can confirm TCl is good with cellulose. used them. roof is closed. never reaches above 31°

KeNNy,

this is why you dont seal the cellulose. any moisture that might come into contact can then evaporate again. however we have also installed an industrial grade reflecting roof foil made of woven fabric under the tiles - this keeps additional heat out and works as a protection from possible leaks.

i think the treated cellulose is not that hydrophylic - can try with a sample if you want to find out

it would be something like that. i bought it from CSR last year - they have several grades and stability version. i bought the one for industrial application. wasnt much more expensive than the normal ones (factor 2 or so) and it seems to work very very well with the cellulose insulation we got. the roof has no ventilation (yet, i am intrigued by the monier solution and think i will ask for a quote to replace the roof tip only) yet the plaster ceiling doesnt exceed 31°. we have monitored it for a while last year with infrared readings. saves a bomb in aircon costs

dreamKrusher,

this one i bought in long rolls dunno ... like 100m long and 1,50 wide or something like that. the double relective woven foil some builder-stores also sell. CSR sold me their factory grade (most durable and thickest one) i think i paid around 380 or so per roll. this foil is really tough not like the flimsy one you can buy in the builder store (there got for less than 200 bucks)

Calmman,

since less heat from the roof you can reduce aircon a lot. i now only use 28 degree setting and its nice and comfy. i even could reduce the number of aircon. just create an airflow with fans. we have a huge hall (450 sqft or something like this and i can cool the whole thing with just one 2HP inverter aircon at one end and two fans moving the air through the hall. aircon hardly has to work.

also our other rooms all run on 1HP even though aircon ppl say according to their formula must take more than one unit and /or larger units. no need... can easily cool down the whole house without any problem. also the house wont heat up quickly. i am quite content.

from my experience just cellulose wont be enough. better also create a second roof under the tiles with a reflective foil (also means protection from leaking). then make sure you get good closing windows. for us we could cut electricity consumption will all this + changing to inverter aircon when old one fails (no only two old ones left) to approx. 1/3 of the previous level. that is a lot of money you save every month - basically pays for all the costly insulation jobs.

the problem with rockwool is that it is not seamless. hard to reach corners also cannot cover properly. thus inconsitant. cellulose is blown into the place and creates a completely sealed insulation. it settles and there you are. i have not heard that cellulose is having problem in the long run. the insulation properties are superior as to my research. now in europe the insulation is changing all to cellulose due to it providing better features than rockwool.

i hope the info helps.

KeNNy,

so. my place is built in the 50s and the wall is pretty good. the wall usually is not really a problem. paint it white and you're good to go. the windows are however an issue. if you have the bugget, get good insulation windows, double laminated glass + good tint (raybarrier or something like that). that will work wonders. the normal alluminium frame windows dont close and leak too much heat/cold.

Calmman,

i am not in the business. i used TCL and they did a good job - not the cheapest insulation but its very well done and fast. i would recommend them.

with respect to the foil: if you ask your contractor to seal the foil properly you wont have any overlapping-flapping issue. in fact my contractor overlapped then joined the endings (kind of folding whatever) and then stapled the whole thing to a tight set of wooden trusses. this way you effective create a second roof just a little under the tiles. if you allow for ventilation, the heat will heat up the air between the tiles and the foil and gets disspated from there. you keep your roof cooler to begin with. the alluminium foil wont help if you place it loosely or worse on top of the cellulose. i think under the tiles it does make a difference. and since its not too costly it's a good extra

i installed it in the entire roof. the ceiling temperature does not exceed 31° since we installed it along with the relective foil to form a second roof under the tiles. i am not sure how the effect will look like if you only do the cellulose. in other words, we dont get any heating effect from the ceiling anymore. my neighbour who has no insulation (but the roof ventilators installed) has had 38° while our ceiling stood at 31° - we did a comparison test once.

dont think its that great HappyGuy - my neighbour has two in his roof. his roof is 38° when mine is 31°. go figure

might be good as an added benefit though. i dont have one installed.

paid around 3.30/sqft, so 5k

no need to take out ALL roof tiles. they come with a long vaccum-like-tube to blow the stuff in. for my place 4 openings were needed (large single story house). smaller roof might need less.

never had any problems with ants or roaches but i am not sure if i can generalise from my place to others. its an old renovated house (50s) but we took great care to close the thing up. so over the last 18 months we had two (2) roaches who both came through the tub since the blasted installer didnt bother to put the U-tube in place. did that myself after i found out and havent seen any roaches at all so far.

i read that cellulose is helping with termites and all. roaches dont usually come through the roof so probably different combat needed there. we have no ants in the house if you exclude the super tiny ones that like to eat spill-overs.

