How Can A Flat Roof Installation Avoid A Heat Island Effect?

Daniel Bracewell • 20 August 2025

Whilst pockets of relatively extreme heatwaves are not uncommon in the UK, this year has distinctly challenged a lot of existing older houses designed with colder weather and less efficient heating in mind, and flat roof specialists are on hand to help provide a more comfortable indoor environment.

Officially defined as three consistent days where the maximum temperature exceeds 25 degrees Celsius in Manchester and the rest of the north of England, a heatwave can be deeply uncomfortable to endure if you live in an urban area or a home not equipped to manage heat.

A major contributing factor to this is the urban heat island (UHI) effect, which is where the use of asphalt, concrete and other artificial materials typically of darker, deeper colours coupled with a lack of trees to provide shade or vegetation to absorb the sunlight for photosynthesis leads to warmer overall temperatures.

This is particularly noticeable at night, as the heat releases more slowly from a surface that absorbs it than the overall air temperature. Because many homes are designed to retain heat, it can lead to a greenhouse effect within affected buildings, which makes them feel particularly warm.

Ultimately, a flat roof can help to fix this, as long as it is designed with cool roof principles in mind.

One of the most effective solutions is a functional roof which uses and channels this heat away from a building’s structure. A flat roof is ideal for fitting solar panels, which use both the light and heat from the sun in various ways to generate electricity.

As well as this, flat roofs provide the perfect platform for a green roof, where trees, grass and bushes are planted onto the roof and help absorb heat, leading to a cooler room.

Finally, a lighter coloured roof can help reflect sunlight and heat away from your building, with some particularly effective functional white paints able to reflect over 90 per cent of the sunlight that hits the building and considerably reduce energy costs to cool the building.

< Older Post

Newer Post >

Can You Install Solar Panels On A Flat Roof?

by Daniel Bracewell • 10 December 2025

If you’re exploring how to lower your energy bills and reduce your carbon footprint, you may be looking at the likes of solar panels for your home. But what if your property has a flat roof rather than a pitched roof? Can you still install solar panels on a flat roof? The short answer is yes, you can! In fact, it is often easier to install solar panels on a flat roof than it is to fit them to a sloped roof, which might make this an even more appealing avenue to explore when you’re looking at flat roof ideas . In many cases, you also don’t need planning permission to install solar panels on your flat roof. Of course, there are exceptions if you have a listed building or live in a conservation area, but if you own your house (different rules apply for flats too), you should be free to add solar panels to your home as you choose. There are different kinds of mounting systems for flat roof solar panels and which is most appropriate for your home will depend on the direction it faces. It is worth noting that the cost of installing solar panels is often higher on flat roofs because of the mounting system, but some of this can be offset by the lower labour costs because the installation process is usually more straightforward. One of the main reasons homeowners install solar panels is to reduce their energy bills. Many report savings of hundreds of pounds each year, which means these panels often pay for themselves relatively quickly. What’s more, under the Smart Export Guarantee , you can sell any energy you don’t use back to the National Grid, which can increase the rate at which your investment in solar panels pays for itself. So, if you are exploring ways to make the most of your flat roof, consider solar panels as an option to reduce your energy bills and do good for the environment.