Abstract: The thermal insulation performance of granary envelope has important impacts on grain storage safety and granary energy consumption. The roof of a granary is usually very large. Because roof is the position with the strongest solar radiation in granary, the external heat is mainly transferred into granary through roof. Therefore, granary roof is the key part in the design of thermal insulation in building envelope of granary. Double-skin ventilation roof, high reflectivity coatings for roof, and thermal insulation material are three popular techniques for roof of granary for stored grain safety and more energy saving. According to different solar radiation levels and different climatic characteristics, the optimum thermal insulation thicknesses of roofs is different in different areas of China. In this paper, the transient heat transfer model of multi-layer roof was presented and validated for calculating energy consumption of ordinary roof in low temperature granary. By considering the influence of natural ventilation, a heat transfer model of double-skin ventilation roof was proposed and validated for determining energy consumption of double-skin ventilation roof. In this pater, the P1-P2 economic models were used to study the optimum thermal insulation thicknesses of the ordinary multi-layer roof and the double-skin ventilation roof of the low temperature granaries in Changsha region. The effect of different solar radiation reflectivity rates of outside surface was considered in determining the optimum thermal insulation thickness of the low temperature granary roof in Changsha region. The optimum thermal insulation thicknesses of two thermal insulation materials including expanded polystyrene and expanded polystyrene were calculated for ordinary roof and double-skin ventilation roof of the low temperature granary in Changsha region by using P1-P2 economic model respectively. And then, on the basis of life cycle cost analysis, the total life cycle costs, life cycle savings and payback periods were calculated. The results of this research showed that the solar radiation reflectivity of outside surface has a significant?impact on the economy and the optimum thermal insulation thickness of the low temperature granary roof in Changsha region. Double-skin ventilation roof can reduce the optimum thermal insulation thickness of low temperature granary roof. Double-skin ventilation roof and high reflectivity coatings for roof should be adopted in roof of low temperature granary in Changsha region for more energy saving and less environmental pollution. The optimum thermal insulation thicknesses range of extruded polystyrene and expanded polystyrene was between 0.106-0.183 m for ordinary roof of low temperature granary. The maximum life cycle savings range from 417 to 633.38 RMB Yuan/m2. The payback period ranges from 2.39 to 2.96 years for the optimum thermal insulation thickness of roof. Expanded polystyrene has thicker optimum thermal insulation layer than extruded polystyrene. Expanded polystyrene has shorter payback period of optimum thermal insulation thickness of roof than extruded polystyrene. The optimum thermal insulation thickness of the roof decreases with the increase of the solar radiation reflectivity of outside surface of the roof. The double-skin ventilation roof can shorten the payback period of the optimum thermal insulation thickness of the low temperature granary roof. Besides, this determination method of optimum thermal insulation thickness of roof has a certain guiding significance for guiding design process of thermal insulation thickness of low temperature granary roof.