Key Takeaways
On a hot , sunny day , the temperature on the control surface of a traditional blackroofcan bemore than 150 degreesFahrenheit ( 65 degree Celsius ) . When you imagine that sweltering rooftop next to many others , it ’s no surprise that the tune in a large metropolis take with dark , heat - absorbing rooftopscan often be hotterthan the air travel in surrounding areas .
Even in rural and suburban region , the heat suck by a traditional roof on a sunny day raise temperatures inside the house , contributing to higher atmosphere conditioning requirement , steeper energy costs and discomfort for those without air conditioning . Fortunately , the curative for all this redundant heat — a coolheaded cap — is relatively low - technical school , humble - price and increasingly easy to discover .
Acool roofis a ceiling designed tomaintain a lower surface temperaturein bright sunshine , more than 50 degree F ( 28 degrees deoxycytidine monophosphate ) ice chest than a traditional ceiling . The surface of a coolheaded roof reflect more sunlight and releases more high temperature than a so - call blistering or dark ceiling . While the terminus " coolheaded roof " is sometimes used to describe any roofing control surface that is cooler than a standard rooftop , green certification programs such as LEED , Energy Starand the Department of Energy Building Technology Program understructure their several cool - roof credential on a roofing material ’s power to mull over the sun ( solar reflectance ) and release absorbed heating plant ( emissivity ) . The higher the solar reflectivity and emissivity ( in decimals on a scale leaf from 0 to 1 ) , the cool the roof . 0 would represent truest bootleg and 1 would represent truest white .
quick to save money , conserve energy and cool off the planet by turning your old , red-hot roof into a cool ceiling ? Read on to discover 10 ways to cool down your roof !
10. Roll Out the Modified Bitumen
Just about any kind of cap can be replace with a cool ceiling . And some roof can be exchange to cool off roofs by supply special coatings or surface textile . In some state and municipality , cool roofs are required for all new commercial construction .
coolheaded roof requirementsare base on the roof’sslope , with more stringent requirements for low - pitch roofs — those that rise less than 2 feet ( 0.6 meters ) in height for every 12 horizontal feet ( 3.7 meters ) — than for steep - sloped roofs , which prove more than 2 animal foot ( 0.6 m ) in height every 12 horizontal feet ( 3.7 meter ) . To find whichroofing materialsare best for your dwelling house or building , first settle the slope of your cap , then take the cool roof product that best suits your side , budget and architectural style .
One of the most common nerveless roof options for a bland or low - sloped roof is amodified bitumen roof . Modified bitumen roofing is a membrane made up of sheet of plasticize or rubberized asphalt held together with rolled reinforcing textile and fastened to the cap pack of cards with raging asphalt or cool adhesive . Traditional qualify bitumen roofs are black or gray with a scummy solar reflectance , meaning that they absorb , rather than mull , most of the sun ’s light . But simply applying a ashen coating over the surface of the material at the factory can raise the solar reflectivity to satisfactory nerveless roof measure .
9. Go With a Single-ply Membrane
Another type of coolheaded roofing material used for low - sloping roofs is asingle - ply membrane . Single - ply membranes are preassemble charge plate or vinyl flat solid check solar reflective finishing or material . The canvass are rolled onto the roof deck , then attached to the structure with some combination of chemical adhesive material , mechanical holdfast or ballast , such as crushed rock or pavers . individual - ply membrane do n’t take any extra coatings or turn up — the nerveless cap property are desegregate within the product itself .
There are several type of single - ply membrane , butthe three most commonarepolyvinyl chloride(PVC),ethylene propene diene monomer(EPDM ) andthermoplastic polyolefin(TPO ) . Not all individual - ply membranes are nerveless roof products .
8. Build It Up
progress - up roofingis the full term for the standard old salt - and - gravel cap . Because it ’s inexpensive , easy to apply and well-fixed to rectify , it ’s among the most usually used roofing systems for flat and low - sloped ceiling . Built - up roofing involves layering a base piece of paper of asphalt or bitumen with fabric , followed by a protective layer of crushed rock , mineral granules or some sort of aggregative rock .
Traditionally , the mineral pitch and Earth’s surface gravel in a built - up ceiling have been sinister or dark gray , entrap much more light and estrus than they release , but there are several ways tomake a built - up cap cooler . One is to supplant the surface stratum with white crushed rock or reflectivemarblechips to increase its solar reflectance . Another is to utilise something called amineral surfaced detonator sheet , which incorporates pensive granule or a ruminative app into the roofing material itself . in the end , special coating or pigments can sometimes be added to an existing asphalt aerofoil to convert a standard roof to a cool ceiling . This typically requires one coat of a reflective stuff and another of an emissive material that releases warmth .
7. Add a Coat of Cool
Cool roof coatingsare well applied to low - sloped cap in good condition . They are part into two category : cementitious coat , which turn back concrete or ceramic particles , andelastomeric coating , which contain addedpolymersthat make them less brittle and more adhesive to establish open .
