The roof of your home is more than a surface designed to keep the elements at bay, it also has aesthetic benefits and if you decide to utilise it as countless homeowners have, it also has a broad range of applications including cooling, energy and even gardening with many homeowners utilising the space their roof provides to plant gardens.
Reducing your energy costs with your roof
We’re all familiar with solar panels that use the photovoltaic effect to harness solar power, but in addition to solar panels that produce energy or hot water, what other methods are available to homeowners looking to reduce their energy costs with their roof?
Solar reflectance
Now many homeowners might wonder why they’d want to deflect solar rays when they can harness them with solar energy but they’re missing the point to solar reflectance, plus you can have a roof with high solar reflectance outfitted with solar panels.
One of the reasons homeowners spend so much money on energy is because their roof actually absorbs the heat of the sun’s rays and that heats their home which they consequently cool with air conditioning and fans.
Whilst some of the energy they use comes from their solar panels, if they had a roof with a high solar reflectance and therefore high ‘R-value’ – R-value is the metric that measures thermal resistance – their homes would naturally be much cooler and the energy they generate could be used for many other purposes in addition to cooling their home in summer.
In addition to investing in a roof with a high R-value, homeowners should also consider ‘whirlybirds’, which are rooftop vents that catch the wind and cool the interior.
Roof gardens and green roofs
‘Roof garden’ is a rather broad term used to describe any garden on the roof of a building, though the term isn’t (currently) seen to encompass ‘container gardens’ which are gardens in which plants are contained in pots.
This would therefore include rooftop hydroponic gardens which are rapidly increasing in popularity because of the ease in which they can be set up and maintained and because homeowners can consume what they grow and reduce their food costs.
The decision to set up a roof garden or green roof is a commendable decision for many reasons and can be seen as part of a broad effort amongst our ingenious species to reclaim with roofs what we’ve lost on the ground due to development.
However, it must be stressed that your roof must be prepared and structurally sound in readiness for your gardening efforts otherwise you could find that your garden has made its way into your living room and you can now sit on your sofa and gaze at the stars.
Of the many benefits to green roofs, a reduction in temperature of 3-5 C is one of the most notable; moreover, with the installation of solar panels to produce energy and whirlybirds to bring fresh air into your home, you’ll enjoy a cool, comfortable home that doesn’t set you back a penny in energy costs.
Slate roofs
Slate roofs are very popular these days, for in addition to their aesthetic appeal they also have many benefits for homeowners. In addition to the fact that slate roof repairs in Sydney are affordable and easily arranged, some of the many benefits to slate roofing include:
- Slate boasts excellent longevity
- Slate contributes no damaging substances to the environment
- Slate is fireproof
- Slate helps to reduce energy costs
