The New Year always brings a sense of renewal and thoughts about the future. If your resolution is to find easy, cost-effective green efforts to help the environment, while keeping more money in your pocket, then a Cool Roof may be for you. Who benefits? Builders and Property Owners whose residential communities or commercial buildings are zoned in a city or state that has strict energy efficiency standards; or a Homeowner building a new house or in need of re-roofing their existing home that is looking to lower energy costs and energy consumption.
What are Cool Roof Tiles?
Cool Roof tiles are the perfect addition to any structure if you are looking to save on energy costs. Each tile has properties that strongly reflect sunlight instead of converting it into heat. In addition, instead of absorbing that heat and transferring it down from the roof deck into the structure, Cool Roof tiles release the heat faster for greater energy efficiency. This process is similar to wearing lighter colors in the warm summer months and darker colors in cooler seasons.
Photo Credit: Cool Roof Rating Council
While lighter colors are typically known to remain cooler in the sun, darker colors still have the opportunity to be reflective and stay cool. Each Cool Roof tile, regardless of color, has two basic characteristics that determine its ‘coolness’ on a roof. The solar reflectance (SR) and the thermal emittance (TE) are both rated on a scale from 0 to 1, the closer the number is to 1 – the higher its reflectivity is towards the sun.
The SR and TE values are provided by the Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC) which administers a Rating Program in which companies, like Eagle Roofing Products, can get their products tested and appropriately labeled with radiative property values. These ratings can be used by architects, building contractors, roofers and homeowners who would need to know the reflectivity properties of roofing products. The Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC), is a non-profit educational organization that implements and communicates an accurate radiative energy performance rating systems for roof surfaces, support research, and serve as an educational resource for information on roofing.*
What are the benefits?
As stated before, a Cool Roof helps maintain lower roof temperatures, which means less energy being used. On average a Cool Roof can earn a property owner 7%-15%* in total cooling cost savings over time.* Consumers can also get rebates and incentives depending on their state’s or local municipality’s laws. Another neat thing about Cool Roof tiles is that they have environmental benefits that can reduce global warming effects, urban heat island effects, smog, and the production of CO2.
In addition to the above, Cool Roofs can help:
- Reduce your utility bills associated with air conditioning
- Decrease the size and prolong the life of your air conditioning system
- Lower roof maintenance costs and extend the life of the roof, thus avoiding reroofing costs and reducing solid waste
- Assist your home in meeting building codes
How can Eagle help?
Eagle Roofing Products has a long legacy of environmental responsibility, providing a robust offering of CRRC approved Cool Roof colors nationwide. Now just because you want a cool roof doesn’t mean you have to make architectural sacrifices. Eagle’s Cool Roof concrete tiles come in a variety of different profiles, colors and blends that you can choose from. Consumers can select from vivid blends or dark colors, as again, not every Cool Roof tile is shiny and light in color as showcased below by these CRRC approved Eagle concrete roof tiles.
In addition to working with the CRRC, Eagle also submits our products for Energy Star designation. Energy Star is a voluntary labeling program co-sponsored by the EPA and the US Department of Energy to promote the creation and use of products that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
