Environmental Responsibility

A Cool Roof What is that

Jeffrey Steuben [00:00:19] Hi, my name is Jeffrey Steuben and I’m the Executive Director of the Cool Roof Rating Council.

Sarah Schneider [00:00:24] Hi. My name is Sarah Schneider, and I am the Deputy Director of the Cool Roof Rating Council. So the CRRC is a nonprofit organization that was created back in 1998 to implement a third party product rating system for roofing products as a way to help homeowners and policy makers and builders, etc., understand how they can increase the energy efficiency of their house just by the type of roof that they throw on it.

Jeffrey Steuben [00:00:52] At its most simple, a cool roof is a roof that can reflect heat, energy from the sun and readmit energy that’s absorbed back into the environment. So we have insulation, which people are pretty familiar with, but the type of roof that you have has a huge impact on your building’s energy use as well.

Sarah Schneider [00:01:11] It’s one way to help reduce the energy consumption of your building while maintaining kind of a cool, comfortable environment for the occupants.

Jeffrey Steuben [00:01:21] What people might most easily think of is, you know, a white colored roof that’s really bright, that reflects energy. Back off. But there actually are developments of cool colors that look the same as a standard color but are more reflective in the infrared spectrum. So it’s reflecting heat, but actually looks the same as a standard product.

Sarah Schneider [00:01:43] If you think about in nature, if you things see things that are white, they tend to reflect sunlight away, that solar radiation away from the surface, keeping things cool. The opposite is true dark colors, dark things. So if you were to see a black t shirt outside in the summer versus a white t shirt, you’re definitely going to feel those heating effects a lot more. There’s been, a big flux of different types of roofing technologies that have come on the market that are actually quite reflective without looking like the traditional white roof. For example, there are metal roofs out there that come in a whole host of colors that are used, reflective pigments to help reflect that solar radiation away and keep the building cooler.

Jeffrey Steuben [00:02:24] So solar reflectance is one of the two two properties that we look at. The solar reflectance is really simple. It’s the, the percentage of sunlight that is being reflected back off the.

Sarah Schneider [00:02:37] Roofs, whereas thermal admittance is the efficiency by which the roof re radiates any absorbed heat, throughout the day. This is the minimum solar reflectance value and the minimum thermal limit value. That is, what we deem a cool roof.

Jeffrey Steuben [00:02:52] And so those, those two, measurements in, you know, combined is the values that we’re looking at when evaluating the energy performance of a roofing product. There’s always a couple different things that come up for people. Right? Price is one and appearance is another, which, like those two things, generally take precedence over anything else. But for me, you know, after that, it’s really like the next thing that you should think about is the the energy impacts.

Sarah Schneider [00:03:19] On a grander scale help address the heat island effect with the roof while maintaining that more traditional esthetic, looking roof.

Jeffrey Steuben [00:03:27] Homeowners should think about cool roofs because they can really have a really positive impact on their energy bills and on their comfort.

Sarah Schneider [00:03:35] Or especially during those hot summer months. And here in the Pacific Northwest, we don’t really have the infrastructure that places like Phenix or Las Vegas have a lot of homes, don’t have air conditioning, a lot of homes don’t have fantastic insulation.

Jeffrey Steuben [00:03:48] So if you’re running an air conditioner in the summer, you’re going to see reduced bills. Even if you don’t have air conditioning, you’re going to keep your house cooler and more comfortable. And so you don’t have to turn on your air conditioning, for example.

Sarah Schneider [00:04:01] What is your objective when you throw on a roof? It’s not hopefully it’s not an emergency replacement roof, but that it’s something that you’re giving thought to. And if that’s that’s the case, you know, what are your objectives and goals do you want to reduce, the, your utility bills? Do you want a more comfortable environment to be in, interior environment to be in during the summer? Do you want to do something for your, you know, your community and our environment in terms of doing something positive?

Jeffrey Steuben [00:04:28] So, you know, if you’re already going to reroof your house, the first thing is for you to understand what choices you have. And then the second thing is to understand what what those choices mean. What are the implications of that choice?

Sarah Schneider [00:04:42] There’s one opportunity, maybe in a homeowner’s lifetime, to replace the roof. You might as well be very thoughtful about that approach. And think about the long term benefits that come from installing a roof.

Jeffrey Steuben [00:04:55] A homeowner should feel, you know, really great about picking the product that they that they actually want to, you know, picking a product that you know is going to be good for them and good for the environment.

Sarah Schneider [00:05:05] You are contributing towards reducing the, you know, the energy demand for air conditioning, which thereby reduces our. Reliance on fossil fuels and the production of greenhouse gas emissions.

Jeffrey Steuben [00:05:20] Now you want to evaluate all of the benefits so you know, not just how it looks. You know, obviously that’s important because it’s your house and you want it to look nice, but also what’s going to be the impact on your energy bills for the next, you know, ten, 20, 50 years. You know, that’s going to be a part of it.