How to Make Your Roof More Energy Efficient

Apr 12, 2017

There is a host of ways that you can drive down those heating and cooling bills month after month by as much as 45 to 55 percent. Of course, there are external factors that limit how much you save to a degree, but considerable energy savings are eminent with some of the methods below.

1. Cool Roof Coating

It is a well-known fact that darker colors retain heat more so than their brighter counterparts. Cool roofs utilize color with the assistance of thermal remittance solutions to reflect sunlight, deter heat, and reduce the amount of heat penetration into the building as much as possible. Cool roofs are achieved in a variety of ways; simply painting your current roof with a bright color can bring results, albeit not to the extent of a specially made cool roof with its energy-efficient materials and coatings.

Coating your roof can reduce wasteful cooling bills, prolong the life of your roof; reduce the amount of upkeep by preventing shingle peeling, discoloring, cracking, and thermally buckling; and keep your home’s indoor climate comfortable more consistently. But keep in mind that a sloped roof will need you to consider the appearance of the cool roof application because it influences your home’s ‘curb appeal’ because it can be seen by passers-by. If your roof is flat or only slightly sloped, you can go ahead and have an all-white color effectively bringing the heat retention down to a minimum without affecting your home’s appearance.

If you want to learn more about the kind of budget you’ll need for such an application, read about the costs of cool roofs.

2. Energy-Efficient Roofing Materials

Composite Asphalt Shingles

While organic asphalt won’t hold up well against the summer heat, its fiberglass composite cousin will. Composite asphalt can withstand Class A fires and block a considerable amount of the sun’s UV rays and turn your home into an energy efficient abode. What’s more, asphalt is the cheapest roofing material after flat roof membranes, so it holds the title as being one of the cost-effective options considering the cooling cost savings you’d be making in the long run.

Wood Shake or Shingles

Wood is by far the best natural insulator for any home. But in terms of protection from heat, it can be treated to resist the Sun’s ultra-violet rays as well as rainfall, termite damage, and fires. The material itself is the third cheapest option after flat roof roll-outs and asphalt but arguably the most beautiful across the board. It can bring those cooling costs down, last thirty to forty years, and up the resale value of your home.

Reflective Metal Roofs

Installing a reflective metal roof with a granulated texture can have you using 40 percent less air conditioning in the midst of summer. The higher its emissive properties, the better results you’ll see.

While darkly hued roofs will absorb heat and transfer it into the home without help, a re-emissive metal roof will reflect the sun’s dangerous UV rays and re-emit up to 90 percent of the absorbed radiation back into the environment.

Upgrading your home with a metal roof can have you recouping 75 percent of project’s cost and may even qualify you for at least a quarter of homeowner’s insurance.

Slate Roofing

As far as roofing materials, slate tiles are exceptional at halting heat absorption. There’s nothing like it at reflecting the sun’s rays and blocking incoming heat waves. It gives your home an armored look as it glistens in the sun due to highly reflective armadillo shell-like surface. Its only problem is that it isn’t very widespread except that it is naturally quarried in Vermont and New York state, everywhere else it is manufactured as a composite.

Expect to pay $800-$4,000 per hundred square feet to get it and $17,000–$27,000 to install it. But it will stay intact with you for at least 100 years.

If you want to compare all the above-mentioned materials side by side, visit What You Need to Know About the 5 Roofing Materials.

3. Effective Attic Insulation

Attic insulation is no trivial technique of conserving energy. A roof’s insulating performance is heightened when you properly apply an insulation solution to your attic. Combining an already improved roof with an insulated attic can easily cut cooling costs in half.

The trick is to pick a material that doesn’t leave any gaps in the space it occupies, all that remains is your taste and requirement for tidiness.

Blown Fiberglass & Cellulose

With fiberglass and cellulose, the installer uses a wide mouthed hose that directs the flow of blown-in material every which way to completely cover the entire surface of your attic floor. Cellulose has been shown to be better at home insulation although it settles after a while – tightening and leaving certain spaces uninsulated.

Sprayed Foam

Albeit more expensive than blown-in fiberglass and cellulose by three or fourfold, sprayed foam is tidy, easy to install, and doesn’t block using the attic as a clean storage area. Have air vents or cooling units in the attic? Spray foam won’t be a nuisance to the set-up.

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