Rock wool or glass wool, which adds effective thermal and acoustic insulation as well as good value for money
• Cork, cotton wool, hemp fibre or sheep’s wool, which are all 100% natural and highly ecological roof insulation options
• Cellulose wadding, which is another ecological option that is less commonly used for insulating roof spaces

It’s vital that you choose a thermal insulation material for your roof with adequate thermal performance levels. To do that, you’ll need to look into its thermal resistance rating, also known as its R rating.

The R rating of your potential roof insulation material will depend on two factors: the thermal conductivity of the insulating material and the thickness of the insulating material. You can find the information you’ll need on your insulation material’s label, so be sure to check it out before you have it installed in your roof space at home.

When should you insulate the roof of your house or flat?

Ideally, as soon as you possibly can! You’ll find that new build houses or flats will most likely come with roof insulation built in, but you can always add in insulating material to the roof space of an older house or flat, too.

You’ll just need to get up into those rafters with your insulating material to start keeping that heat safely in the home!

As we’ve seen, a significant amount of heat energy is lost through the roof of a house or flat that doesn’t have any roof insulation up in that space at the top of the home. So, if you’re looking to reduce your home energy consumption - bringing down those energy bills in the process - and improve your home energy performance for the sake of the environment, you’ll want to start by properly insinuating your roof.

Roof insulation: a priority for your home

Once you have roof insulation up in the space between those rafters, every other change you make in your home to move towards greater energy efficiency will, in fact, be far more effective.

Why? Because any heat energy you do use in the home won’t be lost straight through the roof! So if you install a more energy efficient boiler, say, even the reduced thermal energy you use from that will work so much harder within your home.

Synthetic insulation, mineral insulation, natural insulation… the choice is yours to effectively insulate your roof. Earn real savings on your home energy bill - all thanks to roof insulation!