Cool Roofs

Cool roofs are increasingly in demand as they are better for the environment than their counterparts and they save building owners a lot in cooling and energy costs.

We always prefer to install a cool roofing system because the benefits to you far outweigh the slightly higher upfront cost.


What are they?

Cool roofs come in three forms; inherently cool roofs, green planted roofs and coated roofs. These types of roofs reflect a lot more of the energy from the sun (visible, infrared and ultraviolet light) than their counterparts and are able to release the heat that is absorbed at a much higher rate.

This results in lower cooling costs, more stable temperatures and lengthened service life of your roof as well as HVAC systems, which results in savings for you.

Cool roofs do not heat up as much as other roofs, typically heating only 5-14 degrees Celsius above surrounding air temperature. They also improve the efficiency of your insulation and reduce the demand for electric cooling by up to 10 percent on hot days.

Even on days that are not necessarily hot but are sunny, cool roofs provide energy savings. All of the energy savings result in decreased air pollution and greenhouse gasses meaning your roof is more environmentally friendly.


Inherently Cool Roofs

TPO is our roofing membrane of choice, partly because of its ease of use and excellent service record, and partly because it is one of the leading cool roofing membranes.

Inherently cool roofs are made of white or light roofing material which reflects and emits (releases) as much of the sun’s energy as possible. A TPO roof is able to reflect more than 80% of the sun’s rays and emit 70% of the energy that the building does absorb, while asphalt roofs reflect only between 6 and 26% of the sun’s energy.

The ability of TPO to reflect so much more energy significantly decreases the heat transfer to the rest of the building, resulting in lower air conditioning costs.


Green Planted Roofs

A green roof is one that has dirt and vegetation on top of the waterproofing membrane. The layers of a green roof include insulation, waterproofing membrane, drainage, filter mat to prevent erosion of the growing material, growing material (soil) and plants.

They can be either intensive or extensive, the different being that intensive green roofs require a thicker layer of soil to support larger plants which will be cultivated and maintained, while extensive roofs have less soil and are mostly left to grow on their own without as much maintenance.

TPO is one of the top choices of waterproofing membranes to go under green roof projects because it has been manufactured specifically without plasticisers, so you don’t have to worry about plastic breaking down and getting into the soil of your roof.


Coated Roofs

If you are interested in a cool roof but don’t want to replace your roof yet then this is the option for you. A coated roof is one onto which a white roof coating is applied over the existing roof to give it many of the energy efficient characteristics of an inherently cool roof.

These products have reflectivity and emissivity ratings which will let you know what kind of improvement to expect when using the product over different kinds of roofs.

Call Northern Seal today to discuss how to convert your roof to a more energy efficient and money saving cool roof!