{"id":2510,"date":"2014-04-17T12:31:24","date_gmt":"2014-04-17T17:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.choiceroofcontractors.com\/?p=2510"},"modified":"2020-10-22T06:27:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T11:27:00","slug":"the-place-of-energy-star-in-determining-cool-roofs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.choiceroofcontractors.com\/the-place-of-energy-star-in-determining-cool-roofs\/","title":{"rendered":"The Place of ENERGY STAR\u00ae in Determining Cool Roofs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"coolToday we build on top of our blog post about \u201cThe Benefits of Energy-Efficient Buildings<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cost reduction is a top priority for any business owner or facility manager. With the appearance of energy-efficient building materials in the construction industry, consumer interest has increased in what energy-efficient roofing (or \u201ccool roofs<\/a>\u201d), among other materials, can do for cutting costs.<\/p>\n

The United States Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s (U.S. EPA) ENERGY STAR\u00ae program has been of particular benefit in labeling roof systems that are energy-efficient. But what exactly is the ENERGY STAR\u00ae program? And why has it become so relevant in the construction industry? We take a look at some answers below.<\/p>\n

What is ENERGY STAR\u00ae?<\/h3>\n

According to EnergyStar.gov, ENERGY STAR\u00ae is an EPA-established \u201cvoluntary program that helps businesses and individuals save money and protect our climate through superior energy efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its legislation in 2005, the Energy Policy Act, Congress declared ENERGY STAR\u00ae to be a \u201cvoluntary program to identify and promote energy\u2013efficient products and buildings in order to reduce energy consumption, improve energy security, and reduce pollution through voluntary labeling of or other forms of communication about products and buildings that meet the highest energy efficiency standards.” Since then, thousands of ENERGY STAR\u00ae products and services have been brought to market.<\/p>\n

American consumers and investors have also adopted stronger consumer commitments to energy-efficient products and services. The public\u2019s knowledge of ENERGY STAR\u00ae is shown by the fact that approximately 85 percent of the American public today recognizes the program\u2019s blue label.<\/p>\n

\u201cENERGY STAR Roofs\u201d- Earning Qualification<\/h3>\n

\"energyFor a product or building to be qualified for the ENERGY STAR\u00ae logo, it must meet EPA-implement third party testing and certification. The ENERGY STAR\u00ae program makes use of testing, third party review, and compliance screening for strengthening consumer trust of qualified products and buildings meeting high energy-saving requirements. Generally speaking, the program breaks down products and buildings into four categories, with products having its own \u201cProducts\u201d category and buildings being broken down into \u201cNew Homes\u201d, \u201cCommercial Buildings\u201d, and \u201cIndustrial Plants\u201d categories. Over 4.5 billion qualified products have been sold in the program\u2019s 20 years of existence, and at present over 1.4 million new homes and over 20,000 facilities have the program\u2019s blue logo.<\/p>\n

These categories are where the program becomes relevant to the construction industry. Industrial plants must be certified and approved by a professional engineer to meet energy performance score of 75 or higher. They must also pass an EPA compliance screen test. For qualification, commercial buildings must achieve an energy performance score of 75 or higher on Portfolio Manager, an online tool for measuring building energy efficiency, and be verified by a qualified licensed professional.<\/p>\n

According to the program, around 40 percent of commercial building space is benchmarked for energy efficiency by the program\u2019s Portfolio Manager tool.<\/p>\n

Cool Roofs and Energy-Efficient Buildings<\/h3>\n

Since it is the building part closest to the sun, the roof plays a big role in the determination of whether a building is energy-efficient. Roofs that have dark colors absorb the sun\u2019s heat and then transfer the heat to the building below. That means that more air conditioning has to be used to keep the building cool. Americans spend almost $40 billion a year cooling their buildings, according to the program.<\/p>\n

For ENERGY STAR\u00ae qualification, roofing products<\/a> must meet \u201cinitial and aged solar reflectance values\u201d, or certain rates of reflectivity at different portions of their lifecycle. Another concern the ENERGY STAR\u00ae program maintains is a roofing product\u2019s \u201cemittance\u201d, or its \u201cability to release absorbed heat.\u201d Values between 0% and 100% are used to measure emittance and reflectivity. Roofing products do not have to meet emittance requirements for qualification, but the EPA is looking at adding it as a requirement block for ENERGY STAR\u00ae qualification. Most roofing products have emittance values above 85%, with the exception of metal surfaces.<\/p>\n

Cool roofs certified by ENERGY STAR\u00ae are said to reflect a greater portion of the sun\u2019s rays than less energy-efficient products. Because of this, they can lower rooftop temperatures by up to 100\u00b0 and reduce maximum-point cooling demand by 10-15%. Many roofing brands meet these qualifications, but some stand out for other benefits.<\/p>\n

The Conklin Company and High-Performance Cool Roofs<\/h3>\n

Conklin\u2019s cool roof systems<\/a> have been found to recoup energy savings that are so great, building owners find their cool roof systems can pay for themselves in just 5-7 years. These cool roofs reflect up to 85% of the sun\u2019s heat and harmful UV rays.<\/p>\n

In addition to great energy efficiency, Conklin cool roofs are known for providing a seamless membrane across an old roof. The end result is that the old roof is protected from the sun\u2019s deteriorating effects, harsh weather conditions, small and large leaks, and the other roofing issues that arise. In fact, Conklin<\/a> has been the leading innovator in the cool roof systems market since it created the first acrylic roof coating<\/a> back in the mid-1970s.<\/p>\n

The Conklin Advantage for Your Needs <\/h3>\n

\"Conklin_RS\"Should you be interested in learning how a Conklin roof system can benefit your needs, give us a call. Be sure to ask about the commercial roofing industry\u2019s only non-prorated warranties<\/a> of up to 20 years backing our Conklin roof systems. These warranties cover all materials and labor for their coverage periods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we build on top of our blog post about \u201cThe Benefits of Energy-Efficient Buildings\u201d. Cost reduction is a top priority for any business owner or facility manager. With the appearance of energy-efficient building materials in the construction industry, consumer interest has increased in what energy-efficient roofing (or \u201ccool roofs\u201d), among other materials, can do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,5,54,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-building-owners","category-commercial-roofing","category-conklin-roofing-systems-2","category-cool-roof-systems"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.choiceroofcontractors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.choiceroofcontractors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.choiceroofcontractors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.choiceroofcontractors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.choiceroofcontractors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.choiceroofcontractors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.choiceroofcontractors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.choiceroofcontractors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.choiceroofcontractors.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}