How Does A Reflective Roofing Membrane Work?
Reflective roofing, like a white t-shirt on a hot summer day, reflects the sun’s UV rays and sends the heat off of a building. It has been known for quite some time that the reflective qualities of the lighter colored commercial roofing materials help decrease the burden of the HVAC system and insulation. This means they’re keeping the excess heat and all of the damages that come along with it off of the building envelope and keeping the energy costs low.
What Makes It Cool Roofing?
With just a simple switch of colors, your commercial building reflects the sun’s harmful UV rays and keeps the building cooler. Cool roofing uses less energy, increases comfort of those inside, lessens harmful effects that buildings have on the environment, extends the life of the roof and saves money on energy bills, especially during the summer months. This can be done with the use of a lighter colored paint, lighter colored roof covering for the layers of membrane, or reflective shingles which don’t allow the top of the roof to absorb the heat of the sun. This makes it bounce those harmful UV rays back into the atmosphere.
Durability
Prolonged exposure to high temperatures and excessive heat are elements that can wreak havoc on just about everything. This is the same for commercial roofs; direct sunlight can cause the aging of roofing materials. It can cause dry rotting, where the surface becomes brittle, cracks and allows moisture back into the roof, which leads to leaking and eventual roof replacement if left untreated. Even frequent repairs will add up over the course of owning the roof. This is why a reflective, waterproofed roof coating system will help with the lifespan of a roof, which is supposed to last anywhere from 10-40 years depending on the material used and installation and warranty. Cool roofing products, whether they’re PVC or TPO, can adhere to existing roofs and truly help your roof last longer.
Energy Efficiency
When a roofing system reflects the sun’s harmful rays instead of taking them in, the cost savings are immense, particularly in hot weather climates like California and Florida. The cool roof lowers the strain on your HVAC system, reducing energy consumption. This is beneficial for the area’s environment and for your pocketbook impacting energy savings for the property not constantly drawing on the air conditioning.
Environmental Sustainability
The benefits of cool roofs are easy to detect when you feel the air temperature in an area go up due to the roof absorbing so much heat. This is called “urban heat island effect,” meaning that the thermal emittance from a building is so great that it affects the air temperature for an area. Green roofs use the live vegetation model and literally have renewable resources made of the roof while bouncing it off into the atmosphere.
Using white membrane roofs or metal roofs painted lighter colors use the high reflectance or high solar reflective index (SRI) materials on the white roof surface. It’s an energy star and cool roof rating council (CRRC) rated, environmentally friendly practice that doesn’t emit carbon dioxide and nitrous oxides and other chemicals. So a reflective, cool roof is a cost-effective technique for a property, along with proper roof insulation. Together they can decrease the level of emissivity of a building to have less impact on the environment around it.
Comfort
While a reflective roof coating is being used, this will go a long way to comfort the people having to work or live inside the building. Low-slope roofing using single-ply membranes like thermoplastic polyolefin, BUR, bitumen or EPDM and other single-ply roofing materials experience a much better indoor atmosphere and don’t always have to draw on the building’s air conditioning. The reflective material provides shade for the building materials underneath it and slows the aging process of the property altogether.
Cool Roofing at TEMA Roofing Services!
If protecting your building, saving money on energy bills and protecting the environment around you sound like something you’d like to experience at your commercial property, then TEMA is right for you. TEMA Roofing has three generations of experience to serve you for roof repairs, preventative maintenance and even total roof replacement. Contact us today for more information and get a free inspection to learn more about what TEMA can do for you at your property.