Slashdot Mirror
Bill Clinton Says 'Paint Your Roofs White'
Hugh Pickens writes "Former President Bill Clinton thinks 'every black roof in New York should be white; every roof in Chicago should be white; every roof in Little Rock should be white. Every flat tar-surface roof anywhere! In most of these places you could recover the cost of the paint and the labor in a week.' Noting that Mayor Bloomberg started a program to hire and train young people to paint New York's roofs white, Clinton says a big percentage of the kids have been able to parlay this simple work into higher-skilled training programs or energy-related retrofit jobs. The benefit: not only will 'cool roofs' lower the utility bill in every apartment house 10 to 20 percent, but it frees cash that can be spent to increase economic growth. Clinton presented this with fourteen additional ideas for growing the economy, saving energy, and attacking the jobs crisis."
You don't. He's talking about flat roofs.
I've had white shingles for 8 years now -- chosen for this very reason. I turn on the A/C about 1/3 of the time my neighbors do (with black shingles). Saved me a lotta money :-) It's worth it long term on an individual basis and an environmental basis. When you can get both to coincide then it must be right!
Well, that raises a very good question.
What will white roofs do in the winter? Make the building colder?
I think it costs more to cool down than to heat up, but what happens if power goes out and there is no chimney?
Is the cost savings there after taking this into consideration or not?
I hate to break this to you, but if you do own your house, you will end up putting a new roof on it sooner or later. My guess, given your tone, is that it will be sooner than you think it will.
Now would be a good time to bring this up with your home owners association so you can make the best choice when that time finally comes.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
Exactly: There's much more sun in the summer than the winter, i.e. white shingles will "help" in the summer much more than they "hurt" in the winter, even if your roof isn't covered by snow.
Also heating (especially if it's via a new gas furnace, even the cheaper models are running over 90%, so efficient their chimneys can be made out of PVC pipe) is MUCH more efficient than even the best AC unit.
No white is still better in the winter. Black roofing causes excessive melting of the snow during daylight leading to iced up gutters and ice dams at night which end up causing major water damage.
...all roofs in New York should also be painted black in winter, because damnit, it gets cold in New York in winter.
During the winter, day is shorter than night, and your house is always heated to ~70F (both day and night). Hence, your roof will radiate energy for longer period (night) than it would absorb the energy (day). And black bodies radiate energy better than white ones. Conclusion is that it is better to have white roof during the winter.
No sig today.
this conclusion is wrong and based on a common misconception that heat is always IR.
yes, but wrt absorption, you don't just care about IR, you care about all wavelengths. it's a common misconception that heat is only about IR. at Earth-ambient temps and for the case of emission, yes... but energy absorbed at any wavelength will be converted to thermal energy. That's why active solar heaters collector surfaces are designed to be dark and not light.
HOAs make one "neighbor from hell" into many "neighbors from hell".
Uniformity in housing is an appeal to create an aesthetic of order where it really doesn't exist. Life isn't tidy no matter how your dress it up.
I've got only one question:
What are the colors of the roofs on Clinton's various properties?
Liberty.