Super_Lutein,

how much they quote for the walls? can you share how this is done. i am planning to do this with TCL probably next year. when we did the roof it was too much hassle to also do walls but for the bedroom side of the house i feel i might gain a bit (also make the house more silent... the sound insulation from the roof is great). did they give you a price already for the wall?

Super_Lutein,

i did the same thing. the roof is done a year ago already. rest of the house is pretty finished also so this lead me to remember i wanted to explore the walls. the house is cool so no hurry. actually hoping to get some info from someone who did it already. so i wait till ur done

Super_Lutein,

ceiling never exceeds 30°. the house got good windows and thick walls (old UK-standard building). inside i cool the house to 28° with aircon. doesnt set me back by much. but it also means i can not really say how big the factor of the roof insulation is as standalone measure. did all at the same time. but since it 30° you can be sure your house will be a lot cooler than before (my neighbours ceiling is whopping 38° at the time we compare to my 30°).

i used TCl. i recommend them. the product is the good celllulose not the cheap version from china. no need to save there.

Calmman,

if i compare with my previous place i am using about 1/4-1/3 of the electricity per sq/ft that i used before with same aircon usage and same appliances running (pc, laptop, lamps, fans, oven and whatnot). and that house had normal alluminium frame windows, the old leaky doors that i sealed with doorseals only and a layer of rockwool on top of the thin aspestos ceiling. i even added an additonal big side by side fridge.

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Added on August 14, 2009, 8:50 pmsorry: forgot one important additional fact: we replaced half the older aircons by inverter aircons. that also reduced electricity consumption. but i guess roof insulation has 20% effect or so. afterall around 80% of the heat comes through the ceiling into the house.

This post has been edited by PJusa: Aug 14 2009, 08:50 PM

yeapsc73,

since the stuff resides on the ceiling - the ceiling area is the one you pay for. 3.3 is for the cellulose only. the CSR foil was around 400 bucks+ per roll - which was - if i remember correctly - 1,50 wide and 20 or 30 metres long. if my memory is right (i dont have the data with me) then its around a buck per sqft.

i read it just now. i really wonder what they measured. i have before and after readings (TCL cellulose) and my results match the ones of you guys. using them is free cause you save so much on a/c charges you break even after a short while and then you have the savings in your pocket personally i would assume that insulating the ceiling alone will shave off approx. 20-30% of the bill based on my previous experience ina single story link house.

dopp,

you mean the cellulose? nope - cellulose actively regulates the moisture and channels it out so unlike with other insulation products that might create a dewpoint and corresponding moisture issues this will not be the case with open cellulose. no need to put anything on top either just blow and the cellulose does its thing. in comparison to the stone-fibre wool we had placed in the previous house, the cellulose wins hand-down.

i use similar sheets + cellulose. works well but i think just the foil wont be good enough for our climate. the foil can used to create a second roof and channel away some heat but by all means not all. under my roof and on top of the cellulose its pretty hot. ceiling under cellulose is cool. so go figure.

possible since the air sort of works like an insulation. i personally would not just rely on a reflective sheet. you need to ask yourself where does it reflect the heat to? to the tiles which in turn beam the heat back and so forth so what you can do is create a second roof under the roof with those sheets and allow for airflow between sheet and tiles. that way the semi-trapped heat can be moved out. but i think there is still a lot of heat getting into the roof. that is why you should employ several methods of insulation / heat combating to get best results. its often the case that a combination of several things works best. we want to try to add a third option: coating the roof with a (partially) relective paint i.e. grey or whitish to reflect some heat BEFORE it gets into the roof. of course you could also cover the outside of the roof with reflective sheets but i am not sure if this i legal. pretty sure it would look real bad though .