Heat Insulation for roof

[mrenotalk 0]

Hi Hi

No doubt it has been hot in Singapore this past month, but I find my master bedroom, which is located directly below the sloping roof, unbearably hot during afternoons. There is a false ceiling between the roof and the master bedroom, but that doesn't seem to help insulate the room much.

Does anyone have any experience to share about external heat insulation that can be done to concrete roofs that can help to reduce the heat that can transmitted to the rooms below?

Seek you kind advice please.

Thanks.

Edited August 14, 2019 by mrenotalk

[snoozee 98]

sometimes it's not the roof that is the issue but how/where the room is facing as well as the windows.

if you have a room and windows which are west facing and getting direct sun, then the room will be heated up due to the heat coming directly in from windows. but if you have a canopy/sun-shade above the window which reduces the impact of direct sunlight, it will help in reducing the heating effect of the sun. you could also install window films which cuts out infra red light which can help reduce the amount of heat coming in through the windows. also the brick walls serve as a thermal mass which stores the heat from the sun and releases it slowly throughout the evening and night which adds on to the heating effect.

so apart from moving to another room, it would be up to you to do trial and error to see what can help in reducing the heat from the sun

[Olivoil 0]

I had the same situation with my house from Texas, personally I don't feel the heat and I am always ok, but my wife feels like in a turkish hamam or something like this. So we thought about skylights and sun tunnels from Texas  in order to make the air pass through and make the room cooler a bit, then we though about air conditioning. Anyways, I met with one of my friends which is working as a roofer and asked him what should I do. So he suggested me to install solar panels. To be honest, it was the greatest idea, now I have enough energy in the house and a good air conditioning as well.

[Dariusme 0]

  On 8/14/2019 at 3:49 AM, snoozee said:

sometimes it's not the roof that is the issue but how/where the room is facing as well as the windows.

if you have a room and windows which are west facing and getting direct sun, then the room will be heated up due to the heat coming directly in from windows. but if you have a canopy/sun-shade above the window which reduces the impact of direct sunlight, it will help in reducing the heating effect of the sun. you could also install window films which cuts out infra red light which can help reduce the amount of heat coming in through the windows. also the brick walls serve as a thermal mass which stores the heat from the sun and releases it slowly throughout the evening and night which adds on to the heating effect.

so apart from moving to another room, it would be up to you to do trial and error to see what can help in reducing the heat from the sun

I was told solar film will actually need to replace after a few years due to degradation, not sure if it’s true. How about adding louver? I think there are quite nice design nowadays using aluminum type. Do you guys think installing solar panels will reduce the roof heat?

[snoozee 98]

  On 10/18/2020 at 2:14 PM, Dariusme said:

I was told solar film will actually need to replace after a few years due to degradation, not sure if it’s true. How about adding louver? I think there are quite nice design nowadays using aluminum type. Do you guys think installing solar panels will reduce the roof heat?

Not sure how true. I just DIYed window films for some of my house windows today so see how long they would last.

louver windows is still a window and heat will penetrate through the glass/aluminium.

for roof, if you are doing RC roof, then solar panels would act as another layer of shade to block the direct sun from heating up the RC roof. How well it would act as insulation I'm not too sure. But if you want to really have heat insulation, get your architect to specify in roof insulation materials as part of your requirements. the insulation materials can be placed between the RC roof and your false ceiling to act as insulation. If you are doing metal roof, then the insulation material would be part of the roof's "sandwich" of materials to provide the heat insulation. I did a metal roof for my house and can't feel any heat from in my attic during the hot afternoons. Only the evening sun which shines directly into the attic rooms caused the heating effect which now is mitigated by the solar film which had cut out the most of heat effectively.

 

[Dariusme 0]

  On 10/18/2020 at 2:51 PM, snoozee said:

Not sure how true. I just DIYed window films for some of my house windows today so see how long they would last.

louver windows is still a window and heat will penetrate through the glass/aluminium.

for roof, if you are doing RC roof, then solar panels would act as another layer of shade to block the direct sun from heating up the RC roof. How well it would act as insulation I'm not too sure. But if you want to really have heat insulation, get your architect to specify in roof insulation materials as part of your requirements. the insulation materials can be placed between the RC roof and your false ceiling to act as insulation. If you are doing metal roof, then the insulation material would be part of the roof's "sandwich" of materials to provide the heat insulation. I did a metal roof for my house and can't feel any heat from in my attic during the hot afternoons. Only the evening sun which shines directly into the attic rooms caused the heating effect which now is mitigated by the solar film which had cut out the most of heat effectively.

 

Bro, do you mean metal roof are better at reducing roof heat that than brick one? I thought metal will conduct heat faster haha. I need to ask my architect about the heat insulation under roof. Did you do this?

[snoozee 98]

  On 10/19/2020 at 4:53 AM, Dariusme said:

Bro, do you mean metal roof are better at reducing roof heat that than brick one? I thought metal will conduct heat faster haha. I need to ask my architect about the heat insulation under roof. Did you do this?

brick/concrete always work as a thermal mass and stores heat. metal roof is thinner so won't absorb the heat that much. you can put a brick and metal plate of same surface area under the hot sun for one afternoon and see which one still feels hotter after the sun goes down.

moreover a metal roof is constructed with the metal skin as the top layer. between the false ceiling and metal roof are a sandwich of water proofing material, heat insulation material, zinc metal sheet. wiremesh and aluminium foil. all these provides the water proofing and heat insulation. your architect should know what to spec out for the builder as this is quite standard.

[Sonilor 1]

External heat insulation would help to reduce the heat, but the biggest challenge is to find a company that provides such services. A few years ago, I bought a pretty old house in Cumberland, BC, and it was unbearable to live in such a house neither summer nor winter. It was difficult to find a company that could help us, but finally, I succeeded, and they isolated my house. As it turned out, my neighbor had a similar problem, and he isolated the house already. I asked for a recommendation, and he recommended checking the site of that insulation company. I contacted them, and they came and helped me to isolate the house.