Solves the most serious roofing problems. Dark-surfaced roofs attract solar heat, hold it within themselves and multiply its intensity, which causes the following problems:
- Energy losses caused by overheating.
- Accumulation of overheated air (heat island effect).
- Low efficiency for roof-mounted air-conditioning units.
- Fatigues roofing materials as a result of thermal stress.
Together, these problems create multi-million-dollar losses for energy and repairs. Super Therm® coating, used as a COOL ROOF solution, handily eliminates all the problems of a hot roof and brings pronounced savings. In more detail:
1. Problem: Energy losses caused by overheating:
The greatest problem of flat roofs is their full overheating, because with flat roofs it is mostly impossible to create an ideal ventilation gap beneath classical insulation. Batt or foam insulating panels are enclosed airtight beneath a layer of black resinous asphalt roofing.
The sun’s rays on the dark roof surface create extreme temperatures of between 60 to 90 °C which are not ventilated but accumulate within the batt or foam insulation. Only after absorbing it, they retain 100% of the heat! When there’s nowhere for the heat to go, the insulation heats up and then begins to freely transmit the heat on through the roofing structure and into the interior. In the summer months, this can happen to flat roofs with only classical insulation in as little as one hour. After that, a pleasant climate within the building is provided only by electrical air-conditioning, the operation of which costs dearly.
Solution: Supplemental protection with Super Therm® coating completely prevents roof overheating, which brings tremendous energy saving for air-condition and thereby quickly pays off the investment in its application.
2. Problem: Accumulation of overheated air (heat island effect):
Big cities often have many black or dark surfaces (asphalt roofs, car parks, roads) and insufficient greenery. This increases solar gain and creates smog, and the air heats up strongly and becomes poor in oxygen. The result is the creation of urban heat islands, an intolerable environment and increased electrical consumption for air-conditioning.
The creation of heat islands causes average daily temperatures in typical big cities to be at least 5 °C higher than in nearby rural areas. Investigators in the Heat Island Effect project estimate the air-conditioning necessary to mitigate that temperature difference is responsible for a loss of between 5% and 10% of peak urban electrical consumption, which represents an annual loss of several billion dollars.
The energy needed to cool this temperature difference demands additional generation capacity which in turn contributes to urban air pollution.
Solution: Only light-reflective roof surfaces can lessen the heat island effect. Super Therm® coating efficiently eliminates overheating of roofs and air, produces cool roofs and reduces electrical energy expenses and urban air pollution.
3. Problem: Low efficiency for roof-mounted air-conditioning units:
A related problem which arises due to the accumulation of overheated air on dark roofs is poor efficiency for roof-mounted air-conditioning units. Industrial air-conditioning units are mostly situated on scorching roofs where they draw in extremely hot air (at 50 °C to 70 °C). This forces them to run at maximum output, and it is only with a massive consumption of electricity that they can cool this hot air intake to the required temperature. Additionally, cooled air is mostly transported through long metal distribution ducts also located on the hot roof. The “COOL ROOF PROJECT” studied demonstrated that:
- Roofs with black, sun-absorbing surfaces range between 30 °C and 40 °C hotter than the surroundings
- Highly-reflective metal roofs range between 5 °C and 10 °C hotter than the surroundings.
- A roof treated with SuperTherm insulative coating will be 0 °C hotter than the surroundings.
Solution: After applying Super Therm® coating to the roof of a commercial building, it was possible to reduce the output of central air-conditioning situated directly upon it by 70%. A further 10% savings in electrical energy came about by also treating the air-conditioning units themselves and the distribution ducts.
4. Problem: Roofing material fatigue as a result of thermal stress:
Another problem of flat roofs is thermal stress and the subsequent material fatigue which are the results of huge temperature fluctuations at the surface, between around 70 °C during the day and 15 °C at night. Continuous expansion and contraction leads to the evaporation of elastic ingredients in the asphalt material, to the formation of capillary cracking, shortened lifespan and especially damage to expansion details and roof leakage. Likewise, metal surfaces also suffer when their surfaces are damaged as a result of the harmful effects of UV rays.
Solution: Protection with Super Therm® coating easily resolves this problem since when it’s applied to flat roofs it efficiently prevents thermal stress and puts an end to the expansion and contraction of these structures which lead to damage and ageing of the roofing material. An application even eliminates the risk of rainwater leakage through the roof surface.
Conclusion:
Architects and designers regularly and uselessly expend huge effort – at equally huge cost – in order to achieve similar solutions to the problems of flat roofs as are provided by the simple and relatively inexpensive application of Super Therm® coating.
Under the name “COOL ROOF”, a research program was arranged in the USA focusing on energy savings due to light-reflective surfaces and the persistence of their reflective properties. Under the COOL ROOF programme, millions of square metres were covered by reflective and insulative coatings or burnished sheet metal.
Super Therm® stood out among the other coatings and materials thanks to its reflective performance, the stability of its reflective properties over time and especially for its ability to keep a surface equally cool all day long, outclassing the other materials.
The difference between Super Therm® thermo-insulative coating and thermoreflective coatings:
Research in the roofing materials field has shown that increasing a surface’s solar reflectivity substantially increases the lifespan of the entire roof covering. Therefore, some asphalt roofing materials manufacturers began furnishing their products with lustrous metallic foil or painting them with a white or silver reflective coating. This has substantially protected their products’ surfaces against damage, yet not against heating.
At first glance it appears that the silvery, reflective aluminium paints work as perfect solar reflectors. This is not the case, though, as flakes of aluminium paint have high reflectivity to the visible solar spectrum yet their ability to hand infrared emissions is low. They do not repel infrared radiation, but absorb it.
Despite the fact that a mirror-polished silvery surface appears to us as the best heat reflector, in practice such a surface reflects only visible light rays: a mere 40% in solar radiation and 3% in UV. The remaining 47% is made up of infrared radiation, which metallic surfaces do not reflect. And as they absorb that radiation, they heat up tremendously in a short time. Next comes the overheating of the entire roof.
For these reasons, painting a roof as protection against heating with silvery aluminium or ordinary white reflective coatings is fundamentally ineffective. Only a ceramic coating with ceramic content repelling the whole spectrum of solar radiation is able to keep a roof surface cool all day. For this, Super Therm® is unmatched!***
The difference is also in the durability of the reflective capabilities:
Ordinary reflective coatings lose more than 30% of their reflective properties in the course of 2 years Super Therm® coating lost only 0.01% of its reflective properties over the course of 3 years (more in the section on TESTING / Testing the durability of reflective properties).
Ask us for a free test right on your own roof. We will be pleased to prove it!
