Thread: Loft Insulation

I have been trying to find a Blown Insulation contractor in Nonthaburi or BKK. Does anybody know of any. I cannot install fibre glass rolls because the loft access does not allow man access.

think he means bloke could not clamber about in the roof space due to putting his foot though the ceiling and nowhere to put boards across to kneel along, ours is like that.

This has to be a troll post. Who wants fiberglass rolls insulation in their roof space in the first place?

There was a German guy in udon who can blow the insulation in, contacted him once but he couldn't work in Lao which is where I needed it, think I got his info from marmite or on udon map forum? It wasn't fiberglass though

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

This has to be a troll post. Who wants fiberglass rolls insulation in their roof space in the first place?

what are they made of then?

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

This has to be a troll post. Who wants fiberglass rolls insulation in their roof space in the first place?

...OK. why not ? serious question as I would not want to make a mistake !

Originally Posted by Dead Metal

OK. why not ? serious question as I would not want to make a mistake !

Heat rises. So to put insulation in your roof space would mean the rising heat wouldn't be able to escape. A vented roof space is better than an insulated one.

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Originally Posted by Dead Metal

OK. why not ? serious question as I would not want to make a mistake !

Heat rises. So to put insulation in your roof space would mean the rising heat wouldn't be able to escape. A vented roof space is better than an insulated one.

I wish my roof was insulated as it would cut down the costs on my air con usage.

Check these guys out:

CoolOrCosyThai.Com

I emailed coolorcosythai a couple of weeks ago, no reply!

............"The key is to keep the radiant heat off of the ceiling but yes there should also be some form of ventilation.".............

I have been saying something similar for years, ie - all the insulation above the ceiling is doing is stopping the heat which forms in the roof cavity from radiating down through the ceiling into the living area of the house. Extracting this heated air in the roof cavity with a fan at one end of the roof, and drawing fresh, cool air from the opposite end, prevents it from heating up meaning the insulation is not so vital.
In saying that I would use insulation as well because every bit helps.

^ MM

Two separate things:

The radiant heat comes from the roof and heats up the ceiling. Like someone standing in front of a fire.

Heating of the air in the roof space is by convection.

Insulating the ceiling lessens the transfer to the space below. Insulating the roof stop the heat in the first place. Venting the roof space gets rid of reflected heat in the case of ceiling insulation.

Originally Posted by VocalNeal

^ MM

Two separate things:

The radiant heat comes from the roof and heats up the ceiling. Like someone standing in front of a fire.

Heating of the air in the roof space is by convection.

Insulating the ceiling lessens the transfer to the space below. Insulating the roof stop the heat in the first place. Venting the roof space gets rid of reflected heat in the case of ceiling insulation.

Exactly. You need both as they're addressing different problems. Quite why some people insist on making it into an insulation vs ventilation fight is something I've never understood.

mechanically removing the heat from the space between the ceiling and the roof will cause conditioned air from the living space to be pulled into the attic space and warm air pulled in through any gaps from the outside. If you're not using a/c then a whole house fan with an insulated attic space should work well.

Originally Posted by VocalNeal

Read about a clever idea last week where a guy used a solar panel and a radiator fan from a car to keep his roof space cooler.

That is not a new idea - plenty of commercial products that do that. Adapted from boats / caravans (RVs) I think. The 'solar tube' marketing blurb says their base model is "equivalent to 10+ wind vents / whirlybirds".

I just hope their solar panel is more durable than the shitty little made-in-china solar garden lights I have bought in the past.



Serious question - do they sell this sort of thing in Thailand?

Originally Posted by JohnG

Originally Posted by VocalNeal

^ MM

Two separate things:

The radiant heat comes from the roof and heats up the ceiling. Like someone standing in front of a fire.

Heating of the air in the roof space is by convection.

Insulating the ceiling lessens the transfer to the space below. Insulating the roof stop the heat in the first place. Venting the roof space gets rid of reflected heat in the case of ceiling insulation.

Exactly. You need both as they're addressing different problems. Quite why some people insist on making it into an insulation vs ventilation fight is something I've never understood.

I agree, which is why I said I would use ventilation as well as insulation.

The loft style house I built in Australia had to have the fibreglass batts between the roofing iron and the ceiling (no ceilings except for below the loft area) and it worked well.
I also insulated the walls with half thickness batts and had an exhaust fan at the top of the western wall, the gable end. It was 5.5 mtrs above the floor level.
Insulation is one of the best long term investments you can put into a house.
It will pay for itself in a short time.

Originally Posted by bindog

Originally Posted by VocalNeal

Read about a clever idea last week where a guy used a solar panel and a radiator fan from a car to keep his roof space cooler.

That is not a new idea - plenty of commercial products that do that. Adapted from boats / caravans (RVs) I think. The 'solar tube' marketing blurb says their base model is "equivalent to 10+ wind vents / whirlybirds".

I just hope their solar panel is more durable than the shitty little made-in-china solar garden lights I have bought in the past.

Serious question - do they sell this sort of thing in Thailand?

I think the jury's still out on whether these are a good thing or not, or if natural venting is better than forced. The problem with this forced venting, apparently, is that unless your ceilings are 'sealed', which is unlikely, you end up sucking out your expensively air-conditioned cold air, which you want, as well as the hot air you don't want. You don't get that problem with a naturally vented roof.


One option, again apparently, is to go for a 'matched pair' of an intake and an exhaust fan, but then the practical problem is not only if they are 'matched' or not, but what happens (and how you know) if one stops working.

On balance, I think I'll keep it simple and go for natural venting, foil under the roof tiles and rolled insulation on the ceiling.