Cool roofs or white roofs

At a Glance

Decisions

Expand All Decisions

Latest decision

Decision details

Decided

November 07, 2023

Approve New Measures

Decision Details

Allocate resources to further explore: -Heat Pump Combination Washer Dryers -Linear Fluorescent Buyback

Do not allocate resources to: -Cool Roofs -Hydronic Additives

Proposer Information

Name

Jackie Goss

Organization

Energy Trust or Oregon

Proposed Category

planning

Description

White roofs reflect more heat and reduce cooling loads. But they presumably also increase heating loads. Energy Trust did some back of the envelop analysis years ago (sorry I can't find the old files to share) and determined it was not worth further research due to the increased heating load. But we wonder if it might be worth another look given updated availability of weather data, including the gridded TMY which I believe includes better sunlight radiation data. One application that seems to have particular interest is data centers. But white roofing substrates are very common on large buildings so white roofs seem to be current practice, whether that is done for a cooling need or just because that is what color the roof happens to be. I suspect most commercial applications would have this baseline situation. Residential is probably the more likely use case of this measure. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/12/climate/white-paint-climate-cooling.html

UES Measure