June 27, 2018 | Filed under: Buying a New Roof,Energy Efficiency,Research,Resiliency,Roofing Issues
Typical construction methods attempt to deal with temperature extremes, both hot and cold, through insulation. The desire is to maintain comfortable temperatures inside the home as economically as possible. While insulation provides thermal mass to prevent heat migration in or out of your home, building science is showing us other, sometimes better, ways to do this as well.
Temperature Extremes and Roofing
When it comes to roofing, there are metal roofs and asphalt shingle roofs available that incorporate special high-tech reflective pigments. While these pigments will not offer the same reflectivity as a white roof, they will provide greater reflectivity than standard dark colors.
Energy Efficiency
Ventilation is used to vent heat out of the attic, reducing air conditioning costs. Proper attic ventilation is a great way to exhaust summertime heat gain back to the outside before it reaches your home’s living space. Likewise, radiant barriers can be used to reflect away radiant heat. For a radiant barrier to be effective, it must face airspace and not be tightly sandwiched within a system of other materials. Tests have shown that good ventilation is effective at home energy efficiency.
Extreme Cold
In winter, temperature extremes create ice dams that can severely damage your home. Once again, proper attic ventilation is key to eliminating those interesting but harmful icicles from tearing at your gutters or roof’s edge. Additionally, our metal roofing products naturally shed snow, and with proper “stops” for slowing down snow slides from steep roofs, they do so safely.
Today, we’re experiencing temperature extremes in areas that we haven’t seen before. In our area of mountains and valleys, the weather can be unpredictable. If you would like to learn more about protecting your home, and making it comfortable, during extreme temperatures, we are always available to talk with you. We want to help you find the very best roofing and ventilation system for your home, no matter what.