US building, heat loss through roof

Insulation levels vary from place to place and with the age of the home (and whether it's had extra added in more recent times), just as in Britain.

Here are a couple of pictures of the insulation we have in the attic of our house, built in 1991:

DSCN3468.jpg DSCN3491.jpg

That's pretty deep fill, which in this area is as important for keeping heat out in summer as it is for keeping heat in during winter.

As for energy costs, there are variations around the country as you might expect for a nation of this size, and even prices within a state can vary from place to place, but it's not as cheap (even allowing for general inflation) as it once was.

At this house we have natural gas supplied by PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) which is charged on a tiered basis: Tier 1 allowance is 1.79 therms per day calculated as being the average baseline usage, and has just gone up to $1.21 per therm. Over that is tier 2 which has just increased to $1.70 per therm. On top of that is an extra charge of about 10 cents per therm for various programs.

Electricity in Redding is supplied by the city-owned REU (Redding Electric Utility), and we're currently paying 15.28 cents per kW-hr., plus sundry state & federal surcharges which bring it up to 15.9 cents. There's a further $13 per month network access charge on that.

Gasoline in this area is about $2.40 per gallon for regular unleaded at the supermarket stations such as Safeway, up to $2.60 or $2.70 or so at the "big name" stations like 76, Chevron, etc. But bear in mind that California gas prices are higher than the national average. These prices are actually down considerably from a peak a while ago; back about 18 months ago it was running around $4.00 per gallon in a lot of places.
 
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Silly topic.

30% of UK houses have less than 125mm loft insulation (less than meaning some could have only half that and some none at all).

Half of UK houses have no wall insulation, that's probably worse than the US given that they use timber frame much more than we do.
 
Watch "Fixer uppers" on ITV Be, house refurbishing programme around Waco (Texas). The house have very low level (or no) insulation. As I said before, my shed has more. And it does help to keep the place cool in summer, cheaper then air-con.
Frank
 
Looking at that roof, it seems it is unfinished, awaiting final covering and therefore uninhabited and therefore all discussions about insulation are moot.
 
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Looking at that roof, it seems it is unfinished, awaiting final covering and therefore uninhabited and therefore all discussions about insulation are moot.
I was wondering if they were raking battens as well. Not so sure about the uninhabited bit- seen plenty of half-finished roofing projects up here when the weather suddenly goes from bad to disastrous. Hopefully the membrane will keep the worst of it out.
 
You're right. I thought about writing "probably uninhabited " and then let it go. Think that the differential snow-slide on the two roof areas is most likely due to angle and not insulation.
 
Looking at that original photo again, it does look like a work in progress on that roof.

While perhaps not applicable in this case, it should also be remembered that in some areas with especially heavy snowfall some people actually install snow-melting heating elements on the roof which can be switched on during prolonged snow in order to prevent it from stacking up too much. Clearly that wouldn't be necessary if there was already sufficient heat escaping through the roof to do that job.
 
Actually looks like quite good design- the big icicles dropping off the steep pitch will fall onto the veranda porch rather than the street. No icicles on the veranda= no risk to passers-by. The deep snow on the veranda might all have dropped from the main roof.

I miss the snow- haven't had any up here this year yet, does make the place look pretty.
 
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Can you actually quote any examples of people heating the roof to diminish snow depth ?
 
@Old Boxer

There may be a problem of mis-understanding here. People may ( and I know some ) use heating wires to prevent gutters and down-pipes from freezing , but nobody who uses these systems on the roof. As before, if you know of anyone doing that, please link it.
 
Can you actually quote any examples of people heating the roof to diminish snow depth ?
Looks as though the job has been done for me! :)

I miss the snow- haven't had any up here this year yet, does make the place look pretty.
Here you go - These were taken last winter at our old house up in the mountains:

DSCN2684.JPG DSCN2685.JPG

We're down in the valley now, so no snow this year, at least as yet.
 
@Old Boxer

There may be a problem of mis-understanding here. People may ( and I know some ) use heating wires to prevent gutters and down-pipes from freezing , but nobody who uses these systems on the roof. As before, if you know of anyone doing that, please link it.

Oldboxer? Think your mouse slipped....

Winter here is not cold enough often enough to justify such systems. I'm assuming that the manufacturers and suppliers on those links (eg http://www.iceandsnowsystems.co.uk/products/roof-protection.html, http://heatedroofsystems.com/ ) are manufacturing for a market rather than punting a solution looking for a problem. I might be wrong but in a sufficiently cold climate I can see the logic
 
Can you actually quote any examples of people heating the roof to diminish snow depth ?
Looks as though the job has been done for me! :)

I miss the snow- haven't had any up here this year yet, does make the place look pretty.
Here you go - These were taken last winter at our old house up in the mountains:

View attachment 92622 View attachment 92623

We're down in the valley now, so no snow this year, at least as yet.
Ta- makes me chuckle seeing numbers on mailboxes that are pretty much in the middle of nowhere (UK definition at least). Especially numbers that big. Now all I need is some snow on a hill and me at the top of it:)
 
There may be a problem of mis-understanding here. People may ( and I know some ) use heating wires to prevent gutters and down-pipes from freezing , but nobody who uses these systems on the roof. As before, if you know of anyone doing that, please link it.
Not common in Britain perhaps, but not unusual here in the U.S. in areas which get pretty snowbound in winter. They often extend only onto the lower parts of the roof, enough to prevent ice dams building up at the bottom:

https://www.heatersplus.com/easyheat.html
 

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