Roof Coatings Phoenix : Cool Roofs What Are They & How Can They Help?
ByRoof Coatings Phoenix : Commercial Cool Roofs What Are They & How Can They Help?
Roof Coatings Phoenix thinks the most important feature of an ideal cool commercial roof is that its surface strongly reflects sunlight. This is the ability to reflect the visible, infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths of the sun, reducing heat transfer to the building and high thermal emittance. The ability to radiate absorbed or non-reflected solar energy is emittance. Both properties are measured from 0 to 1 and the higher the value, the “cooler” the roof. The benefits associated with cool commercial roofs include reduced cooling energy load, reduced air pollution and greenhouse gas emission, and improved human health and comfort. Cool roofs come in mainly three types rooftop garden, reflective coating, and lightly colored reflective coating.
Roof Coatings Phoenix : Cool Roofs What Are They & How Can They Help?
Green Rooftop Commercial Garden Roofs
Most popular and Eco-friendly is undeniably ‘the commercial rooftop garden’ which is said all in the name a garden grown on top of a roof. Another name is green roofs and can also be adapted to cool down a building with an angled commercial roof as well as a flat roof, which is the more common variation. A green commercial roof can enhance the aesthetic appearance of a building, last a long time, and contribute for the purification of air by converting Carbon Dioxide in to Oxygen. Roof Coatings Phoenix says unfortunately a green roof requires a lot of maintenance and is installation cost can be rather high.
Reflective & Inherently Cool Roofs
Reflective coating, aka as coated commercial roofs, have been reported to reflect more than 95% of the sun’s rays says Roof Coatings Phoenix. This coating is generally in the form of paint and can be applied on any type of commercial roof and common and popular enough to be stocked by your local roofing installer. An existing (or new) roof can be made reflective by applying a solar reflective coating to its surface. The third type of cool roofs is the ‘inherently cool roof’. This is actually a light colored roof covering material which displays solar light and heat reflecting properties without any kind of special treatment as opposed to dark colored materials such as asbestos sheets. Roofing materials such as polymers, light colored fibre glass and thermoplastic white vinyl fall in to this category. A roof covered with thermoplastic white vinyl can be expected to reflect more than 80% of the sun’s rays.
Benefits of Commercial Cool Roofs
Cool roofs are energy savings and global warming mitigation. They help with the reduction in urban heat island effect and smog. This can in turn improve occupant comfort. Cool commercial roofs comply with codes and green building programs. The U.S. Department of Energy is encouraging the use of reflective paint and “cool roofs” to increase the energy efficiency of homes and commercial buildings. The move could reduce electric bills by 10 to 20 percent, because structures use less air conditioning when they absorb fewer of the sun’s rays. The Department of Energy is now processing requests for $37 million in stimulus funding for small businesses, to develop quick-turnaround, clean-energy technologies. Roof Coatings Phoenix says that because cool roofs are fairly new to the market, there is less information presently available about the effects of exposure on the solar reflectances and thermal emittances of cool materials for steep-sloped commercial roofs, such as white and cool color tile, shingle, and metal products.
