I found a pretty awesome article awhile ago. Apparently, painting your roof white can greatly reduce summer cooling costs and, if adopted by enough homeowners, could greatly reduce the spread of global warming.

The U.S. Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu, is a strong advocate for improving roof reflectivity. While speaking in London just before an international summit on reducing climate change, Dr. Chu strongly encouraged people everywhere to paint their roofs white. He said that the simple act of painting a roof white could have a dramatic impact on the amount of money and energy used to keep the building comfortable.

From the original article:

“The EPA reports that $40 billion is spent annually in the United States to cool buildings. That’s an extraordinary amount of money,” states Tom Black, executive director of the non-profit Metal Roofing Alliance (MRA). “We applaud Dr. Chu’s intent. However, in reality, white roofs aren’t feasible for most homeowners. Curb appeal rules. The good news is that highly reflective residential metal roofing is available in a wide variety of styles and colors to suit any home.”

Although a white roof is great, a highly reflective metal roof is even better. In fact, new technologies allow even darker colored metal roofs to absorb less heat through the use of highly reflective pigments in the paint that reflect solar energy. Studies from Oak Ridge National Laboratory show that a reflective metal roof can reduce summer cooling costs by about 40% — that’s great news for homeowners everywhere!

You should probably check out the full article.

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