Beat the Heat With a Cool Roof

By Evelyn Witterholt. 

Learn more about what a cool roof is and how you can benefit from having one on your home or building. 

With summer coming up, home and building owners are looking for the best ways to cut back on their energy spending. One of the best ways to do this is to keep heat away from your home, specifically by having a cool roof. In a recent episode of our AskARoofer Podcast, we got to speak with Sarah Schneider and Audrey McGarrell from the Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC) about why every roof should be a cool roof. 

For those who don’t know what a cool roof is, listening to this podcast is a great place to start! CRRC’s Project Manager Audrey defines a cool roof as a roof made of materials that reflect sunlight and re-emit absorbed heat. Although all roofing materials are reflective and absorb heat, a cool roof is one that has a higher percentage of reflectance and emittance. 

“A cool roof keeps the surface temperature of the roof cooler, which in turn keeps the indoor temperature cooler because it's reducing the amount of solar heat gain of the building,” Audrey says. “It's reducing the amount of heat from the sun that makes its way into your building causing it to be uncomfortably hot or causing you to need more air conditioning.” 

The CRRC is a great resource for home and building owners who are interested in learning more about cool roofs. They even offer multiple directories for products that are considered cool by the organization. 

“We're probably most known for our Rated Roof Products directory, which has been an invaluable resource to the public for the past 20 years,” Sarah says. “We actually have one for roofs and we have one for exterior wall materials... Both directories are designed to help contractors and home and building owners look for products that might comply with a local building code requirement.” 

Listen to the entire podcast to learn more about the benefits of having a cool roof. 

Have a question? AskARoofer.    

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