Gaithersburg Roofing: Article About Cool Roofs

Fed up with summertime cooling costs, miserably hot attics and uncomfortable room temperatures, many homeowners are turning to cool roof systems to relieve the heat. This trend makes cool roofs the fastest growing segment of the roofing industry, and there are now hundreds of cool roof options available to consumers. Luckily, the advice of a knowledgeable, reliable Gaithersburg roofing contractor can help homeowners decide whether cool roofs are the best options for their homes.

First, consumers should understand a little about cool roofs and how they work. Traditional dark-colored roofs can absorb a lot of heat from the sun. They absorb so much heat, in fact, that they're 50 to 90 Fahrenheit degrees warmer than the outside air on sunny days. Without intervention, that heat can seep into interior spaces, causing high cooling costs and degrading home energy efficiency.

Early cool roofs used light colors to resist this heat absorption, but today's cool roofs use a variety of technologies to stay cool and prevent excessive heat from being emitted into the atmosphere. This minimized heat absorption offers a variety of benefits to homeowners. One of the biggest advantages is that a cool roof lasts longer that a traditional roof because it doesn't suffer as much heat damage. Homeowners also have more immediate payoffs from cool roofs, including summer cooling costs that can drop by 7 to 30 percent and utility rebates that are available in some regions.

Of course, the cost savings of a cool roof should be balanced with the installation costs. While cool roofs are a good overall option, they generally only make economic sense if the homeowner is already planning to replace the roof. In these cases, the options available to consumers are seemingly endless, with a variety of tile, shingle and metal roof colors providing cool roof benefits.

For homeowners constrained by neighborhood CC&Rs or HOA requirements, cool roofs are now also available in so-called "cool dark colors." These darker colors use highly reflective, nearly infrared dark pigments to achieve the same results as a light-colored roof, but look more like traditional roofing materials.

With all of the hundreds of cool roof products available, choosing a system may become confusing for consumers. To help homeowners, the Cool Roof Rating Council evaluates, rates and labels roofing products for their cool roof performance in the form of a Solar Reflectance Index. Using the labeled information and the expert advice of a certified roofer, homeowners can make informed choices about the best roofs for their homes.