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Taking a page out of its playbook, the Department of Energy has replaced a roof at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., with a cool roof made from light-colored material that is expected to save taxpayers $2,000 a year energy costs.
The new cool roof covers 25,000 square feet atop the DOE's Headquarters West Building. In spring, the department plans to replace the 66,000-square-foot roof of the DOE Headquarters South Building with a cool roof. Together, the new roofing systems, which include increased insulation, are expected to save taxpayers $8,000 in energy costs.
Roofs made with white or light-colored materials or similarly hued special coatings reflect heat and absorb less solar energy than traditional roofs so that buildings require less energy for cooling. Cool roofs also reduce the heat island effect caused by a concentration of black or dark-colored surfaces such as traditional roofs, pavement and parking lots.
According to researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, using roofs and pavement made with light-colored materials in urban areas around the globe can potentially cancel the heating effect of as many as two years of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions.
In July, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the DOE's Cool Roof initiative and directed his department to install cool roofs when constructing new ones, or replacing old ones, as long as it is cost effective to do so. Chu also urged other department heads and agency leaders to do the same, and he released the DOE's Guidelines for Selecting Cool Roofs.
The cool roofs concept got another boost this fall when New York City highlighted its CoolRoofs program as part of Climate Week NYºC 2010.
"The reason why we wanted the DOE to take the lead in cools roofs is to demonstrate that this really saves money," said Chu on Tuesday in announcing the completion of the cool roof on the DOE Headquarters West Building. Installing light-colored instead of traditional material did not add to the costs for the roof replacement project, according to the DOE.
Here is a video about roof replacement project:
Cool roof installation images and video courtesy of the DOE.
I have been promoting green
I have been promoting green roofs for years. Cerama-Tech of Texas has an EPA approved cool roof coating that can cut your heat gain and reduce utility bills without tearing off and hauling the debris to the landfill. A 15 year warranty and 25 years of performance assures the quality of the product and the cost is reasonable when you consider it pays for it's self in energy savings.
ct-texas.com is the site if you have interest in saving green while going green. Gary
There may be some hope for
There may be some hope for this planet after all. It seems there is many ways to curb our energy footprint. And since the auto is being used more and more we must find other ways. One thing (out of many) that I would like to see is government reduce the complicated red tape on credits given for reduction of energy use. Ex. A friend of mine is considering recladding/ re-insulating his appartment building to make it more efficient and comfortable for his tennants. However, navigating through the energy credit red tape has brought him to the point of giving up. It almost seems like they want to offer the credits (to sound environmentally sensable)but dont want you to apply (out of frustation) because there is too much money to be made on fuel tax.
Why not wait until spring or
Why not wait until spring or summer. A darker roof is a benefit in the middle of dec. Isn't it suppose to snow tomorrow in DC...