With soaring energy bills and long hot summers, we all want to keep our homes as cool as possible. While air conditioning is a popular way to keep your house at a comfortable temperature year round, it is an expensive option, to both install and operate. However by reducing the temperature in our homes from the start, we can save money on our electricity bills.

Read more about keeping your home cool – and your power bills down, here.

Roof insulation is the simplest way to keep your home comfortable – and reduce your energy costs at the same time.  It can also control noise levels of noise, and make your home peaceful and quiet.

There are several different types of roofing insulation available. Here’s our guide to helping you choose the right insulation for your home.  

Roofing insulation falls into two main categories. “Batts” are pre-cut pieces that come in standard sizes, while “blown-in” insulation is exactly as it sounds: it’s a loose material that’s blown or “sprayed” into the roof space using a hose-like device.

The choice between the two types of roofing insulation depends on your home’s design. Homes with low roofs, difficult access or air-conditioning ducts are better off using a blown-in product, because it gets into all the nooks and crannies and there are no gaps.

Meanwhile older homes with big, high roof spaces can have batts installed if the ceiling joist is standard width.

Batts

You can get batts come made of materials like glass wool, rock wool and polyester. They all provide different benefits.

• Rock wool offers not only thermal insulation but also offers the best acoustics;

• Polyester is the next best roofing insulation product for both acoustics and thermal performance;

• Glass wool is great for thermal but doesn’t offer the acoustic benefits.

Blown in

There are two types of blown-in roofing insulation – cellulose/recycled-paper and rock wool.

• Rock wool blown-in roofing insulation is made of the same material as the rock wool batts, and has the same benefits.

• Cellulose/recycled-paper insulation is made from paper and contains boracic acid, which acts as a fire retardant and insect repellent.

Another factor that will affect your choice of roofing insulation is whether the roof is already insulated. If there’s old roofing insulation there, blown-in is the way to go, as it fits in between the old batts, whereas putting new batts on top of old ones doesn’t work very well.

It’s important to remember that if you’re re-insulating an existing home and have removed the old batts entirely, you need to vacuum out the roof space once you’ve removed them. Similarly, if you’re renovating a house and dropping the ceilings, you should vacuum all the loose material out for the best roofing insulation result.

While it’s possible to install insulation in your roof yourself, it pays to get a professional to do the job properly. It’s important to remember that every 1% gap in the insulation means a 5% loss of efficiency. So if you don’t install it correctly, you’ll lose a lot of the benefit.

To find out more about the best insulation for your home, or to get a quote, find a local insulation installer near you.