Green Technology

DOE calculator supports estimation of savings from cool roof installation on buildings.

Cool Roof Calculator.

Dow Chemical, Oak Ridge National Lab, and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab plan to collaborate on the improvement of retaining solar reflectance as the coating weathers, using new and accelerated testing protocols.  …

…   “Cool roof coatings are a cost-effective and relatively non-intrusive means of improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings, which offer over 20 billion square feet of commercial roofing space subject to retrofit in the U.S. today.

DOE estimates that replacing or resurfacing conventional roofing materials with these improved reflective elastomeric roof coatings (ERCs) can reduce a commercial building’s annual air conditioning energy use by up to 25% – an improvement from up to 15% savings of existing ERCs – and decrease annual CO2 emission by 5 metric tons for every 10,000 square feet of commercial roof area.

These ERCs also potentially offer a one-time offset of 150 metric tons of CO2 per 10,000 square feet of cool roof via global cooling (negative radiative forcing).  Energy savings are highly variable based on levels of installed insulation, climate, and other related factors. DOE has a calculator to help building owners determine the potential savings of their buildings …”   …

Via Dow Chemical Press Release: Next Gen Cool Roofs.

Cool Roofs and Thermal Insulation: Energy Savings and Peak Demand Reduction (PDF).

Fact Sheet: Cool Roofs Will Revolutionize the Building Industry: Adoption of infrared-reflective paints is one of the major advances in roofing in our century (PDF).

Energy Savings for Stucco Walls Coated with Cool Colors (PDF).

Saving Energy by Cleaning Reflective Thermoplastic Low-Slope Roofs (PDF).

Reasons to consider elastomeric coatings (Link).

Cool roofs consist of materials that very effectively reflect the sun’s energy from the roof surface (Link).

Philadelphia residents compete in a cool roof contest for the coolest block (Link).