Abstract: Roof insulation performance has a great influence on the indoor thermal environment of top householder in summer，so test research on the actual heat insulation effect of several common roofs is practical valuable． In the summer of 2013，two residential buildings were selected in a housing estate in downtown of Changsha． Several test modules commonly used for residential roofing construction practices were made，under the same external conditions， building floors，walls etc， and continuous testings were done for roof inner surface temperature， indoor air temperature，outdoor air temperature and a comparison analysis was carried out． The results showed that planting roofing insulation effect was of the best insulation effect and the traditional roof without heat insulation was poorer， after adding thermal insulation layer，the heat insulation effect was improved，if the outer surface was white-washed， heat insulation performance would be improved significantly． The ventilated roof had a certain insulation effect，after adding thermal insulation layer the effect was better．