Cool Roof / Greener Roof

Worked on the house again this weekend. Every muscle is sore and of course I am sunburned since I was working on the roof painting cupolas. The roof just holds the heat and it gets pretty hot on a dark roof even in the late spring.

This made me wonder why we have black roofs in the first place. Dark colors hold heat and yet even though I live in the Deep South, all the roofs are dark to imitate slate or wood. White roofs would make so much more sense. It would be easier to cool the structure and there would be less stress on the roofing materials.

Apparently, light or cool roofs may be an idea that will take off in the next decade since there is at least one company promoting this concept (see The world's best roofing blog).
It feels like one of those ideas that is obvious now that someone pointed it out.

According to articles posted on that site, the basic advantages of a cool or light roof turn out to be:

• Cheaper to air condition the building since a light roof is only 20 degrees hotter than the air temperature rather that 70 degrees hotter than the air temperature on a black roof (This explains the wonderful roasting sensation I experienced today)
• The roof lasts longer
• It reduces the build up of greenhouse gases

Sounds great to me. Now we need some creative architects to come up with some designs that make use of this idea so our homes can be cooler without looking like ice cream stands.