Saturday, March 28, 2009

Asheville NC Custom Builder helps clients Choose Energy Saving Roofs

Changing just the color of a roof can cool it by 80°F and cut energy bills by up to 40%.

Depending on a roofs color and location, roof temperatures can easily reach 190°F, and dark roofs absorb as much as 95% of the suns heat, which can dramatically jack up cooling costs. Studies by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Florida Solar Energy Center show that cool roofs result in up to 40% energy savings. They estimate that about $750 million in utility-bill savings could be realized each year in the United States through cool-roof technology. A roof is generally considered a (cool roof), if its components and design lower roof temperatures by 50°F to 60°F. The chemical company BASF cites studies showing that when a black roof has a surface temperature of 190°F, an identical white roof in the same setting will be just 110°F. (At the Energy Star site, you can calculate savings by roof type.) But you really do not need a scientific study to know that black roofs are hotter than lighter-colored roofs (or tile roof systems that allow air to flow beneath them).

Yet many builders and contractors will not risk putting a light-colored roof on a spec home (and buyers seem loath to select them as options), because light roofs are not fashionable, and buyers fear difficulty re-selling a home with a roof that sticks out like a sore thumb.But now, with the advance of roofing technology, especially from 3M and BASF, a number of cool-roof options (reflective coatings for metal roofs, reflective granules for three-tab shingles, and reflective cool-roof concrete tile systems) are available that allow you to spec or offer cool roofs sheathed with dark-looking shingles. These technologies join widely available radiant barrier products, like LPs very effective TechShield radiant barrier. So, good-looking, high-performing cool roofs are within reach. They just take some work to spec and source, and they cost more up front, sometimes four times as much as traditional shingle roofs. Therefore, the challenge for builders is to achieve a premium market price for their higher-cost cool roofs, by explaining to home buyers that a return on their investment will be realized through years of lower utility bills. Visit our website at http://www.advdevco.com/ and see why Advantage Development Co. is the best builder in Asheville and the surrounding WNC area.

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