Roofing{2}
At some point we’re going to get started on a house for our land. At least that’s the plan.
We did a lot of traveling during our visit this year and I started to pay attention to the roofing materials being used, after I realized that we would be buying some land. By far the most common material was the corrugated metal roof (galvanized iron, I think), usually unpainted. The nicer homes used painted or enameled roofing materials and the really nice ones had what appeared to be tile.
The thing that I noticed is that the nicer the house/roofing, the darker the roofing color was – generally. This seems to me to be counter productive. It appears that the unpainted corrugated roofs (before they rust) have great reflection, and therefor should help keep the house cooler. What I don’t understand is why the more expensive materials are not white or at least very light in color. Having lived in Tucson, Arizona I know that a great percentage of the cars there are white, due to them staying cooler because of the sun’s reflection. I was reminded of this yesterday during a seminar I went to on sustainability for the printing industry. One of the steps a company took in implementing their “Going Green” strategy was to paint their large manufacturing plant’s roof white. I believe they stated they had a 15% savings on this strategy alone.
With electricity being expensive there (and everywhere), and only going to get worse, I would think we would want to take advantage of any savings we could. Am I missing something here?
Aug 12, 2008 @ 15:52:00
There is a big difference in coolness if it is painted white. On the deck of our boat, you can feel the difference if you step on it with bare feet. It is much warmer even on light beige, compared to the area painted pure white. As we sailed from Vancouver into lower latitudes, it got hotter and hotter. We have now painted our deck mostly white – very dazzling in the sun, but much cooler
.
I would think the reason why people don’t have white roofing is that it shows the dirt more. Believe you me, the dust, the pollution and muck can turn your white house into dark grey in no time, not to mention show the bird droppings more. Lots of birds here on the island … lots of cleaning on deck ….
But Samal has considerably less smog than Davao mainland, so it may not be too bad. Just a lot more birds …
Aug 12, 2008 @ 17:12:00
Hi Ellen – thanks for the comment and confirmation. I believe you must be correct as to why it isn’t more common to have a white roof. I’m not found of heights, so getting on the roof and cleaning it is not something I want to commit to. Though I’m sure I could get someone to do that fairly cheaply.
I was thinking with the heavy rain storms that you have there, that the roof wouldn’t stay dirty. Guess I’ll have to check into this further.