Astronauts wear white space suits. They do this, NASA tells us, to reflect the sun’s direct, radiant heat. If you think the roof of your Westchester County industrial or commercial building gets hot in August, consider the surface of a space suit exposed to direct sunlight: 240°F! The white reflects heat back into space, helping to keep the astronaut cool. The same is true of your building’s rooftop. For expert installation and maintenance of reflective roofing, Westchester County businesses turn to local expert roofers, such as Vanguard Roofing.
Cool Roofs
The U. S. Department of Energy points to three distinct advantages of reflective roofing, or cool roofs:
- “Reducing energy bills by decreasing air conditioning needs
- Improving indoor comfort for spaces that are not air conditioned
- Decreasing roof temperature, which may extend roof service life”
Good Neighbors
A reflective coating or reflective roofing material on your industrial or commercial roof has benefits beyond your own business. Energy.gov says cool roofs can reduce the urban heat island effect. This means you help lower local air temperatures, which means surrounding homes and businesses also run their air conditioning less.
The net effect of your building, and other neighborhood buildings in Westchester with reflective roofing, will be to reduce power plant emissions, lower peak electricity demand, minimize the risk of power outages, and lower greenhouse gases.
Reflective Coatings
Perhaps the easiest way to get the reflective roofing a business might desire is to have reflective coatings applied over existing roofing:
- Topcoat® membrane: Water-based, spray-applied
- Topcoat® MB Plus: Water-based, low VOC, acrylic, sprayable polymeric liquid
- Topcoat® Surface Seal SB: Solvent-based, sprayable thermoplastic rubber sealant
- Energycote™ Coating: White, water-based, low VOC, reflective, elastomeric coating
- EPDM Coating: Water-based, acrylic, reflective, flexible liquid-applied membrane
- Fireshield® EPDM: Water-based acrylic rubber liquid
- Fireshield® SB: Solvent-based, liquid thermoplastic rubber sealant
All these and other highly reflective membranes, available from Vanguard Roofing, can bounce significant amounts of heat off your building. This lowers the conduction into the building, which means your central air conditioning system and air handlers work less.
We hope, upon reflection, you will consider the energy-saving benefits of reflective roofing for your Westchester County business. Contact us at Vanguard Roofing today to see how we can install this beneficial roofing and help you start saving. We cannot promise your energy savings will be out of this world, but reflective coatings could be like a space suit for your building.
