Roof Shingle Color Energy Savings

Cool roofs are lighter in color than traditional black asphalt or dark wood shingles and save energy by reflecting light and heat away rather than absorbing them.

Roof shingle color energy savings.

Darker colors absorb heat. Cool roofs can save money several ways including energy savings rebates and incentives hvac equipment downsizing and extended roof lifetime. The roof covers a huge portion of the exterior of your house and receives most of the direct sun rays. What kind of savings can you expect from cool roof shingles.

You probably know from elementary science that different colors respond differently to light and heat energy. Your attic temperatures can swing by as much as 20 to 40 degrees which can increase energy consumption by a considerable 20. The color shingles your clients choose can have significant effect on the temperature of the upper levels of the building. Tests at fsec also indicate that simply switching from dark to white asphalt shingles in a cooling climate can reduce peak cooling loads by 17 and seasonal loads by 4.

Adequate ventilation and the quality of your home s insulation are what really determine its energy efficiency. The industry has long held the assumption that white roofing because of how it reacts with surrounding air temperatures think about the idea that the color white reflects color rays while black. Let the roofing store show you how shingle colors for residential roof installation can influence energy efficiency. One way to estimate how much energy you would save by installing a cool roof is by using the cool roof calculator.

Attic temperatures can vary as much as 20 to 40 degrees f which in turn can reduce energy consumption by 20. As such your roof plays the biggest role in determining how much of the sun s heating gets into your home. This is known as the albedo effect and many studies have documented significant energy savings from simply lightening the color of a roof. Please remember the energy savings that can be achieved with reflective roofing is highly dependent on facility design insulation used climatic conditions building location and building envelope efficiency.

The greatest savings resulted from using white metal roofing see table 2 18 shown at left. Lighter colors reflect heat and may help keep your home cooler although you have to take what some say about energy savings with a grain of salt. Brighter or lighter colors tend to reflect away not just light rays but. Additional cool roof costs include specialized materials and labor.

Researchers from oak ridge national laboratory have found that most people save between 10 and 30 percent on their energy bill after installing cool roofs. The color of the shingles you choose for your build can have a significant impact on the building s energy efficiency.