4 ms·
From a quick google scholar search, it seems that there is a trade-off between heating/cooling costs between summer and winter: > The results indicate that the
by pacbard 5y ago
From a quick google scholar search, it seems that there is a trade-off between heating/cooling costs between summer and winter:
> The results indicate that the energy savings ratios of the rooms with the sedum-tray garden roof and with the white roof were 25.0% and 20.5%, respectively, as compared with the black-roofed room, in the summer; by contrast, the energy savings ratios were −9.9% and −2.7%, respectively, in the winter.
It seems that covering the building with a green garden is better than painting the roof white, but the heating costs were higher in the winter for both designs.
I guess that changing the roof could work in climates where the winter is not too cold.
On a side note, I wonder if it would be better to work on better insulation (both roof and sidings) rather than re-roofing a house.
Note: I am not a civil engineer so I have no clue if the paper is good or not.
[1]: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.09.091 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.09.091
- icegreentea2 5y agoDepending on your climate, once you get sufficiently cold, many of your buildings will accumulate their own layer of white stuff (snow) anyways in the winter. This study was conducted in Chongqing which basically doesn't have snow. I suspect that the effect of this is highly location specific, both in terms of climate, as well as average insulation.
- thehappypm 5y agoI wouldn't really say this is true. Snow pooling up on roofs is a bad thing -- that's a lot of moisture and weight. Homes in snowy places have sloped roofs to avoid it. When I bought my house in Massachusetts, the previous homeowner even gave me a tool to push snow off the roof, if needed.
- icegreentea2 5y agoYou're right, you definitely don't want giant snow piles on your roof of your house, and yes, sloped roofs will help you avoid giant snow piles. But you still often end up with some covering. Not 100%, but I think high enough to meaningfully affect the cost-benefit calculations. Not to mention large commercial buildings with flat roots.