Roof Shingle Colors Energy Efficiency

Energy star certified roof products reflect more of the sun s rays.

Roof shingle colors energy efficiency.

Modern energy efficient metal roofing acts as a giant mirror of sorts by reflecting the heat and energy up into the air. The color of the shingles you choose for your build can have a significant impact on the building s energy efficiency. How they can be made cool. Buy cool asphalt shingles which use specially coated granules that provide better solar reflectance.

The color shingles your clients choose can have significant effect on the temperature of the upper levels of the building. The color of a roof also plays a part in whether the roofing is energy efficient. Calculate your energy savings from a cool roof. Shingle roofs consist of overlapping panels made from a variety of materials such as fiberglass asphalt wood polymers or metals.

This is known as the albedo effect and many studies have documented significant energy savings from simply lightening the color of a roof. These options allow you to choose a color that makes sense with a home s style while increasing its energy efficiency. Attic temperatures can vary as much as 20 to 40 degrees f which in turn can reduce energy consumption by 20. Lighter roof colors will reflect more of the sun s energy while darker colors tend to absorb heat which can then transfer to attics where it can seep down into the home.

Your roof doesn t require any electricity so shingles themselves are not truly energy efficient. 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. This can lower roof surface temperature by up to 50f decreasing the amount of heat transferred into a building. Florida solar energy center.

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. And while asphalt tiles don t have the power of a magnifying glass they do intensify the heat from the sun by holding it long after the sun itself has called it a day. Coating existing asphalt shingles to make them cool however is not normally recommended or approved by shingle manufacturers. In general dark colors tend to absorb more heat and on roofs that heat is transferred to the building.

While it s true that lighter colors generally reflect more light than darker colors cool roof shingles actually come in a variety of colors. Energy saving shingles include products made from a variety of materials available in many colors. A white or light colored metal surface reflects best under testing at about 67 percent reflectivity and even some newly developed cool colors send the rays away source.