01/28/2016

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Going Green With White Roofing Original Source: http://oldproroofing.com/going-green-white-roofing/ Going Green With White Roofing How much can white or green roofs do to fight climate change? That depends on the region, says a new study, finding that white roofs offer less benefit in Northern areas than Southern ones like Fort Worth. However you view global warming, it’s still a hot topic these days and so is saving money. But how do white roofs make a difference? If you live in a state that gets half as hot as it does here in Texas, then you know not to wear black when the sun is out. But when it comes to choosing your roof style, aesthetics usually trump tree hugging, and if you’re like most Americans, nothing looks as good as a dark colored roof. But let’s take a look at what it does to your wallet: A dark roof means higher electric bills. It’s not “maybe” or “might” – it absolutely does. Of course, along with that comes a higher carbon dioxide emission from the power plant having to pump out the extra electricity. The good news? There are plenty of options out there (maybe one that even YOU would like!) for giving your house a new sun-reflecting top that will make your wallet and the weatherman thank you. The Benefits of a White Roof By choosing a reflective roof, you can your energy consumption by 20% in hot times of the year. Hashem Akbari from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Heat Island Group in Berkeley, California says that transitioning to reflective roofing and pavements in the world’s urban areas would offset the equivalent of emissions from the planet’s 600 million cars for the next 18 years. What’s more is the average house in the United States is more than 2000 square feet, which would save more than 1 ton of carbon dioxide per year. White roofs can help to lower smog levels in urban areas because it causes a drop in temperature despite all the paved surfaces. Some naysayers think that a white roof wouldn’t work out in a colder climate. This is incorrect according to Akbari. “The amount of heat savings you may lose in the winter would be, at maximum, 30% of the summertime savings,” he says. “If you need cooling in the summer and heating in the winter, no matter where you are, a white roof will most likely save you money.” This is because the winter brings shorter and cloudier days, plus inclement weather like snow causing a covering on the roof. Cool New Roof Options Cool roofs refer to roofs made up of carbon footprint-reducing materials. They come in several lighter shades, not just white and there is not much of a cost difference on the different shades. Here are a few ways to save on the install of a new cool roof: Only replace your roof with a cool roof when it’s time for a new roof because of age or maintenance. Instead of completely replacing your roof, just...
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Green Roofs Can Save Our Planet Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel Up on the Roof A lofty idea is blossoming in cities around the world, where acres of potential green space lie overhead. By Verlyn Klinkenborg Article Source: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/05/green-roofs/klinkenborg-text If buildings sprang up suddenly out of the ground like mushrooms, their rooftops would be covered with a layer of soil and plants. That’s not how humans build, of course. Instead we scrape away the earth, erect the structure itself, and cap it with a rainproof, presumably forgettable, roof. It’s tempting to say that the roofscape of every city on this planet is a man-made desert, except that a desert is a living habitat. The truth is harsher. The urban roofscape is a little like hell—a lifeless place of bituminous surfaces, violent temperature contrasts, bitter winds, and an antipathy to water. But step out through a hatch onto the roof of the Vancouver Public Library at Library Square—nine stories above downtown—and you’ll find yourself in a prairie, not an asphalt wasteland. Sinuous bands of fescues stream across the roof, planted not in flats or containers but into a special mix of soil on the roof. It’s a grassland in the sky. At ground level, this 20,000-square-foot garden—created in 1995 by landscape architect Cornelia H. Oberlander—would be striking enough. High above Vancouver, the effect is almost disorienting. When we go to the rooftops in cities, it’s usually to look out at the view. On top of the library, however, I can’t help feeling that I’m standing on the view—this unexpected thicket of green, blue, and brown grasses in the midst of so much glass and steel and concrete. Living roofs aren’t new. They were common among sod houses on the American prairie, and roofs of turf can still be found on log houses and sheds in northern Europe. But in recent decades, architects, builders, and city planners all across the planet have begun turning to green roofs not for their beauty—almost an afterthought—but for their practicality, their ability to mitigate the environmental extremes common on conventional roofs. Across town from the library, the Vancouver Convention Centre is getting a new living roof. Just across the street there is a chef’s garden on the roof of the Fairmont Waterfront hotel. Across town in another direction, green roofs will go up on an Olympic village being built for the 2010 Winter Olympics. To stand on a green roof in Vancouver—or Chicago or Stuttgart or Singapore or Tokyo—is to glimpse how different the roofscapes of our cities might look and to wonder, Why haven’t we always built this way? Technology is only partly the reason. Waterproof membranes now make it easier to design green-roof systems that capture water for irrigation, allow drainage, support the growing medium, and resist the invasion of roots. In some places, such as Portland, Oregon, builders are encouraged to use living roofs by fee reductions and other incentives. In others—such as Germany, Switzerland, and Austria—living roofs are required by law on roofs of suitable pitch....