"Mike S." writes:

I'm confused about something. I've always heard that you can tell how
good the insulation is in the attic/roof by how long it takes for the
snow to melt off the roof. Does good insulation in your attic/roof make
the snow melt off quicker or does it take longer?

I tried looking at different roofs in the area to figure this out but
it only confuses me more. For example, my garage and shed still have
snow on them but my house doesn't.

If you kept your house as cold as the shed and garage get, you
wouldn't see that difference. :-) The garage and shed have no heat
to lose through the roof to melt that snow.

Sometimes a neighbors (much newer) house will have snow on the roof
and mine won't have any.

Conclusion: the neighbors have more attic insulation and or more
soffit or ridge ventilation than you do. This is a datapoint worth
acting on.

Then I look at another shed that has no insulation and is somewhat
in the shade and it has no snow on the roof.

Is the shade caused by the proximity of another structure that's
keeping it from getting snow?

This is a datapoint worth ignoring.

When I searched on Google, that confused me as well because unless I'm
reading something wrong (I probably am) it's saying that my shed has
better insulation than my house! BTW, the roof of the garage and house
are both facing the southwest and the garage roof is only slightly
lower than the house roof.

I think you just failed to consider the notion of needing heat before
heat loss becomes apparent.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://toddh.net/