How can I reduce my roof heat in summer?
Even in Colorado’s cooler climate, summer can create a lot of problems for building owners and managers, especially if your building’s roof retains a lot of heat. Buildings with darker, low-sloped or flat roofs with little or no insulation can become particularly uncomfortable, and may cause you to run your air conditioner excessively, which will increase utility expenses. There are several cool roofing options that can reduce your roof’s heat and save you money trying to keep your building cool.
- Improve your landscaping and shade by planting more trees around the building.
- Add a roof coating. Elastomeric coatings like silicone or acrylic not only protect your roof from leaks and other damage, they are highly reflective and protect your roof from the heat of the sun.
- Install additional roof ventilation to move warm air away from your building.
- Replace your roof with cool roofing materials like TPO or PVC, which are highly reflective and reduce heat transfer from your roof.
- Add SPF spray foam over the roof as an insulating reflective layer. The foam will make your roof airtight.
If you want to keep your building cooler and make it more energy-efficient, and are considering cool roofing in Erie and Denver, CO, look to the roofing professionals at Blue Spruce Construction Group to provide you with the most options. Get more information or set up a project by calling (303) 647-3883.
What is cool roofing?
Cool roofing encompasses an extensive range of roofing options. In general, a cool roof is any roof specifically designed to reflect sunlight and absorb less heat. Almost any roofing material, including shingles, can be made into cool roofing. There are materials like TPO and PVC, as well as roof coatings, that are primarily installed because they are highly reflective.
What is the coolest roofing material?
If you are looking to cool your building down with cool roofing, you have plenty of options available. For residential buildings, clay tiles or metal roofs are some of the coolest roofing materials. Clay tile roofs are particularly prevalent in warm, arid regions because they are so much cooler than other materials. But, clay tile isn’t common on commercial buildings, where flat roofs dominate. When it comes to flat roofing, many building managers are choosing single-ply thermoplastic materials like TPO and PVC for their cool roofing capabilities. Another very efficient option is to add a silicone or acrylic roof coating, which is directly applied to the roof. Coatings can reflect up to 80% of the sun’s energy.
What color roof is the most energy efficient?
Cool roofing generally is lighter colored than other roofing. The lighter the color, the more energy-efficient these roofs are compared to darker roofs. White roofs are usually the coolest and most energy-efficient, although lighter shades of any color will be cooler and more energy-efficient than darker shades.
Is a dark roof hotter?
For the most part, any darker roofing material will absorb more heat than a lighter roof. A dark roof can get as much as 90 degrees hotter than outside temperatures. Some roofing materials like metal, however, will reflect the sun better than others, even if the metal roof is painted a dark color. Rubber roofing materials like EPDM are usually dark but are also a little more energy efficient than other materials, and their heat transfer can be decreased with a reflective coating.
Are white roofs better?
If you are installing cool roofing, white roofs tend to be much cooler than other shades of cool roofing. They can reflect as much as three times the sunlight than a darker roof.
Cool roofing coating
Roof coatings are some of the best options for cool roofing available, especially if you don’t need to replace your roof. In fact, roof coatings are used to preserve older roofs as an alternative to roof replacement. They are directly applied to the roof so no tear-off is required. Most are white but pigments can be added to match your building’s coloring. While the white coatings are generally cooler and reflective, pigmented coatings are still effective when it comes to cooling your roof and building.
Cool foam roofing
Another cool roofing option is SPF spray foam roofing. Foam is applied directly over the roof and forms an airtight barrier over it, protecting it from damage and leaks, and insulating the roof for improved energy efficiency, creating a cooling effect. A roof coating is applied over the foam for further protection, and the coatings are highly reflective of the sun. Foam works on most roofs, including metal.
Cool roofing flat roof
Depending on the material used, flat roofs tend to absorb heat more than other roof types. This heat absorption can be countered by installing cool roofing like TPO or PVC, or by having a roof coating or spray foam added that better reflect the sun’s heat.
Cool roofing urban heat island
Urban areas tend to be warmer than rural areas because of increased human activity and a larger concentration of buildings in relatively smaller concentrated areas. Research has shown cool roofing can reduce the temperatures of these urban heat islands.
Call Us Today
Do you want to reduce your building’s heat absorption? Blue Spruce Construction Group provides a wide range of cool roofing options in Erie and Denver, CO for you to consider. You can find out more by calling (303) 647-3883.