Roof Coatings Phoenix : Cool Roofs What Are They & How Can They Help?
Posted by: | CommentsRoof 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.
Roof Coatings Phoenix : Commercial Cool Roofs What Are They & How Can They Help?
Roof Coatings Phoenix Benefits of Commercial Cool Roofing Systems
Posted by: | CommentsRoof Coatings Phoenix Benefits of Commercial Cool Roofing Systems
If you live in a desert climate, you know the importance of relying on energy to save you from the heat in the summer. You will also be familiar with the large figures on the energy bills as well. Most city spaces and structures in the desert are surfaces which absorb the heat due to their color and material and create what is called the Urban Heat Island effect. Add that to the lack of vegetation and the heat gain will just multiply. This results in a drain on energy reserves. If you’re in the process of constructing a new building or considering a re-roof for your business you might want to ask yourself the question as to what’s the best cool roofing system you need in order to maximize your energy savings for both your location, and your weather and climate in all seasons of the year. A cool roof system will reflect the UV and infrared back into the atmosphere, causing a negligible heat gain. There are several different approaches to get to this effect, of which we talk about below.
Roof Coatings Phoenix Benefits of Cool Roofing Systems
Coated Roofs
Applying a reflective solar coating to your already existing surface is a cost effective and simple option from Roof Coatings Phoenix, it can also reduce roof surface temperatures as much as 50-70 degrees as can be seen in the photo’s above. You can find the data on many products that do this online through simple searches. Like 90% of the US, if you have a darker colored roof, then the peak heat of the sun is contributing to more than double the energy needed. Try and utilize cool roofing products that have Solar Reflective Index (SRI) values of 100 or greater, this can be achieved by knowing the percentages of reflectivity and emissivity of the top layer of the roofing materials. Reflective surfaces can accumulate dirt though, which reduces the benefits substantially so try and select roofing materials that are resistant to dirt pick up and that are self cleaning when it rains. This will maximize the benefits of your cool roofing system and provide you with most payback with lower utility bills.
Inherently cool roofs
White reflective roofs can reflect as much as 80-90% of the sun’s rays back into the atmosphere with high reflectance, and also prevent radiation gain. Compare it to the 6-26% reflection of the traditional asphalt roof, and the benefit becomes very clear declares Roof Coatings Phoenix.
Green roofs
Many countries have experimented with different strategies to help when it comes to having a “green” commercial roof, and not in the manner of color, either. Insulated layers combined with plants and drainage can work with a wind barrier to create the components of a green roof. The benefits of having such a green commerical roof are manifold – you will improve your air quality, create excellent insulation from the elements, cool your environment and have a thriving and unique ecosystem within your business. Governments across the world are now offering benefits to business owners as well as homeowners who have cool green commercial roofing systems, not only to help save energy costs and demands but to also prevent from further damaging the environment. Roof Coatings Phoenix says even though green roofs are unique they can have higher costs associated with those systems due to structural requirements due to plant growth and the need for watering.
