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A "Reflective Roof" is a light colored roofing system that reflects the sun's heat and damaging rays and readily emits any absorbed solar heat. This lowers the roof and building temperatures while protecting the roof from sunlight degradation. Ordinary dark roofs can get very hot baking in the sun - up to 190°F. A Reflective Roof can drop the roof temperature down 50° to 70°F, with a major affect on energy demand and roof longevity. Energy savings have reached as high as 40-50%, though more typical savings average about 20%, with a simple payback of a few years. While the energy savings are a definite benefit, the maintenance benefits can be even more substantial. Dramatic temperature changes cause the roof to expand and contract, causing thermal fatigue and cracking. Reflective Roofs reduce these temperature fluctuations and the rate of any chemical breakdown. These factors should enable cool coatings to increase roof life and significantly decrease roof maintenance and expenditures. Thus, these benefits should be calculated and added to the energy savings to determine the real return on investment. Heat loss in the winter: Since the roof reduces heat gain from the sun, it also does this in the winter, increasing heating costs. However, the gains from reduced summer-time cooling far outweigh this loss. Best Buildings for ROI: Buildings that are best suited for Reflective Roofs have one or more of the following conditions: 1) Is in hot and sunny climate during at least part of the year 2) Uses significant cooling energy and/or has problems maintaining comfort 3) Has a large roof area compared to the rest of the building's surface area 4) Has roofing which tends to crack and age prematurely from sun damage or has increased maintenance costs forthcoming.
Sustainability: The cumulative effect of thousands of dark roofs, dark roads, and dark parking lots contributes
to a phenomenon known as the urban heat island, raising the ambient temperature by as much as 6° to 8°F relative
to the surrounding countryside. This in turn exacerbates smog levels and increases the need for air conditioning,
which pushes summer peak demand higher, at considerable cost. Reflective Roofs work to reduce this problem.
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