Tips & Tricks: Ways to make your roof more energy-efficient

The modern day buzz is most definitely the environment. Everyone, these days are talking about how we can make our life energy efficient as well as eco friendly, and rightly so. Perhaps, the most important area to exercise eco friendliness are our homes. Conserve energy at home might be a great starting point, but how, you may ask? To do just that, the design of the roof would be a good starting point. So let's see what are the multiple ways that can help us make our roofs more energy efficient and eco friendly.

Green Roof

You may be wondering - why roofs? This, as the roof is our first point of contact with the outer environment. A well designed and efficient roofing not only gives the house a elegant look but at the same time does the all important job of maintaining the indoor temperature. Whether its the scorching summer or the chilling winter, the roof is arguably the first line of defence. Just like an eco friendly roof absorbs the heat making it cool inside during summers, winters can be warmer with the transfer of heat with contact with the out door air. Thus, the main concept of making of a energy efficient roof revolves around how well a roof can reflect and insulate solar energy.

1. Reflective roofs:

Reflective roofs

The most effective roofing materials should have very high solar reflectance. This enables the roof to reflect back the solar rays back to the environment rather than absorbing. It has been found that reflective roofs have the ability to reduce the temperature of the roof by 30 percent - thus making your home much cooler. At the same time energy efficient roofs also have higher emmittance - which means they are good at releasing the absorbed energy.

2. Add Insulation:

insulation

Houses which are particularly situated in higher altitudes always come across the problem of having a continuous warm temperature indoor. In such scenarios, adding insulation can increase the overall efficiency of the roofs many fold.The R-values typically measures the ability to resist the transfer of heat. In colder environments, insulation materials that have higher R- value helps the heat to be trapped inside, thus making the homes much warmer at the same time making it much more cost effective.

3. Paint the roof with light shade:

paint it with coatings

All said, it isn't always practically possible to do away with the existing roof and replace it with a eco friendly one. But the existing roof can always be made better. One of the best ways to do so is to paint it with colours, preferably lighter shades, since they have reflective properties. This way, the usage of AC and likes can be minimised to some extent making it more energy efficient. Also, the carbon footprint of the house decreases.

4. Green Roof:

roof garden

If you're looking at an environment friendly option combined with a modicum of elegance, you should look at rooftop gardening. If a particular roof flat or mildly pitched, roof gardening becomes a valuable and viable option. Not only will it help mitigate the heat, it will also helps neutralize the carbon emissions. But please make sure that the structure is equiped to handle the additional weight on the roof.

5. Solar panels on roof:

built in photovoltaics

Photovoltaics are another roof replacement option available theses days. Photovoltaics are basically shingles made of photovoltaic cells that uses solar radiations to make electricity. Though expensive, they can certainly make the house independent of the local grid to some extent. 6. Recycled shingles:

use recycled shingles

One of the best ways of having environment friendly roofs is to use recycled shingles.These shingles not only reduce the emission of toxic organic contents to the environment but also have 50 years life span, thus making them eco- friendly as well as cost effective.

7.Install radiant barrier:

radiant barrier

Installation of a radiant barrier is another option towards making your roof a eco friendly one. In a radiant barrier a flexible aluminum sheet is stapled inside the roof. The shiny surface of the sheet faces indoors and blocks the flow of infrared radiation emitted by the roof, keeping the house cooler. A recent research showed that radiant barriers decreased cooling costs anywhere from 5 to 25 percent.