The Cool Roofing Trend - Long Island, Nassau County, Suffolk County, Queens, New York (NY)
The Cool Roofing Trend
in the
Long Island New York Area.
It is hard to believe that it has been seven years since the turn of the century. Much has changed in our world and sadly, much has stayed the same. Continuing violence in the Middle East has not only proven how fragile our global political balance is, it has demonstrated how tenuous our energy supply has become in North America. A series of unfortunate weather events on the Gulf Coast have added to concerns about our nation’s ability to source its own fossil fuel. Rolling blackouts in California and a major blackout on the East Coast have further demonstrated the volatile nature of our power structure. The resulting skyrocketing of fuel costs for homes, vehicles and industry is likely to be the primary catalyst for emerging trends in the roofing industry in the next decade.
Background
Just as the energy crisis of the 70’s propelled the roofing industry
towards innovative modified bitumen roofing alternatives, today’s
energy crisis is already precipitating a new generation of roofing
technologies. Roofing manufacturers, power companies, governmental
bodies and environmentalist organizations are collaborating on novel
and innovative ways to conserve energy.
Vegetative roofing and photovoltaic technologies remain at the
cutting edge of those efforts. However, they are not likely to gain
substantive market share in the next decade without governmental
intervention in the form of mandates or incentives unless energy
costs rise high enough to substantially shorten the return on
investment interval for such technologies. In some urban areas this
is already happening with vegetative systems, due to their combined
benefits of energy saving and sewer-water run-off reduction. In the
interim however, the most likely scenario for the next decade is for
the roofing industry to see its most significant growth in the area
of cool roofing technologies.
The Cool Roofing Trend
One of the hottest concerns today is Peak Energy Demand (PED). PED
is defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) as “the maximum electricity used to meet the cooling load of a
building or buildings in a given area.” Although there are a myriad
of other energy demands created by a building each and every day
that are not related to PED, the phenomenon of rolling blackouts has
made PED reduction of critical concern. PED ultimately affects how
much energy is required from a specific power grid to satisfy
community needs. On a July mid-afternoon in Southern California with
cooling demands at their highest level, it is critical to have
enough power to satisfy demand.
National programs such as Energy Star® have been launched in recent
years to promote PED reduction. The Energy Star program represents a
voluntary partnership between businesses and the federal government
to promote energy efficiency and environmental activities. When it
was initiated in 1998, the program focused on household devices such
as computers and washing machines. Since then it has moved on to
encompass building envelope products such as windows and roofing,
reintroducing terms such as reflectivity and emissivity to the
roofing industry vocabulary.
Next-Generation Reflectivity and Emissivity
The science behind reflective and emissive roof systems is fairly
simple. Any traditional roof system is exposed to radiation produced
by the sun. This radiation is either absorbed or reflected based
mostly on the color of the roof system. Traditional white roofs
reflect more sunlight than darker roof systems. But light from the
sun comes not only from visible sunlight it also comes in the form
of infrared radiation (or heat). The phenomena associated with
absorbing or reflecting heat is known as emissivity.
Highly emissive roof systems reflect a large portion of the infrared
radiation. As the surface of the roof system heats up, due to
absorbed visible and infrared light, the entire roof system heats
up. Although the insulation layers in the roof system can help
reduce the amount of heat that passes from the roof’s surface to the
building below, the use of cool, reflective products on the roof
helps to further reduce the roof temperature thereby reducing the
potential elevation of the building temperature. There is therefore
a direct relationship between reducing PED and increasing the
reflectivity and emissivity of the surface roofing product.
Regulatory and Other Drivers
Historically, the Energy Star program has required an initial
reflectance of 65 percent with a three-year maintained reflectance
of 50 percent. In view of continually escalating energy costs, there
is an effort underway to increase the reflectivity requirements for
Energy Star qualification and to add to the standards requirements
for emissivity.
The Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC) also established in 1998, was
organized to “develop accurate and credible methods for evaluating
and labeling the solar reflectance and thermal emittance of roofing
products and to disseminate the information to all interested
parties.” One of those interested parties was and continues to be
the California Energy Commission (CEC). The CEC is charged with the
creation and maintenance of Title 24 in the State of California.