Bothcementitious and elastomeric coatingsimprove the solar reflectance of the roof surface . The primary dispute is that elastomeric coatings work as a watertight tissue layer , while cementitious coatings must be applied over roof materials that have already been thoroughly waterproofed .
Cool roof coatings are spray , rolled , or brushed onto an exist matted or low - sloping rooftop to create a bright blanched , paint - same reflective surface . These coatings are more normally used in re - roofing project than in fresh twist .
6. Select the Perfect Shingle
For thesteep - splatter roofsfound on most U.S. homes , received asphalt shingles can be interchange withcool asphalt shinglescontainingspecially coated contemplative granulesto help them better mull over sunlight . Shingles made from woods , polymer and metal can also be cake to meliorate their solar reflectance .
Shingles are broadly speaking not as reflective as any of the cool roof options available for low - spill roofs , but their familiar appearance and traditional vogue make them a pop choice for residential mental synthesis . A cool shingle with livid granules costs about the same as one with the old , received dark asphalt granule , while a shingle with its peculiarly cake granules colour to mate the desired color of the roof can cost a lilliputian more .
5. Make It Metal
Unpaintedmetal roofsare of course reflective ( high solar reflectance ) , but they tend to restrain heat in ( down in the mouth emissivity ) , so they are generally a better choice forsteep roofsthan for monotonic or low - sloping roofs , which experience more sunshine throughout the course of a day . A factory - go for cool roof coat can improve the heat releasing properties of ametal cap , enough so that some coated metal roofs are able to characterise as cool roof .
A standardunpainted metal roofcan be a price - in force answer for some steep - squelch applications , since it is already reflective and requires no additional technologies or textile to attain nerveless roof status .
4. Pick a Tile, (Almost) Any Tile
While they are n’t as widely used as shingles , both traditional and " cool - colored " tiles can be good choices for cooling a steep - slope roof . Some traditional tiles have naturally reflective properties , reckon on their color and the character of the clay they incorporate . Cool - colored tiles are created with pigment that reflect solar energy in the infrared spectrum .
Cool - color tilesare typically raise in earth tone such as brown , greenish andterracotta . Many qualify as Energy Star materials for usurious - sloped roofs . The cost of these cool - color tile is comparable to the cost of traditional roofing roofing tile .
3. Get a Little Misty-Eyed
If you ’d rather revel the welfare of a nerveless roof without the improver of new surface materials or coating , consider aroof mist coolingsystem . Also address anevaporative cool down system , a cap misting system get down surface temperatures by spraying an extremely low amount of water across the ceiling , allowing the piss to cool off the roof as it vaporise . Think of it as akin to the way sweating cool off your body .
At its most basic , a roof mist organization can be little more than a garden hose set to the mist mount and aimed across the cap . ( The same method will also speedily and effectively cool your stone terrace or woodendeckon a hot day . ) More sophisticated roof mist cooling system typically sport a misting ticker with a built - in thermoregulator , timer and 360 - grade misting nozzle that are strategically send so the weewee hits every part of the roof . These systems are useable for both industrial and residential use .
2. Go Green (Literally!)
While arooftop gardenisn’t technically a coolheaded roof , it achieve many of the same benefits as qualified cool roof intersection and reduces stormwater runoff to boot .
A green roof , or rooftop garden , is a vegetative bed originate on a rooftop , with varying levels of material in between . For example , they may or may not contain an irrigation systems . Green roofs shade off the construction below from lineal sunshine , and reduce both Earth’s surface temperatures and surrounding air temperature throughevaporationand transpiration , the processes by which plant life remove moisture from the soil and emit it through their leaf . Rooftop garden are so in effect , they can lower a city ’s ambient temperatures byup to 5 degrees Fahrenheit(minus 15 degrees Celsius ) , consort to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) .
With costs ranging from$10 to $ 24 per square footfor stuff and installment , green roofs are more expensive than other coolheaded cap selection . But it ’s hard to put a price on the innumerable benefits they bring home the bacon in accession to cap - cooling , such as beautification , meliorate air tone and haphazardness reduction .
1. Rock On!
Ballasted roofing systemsare roofs in which a membrane is laid on the roof deck , then held in place by the weight of concrete pavers or natural stone . These pit also supply an insulate barrier against solar heat , much like an adobe brick construction in the desert or an old stone farmhouse that stay on nerveless inside , thanks to its thick gem wall . Ballasted roofing systems are relatively inexpensive , and ballasted areas may be combined with rooftop gardens to deoxidise the overall cost per square foot of a landscaped roof .
While ballasted roofing system do n’t suffer currentEnergy Starguidelines for coolheaded roofing options , the EPA make out theireffectivenessin vigor savings . They also do meet the nerveless roof standards inChicago , which has been one of the early adopters of rooftop garden and other green roofing technologies .
