Question about adding ceiling insulation?

[topmade]

Does adding insulation to your ceiling realy gives you a noticable savings on heating costs? and is it worth it?

[frozenrice]

Are you talking about adding additional ceiling insulation to an existing ceiling/roof?

[topmade]

Originally posted by frozenrice
Are you talking about adding additional ceiling insulation to an existing ceiling/roof?

Yes sorry should of clarified. It's a new house under 1 year old, but I heard from family members that they added additional insulation to their ceilings and saved money, but they also have tile roofing and stucco whereas we have ashpalt shingles and vinyl siding.

[frozenrice]

There are different schools of thought on this. It's also hard to explain. Essentially, if you have a low pitch roof, you might not notice it as much. More insulation is good if you can achieve adequate insulation depth in your roof system to get the desired results. A low pitch roof will only allow so much depth of insulation at a certain distance inward from the perimeter of the roofline. The square footage of your actual ceiling area will make a difference too. Taking into consideration the roof pitch scenario described earlier, you'll achieve a smaller foot print of adequate insulation on a smaller roof area than you would on a home with a larger roof area. I wish I could explain it better. If you still can't quite understand let me know and I'll try to figure a way to sketch something up.

From the sounds of it your relatives live in older, larger houses. Rooftiles and stucco were typical of larger estate homes built in the late 80s-early 90s. Keep in mind that chances are it could be more noticeable in their heating bills because their insulation may have settled a bit over the years. By adding some insulation in, it is essentially like topping it off. Since the houses might be a bit larger too, it might be a bit more noticeable.