Title 24 is a somewhat all-consuming regulation that looks at all
facets of facility construction. Although the standard was
established in 1978, a great deal of revision has occurred over the
last several years. Today’s standard specifically speaks to “cool
roofing” in Section 3.4. For low- lope, non-residential roofing
Title 24 calls for a minimum initial reflectance of 0.70 and an
initial minimum emittance of 0.75.
Although the State of California has pioneered energy-related
governmental mandates, other states including Arizona, Florida,
Georgia and Idaho have already followed its lead by including
reflective roofing mandates in their building codes. In addition,
many urban areas including Chicago, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, San
Diego, Sacramento and Austin, Texas now specifically address cool
technology in their building codes. The availability of tax breaks,
rebates and incentives for using cool products–in these and other
areas–is further contributing to the industry’s demand for new cool
roofing technologies.
Other national programs have been launched as well. The United
States Green Building Council (USGBC) through its Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) pro-gram has created a
“benchmark for the design, construction and operation of a high
performance green building.” The LEED program as with the CEC
program looks at the entire building and rates many of the materials
and designs used in the construction for their “energy efficiency.”
LEED specifically requires a Solar Reflectance Index (SRI) of 78.
SRI is a calculated value that combines the reflectance and the
emittance of the surface material.
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning
Engineers (ASHRAE) in ASHRAE Standard 90.1 also discusses the use of
cool roofing. This widely acknowledged national standard is
recognized and referenced by a multitude of building codes. ASHRAE
Standard 90.1 cites a reflectance of 0.70 with an emittance of 0.75.
Although many of the standards allow for trade-offs between the use
of reflective roofing and the more traditional use of insulation,
the industry trend is clearly towards recognizing the energy
efficiency of the roofing system itself and designing new systems
and technologies to improve that efficiency.
In the decade ahead, we expect that legislation will continue to
help drive national trends. As more and more states and localities
begin to recognize the potential energy-saving advantages of cool
roofs, the demand for innovative new cool roofing technologies will
continue to grow. Recent numbers published by the NRCA indicate a
growth in market share of many of the product categories that
include cool roof products.
Material Considerations
Unlike vegetative or photovoltaic solutions, cool roofing frequently
can be achieved cost-effectively within the confines of traditional
rooftop applications. Today’s reflective technologies can be found
in our industry’s most popular product categories such as coatings,
mineral surfacings, single-ply thermo-plastic membranes, metal
roofing, modified bitumen membranes and many others. The
adaptability of cool roofing technologies is a major reason why they
are expected to dominate the sustainable roofing category in the
decade ahead.
In addition, roofing material manufacturers are expected to develop
original new approaches to achieving reflectivity and emissivity in
response to the growing market demand for cool roofing. Industry
trade associations are already actively promoting and monitoring the
development of cool roofing alternatives. In 2004, the Asphalt
Roofing Manufacturers Association (ARMA) formed a task group to
monitor cool roofing issues. A year earlier, the Roof Coating
Manufacturers Association (RCMA) formed the White Coating Council to
help promote cool roofing solutions. The National Roof Contractor
Association (NRCA) has embraced reflectivity and emissivity in its
new SpecRight Program. Other industrial trade associations such as
the Cool Metal Roofing Coalition (CMRA) and the Reflective Roof
Coating Institute (RRCI) have been formed to educate the industry
regarding different approaches to cool roofing technology. Clearly,
the roofing industry is moving rapidly forward to meet the challenge
and the opportunity presented by today’s energy concerns.
Ultimately, the growth of the cool roofing category will be
determined by the combined influences of energy and material costs,
building envelope performance requirements, legislative man-dates or
incentives and advancements in roofing material technologies. The
cool roofing options already available provide great potential for
energy savings and conservation. In the decade ahead we will see
even more exciting alternatives to increase the sustainability of
the total building envelope in response to the volatility of today’s
energy market.
For more information, contact New Roof Long Island, a professional
roofing company..
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