Painting Your Roof White To Save Energy

New york for instance introduced rules on white roofs into its building codes as long ago as 2012.

Painting your roof white to save energy.

A cool roof can save air conditioning costs by as much as 40. Volunteers have taken white paint to nearly 7 million square feet of tar roofs in the city though that is still only about 1 percent of the potential roof area. Switching to a white roof can actually reduce energy use by about 20 percent in hot sunny weather according to the lawrence berkeley national laboratory heat island. While a flat roof has no gradation a low sloped roof is generally defined as a roof that rises at an angle of less than 18 5 degrees.

Atmosphere a white roof should act like a natural anti warming device while also reducing your energy costs by keeping your house cool in the summer. There are many small scale initiatives in cities to make roof surfaces more reflective. Ultimately painting a roof white to save energy is a great idea because it s one of the simplest ways to increase its solar reflectance and thermal emittance properties. This is also a great time to check for loose broken or missing.

Not only that you get to save the planet. Before painting your roof with a cool roof coating make sure to give it a thorough cleaning with a pressure washer. White roofs don t absorb as much heat which greatly extends the life of the roofing material. An experiment in bhopal in central india found that solar reflective paint on low rise buildings saved energy load by 303 kwh in peak.

Should you turn your roof white to save energy. Flat or low sloped cool roofs. There is no controversy. The benefits of a white roof.

Cool roofs can save money several ways including energy savings rebates and incentives hvac equipment downsizing and extended roof lifetime. This will ensure you don t mix in dirt or grit present that will counteract the heat reducing benefits. According to former california energy commissioner arthur rosenfeld an average 1 000 square foot roof painted white can save 10 tons of carbon dioxide the equivalent of emissions from one car for about. City officials hope to show that a white roof will reduce the amount of air conditioning used saving energy and reducing electricity bills.

One way to estimate how much energy you would save by installing a cool roof is by using the cool roof calculator. Steven chu the u s. Secretary of energy and a nobel prize winning scientist has said that painting roofs white or another light color would help to reduce global warming by reflecting sunlight back into space it would be like removing every vehicle from the planet for 11 years. Turns out painting your roof white would be.