Roofing Goes High Tech

According to the U.S. Green Building Council and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, there is roughly 70 billion square feet of commercial space in the U.S. About 40% of that was built before 1970 when modern building and energy codes didn’t exist. Commercial property accounts for nearly 40% of energy use and 75% of electricity use. Retrofitting these old buildings with upgraded building technologies can ultimately save billions of dollars. The Depart of Defense (DoD), which has over 500,000 buildings, is taking a lead role on a test site in learning how to retrofit old buildings to reduce the carbon footprint and lower the demand for energy and water.

Photo courtesty of Goodfellow Air Force Base

Thanks to Executive Order 13514, the federal government and U.S. military is making energy efficiency a priority. Various branches of the military have adopted the USGBC’s LEED Silver certification as the new standard for all military installations. The DoD is required by law to produce or procure 25% of all energy it uses from renewable sources by the year 2025. It is also required to reduce energy use on its properties by 30% by 2015 and by another 37.5% by 2020.

One of the first steps, of course, was creating a dynamic roofing system. [Step 2 is increasing insulation in the rest of the building, but since we are a roofing company, we are concentrating on these new high tech developments]. The new metal roofing system uses many different technologies that can heat and cool air and water, produce electricity and collect rainwater. Specifically, this is a metal roof that can be retrofitted over an existing roof, saving on tear out and installation costs and keeping the old materials out of landfills. Best of all, the new system can be used on flat or sloped roofs.

Specifically, the new roofing system has:

• Reflective coating that can help save up to 25% summer cooling energy costs and helps slow the heat island effect in urban areas.
• Solar/thermal panels for water heating, reducing fossils or electricity use.
• Rainwater harvesting technology that reuses rainwater for non-potable applications like landscaping or flushing toilets.
• Solar electric panels to provide energy for the building.

We are eagerly waiting to see the results from the DoD test sites, but initial projections show a 20%-30% efficiency increase in total energy savings.