“I’d love to be hiring people,” says Jill Miller, a small business owner in St Louis. Her company, White Caps, Green Collars, specializes in painting rooftops white, a cheap and proven strategy for reducing energy consumption–and potentially a great way to put people to work. The combination of benefits suggest residential and commercial roof whitening as a perfect candidate for stimulus funding. Miller certainly thinks so. But all she’s found so far are bureaucratic dead ends. “People keep telling me what a perfect match it is,” she says. “But I can’t find the magic portal to get the funds.”
Nor, apparently, can anyone else in the “cool roofs” game. “I haven’t heard of anyone who has,” says Miller, who tracks the issue closely.Even as Congress debates the climate bill and contemplates whether stimulus funds are being spent too slowly to create enough jobs, there are apparently no efforts afoot to fund roof whitening as an effective and uncontroversial way to address both goals.
Recent scientific work suggests that if cities around the world “lightened up”–that is, made rooftops and paved surfaces more reflective–it would have the same effect as taking every car in existence off the roads for more than decade and delay the progression of global warming by approximately 20 years.
The work was done a group of scientists led by Arthur Rosenfeld of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Rosenfeld and his colleagues have studied the issue for years and argue that making our built environment whiter would be one of the most effectively immediate ways to address global warming. Even Energy Secretary and Nobel-winning physicist Steven Chu seems convinced–he made reference to Rosenthal’s work at a conference last month in Britain.
Apart from the climatic benefits, roof whitening offers great rewards for homeowners. A black roof can reach 200 degrees in the summer and absorbs essentially all the destructive UV rays that hit it. A white roof won’t get above 100 degrees and doesn’t absorb much UV light at all. It will last a decade or so longer, all the while saving homeowners as much as 40% on their cooling bills.
Among its potential stimulative benefits, roof whitening is labor intensive and allows jobs to be created immediately.
Before starting her current venture, Miller worked for the Sierra Club for a time and helped steel unions find ways to lower the industry’s carbon footprints. She launched White Caps, Green Collars after months of research into how she might simultaneous help the environment, create jobs, and earn a bit of money. She concluded that roof whitening lay at the sweet spot among the three goals.
Millers says she looks out her window at rows of old black rooftops in her St. Louis neighborhood and sees a frustrating abundance of opportunity. Whitening roofs is a service that sells itself–she already has plenty of customers–but the attention and extra incentive of something akin to a federal “clunker credit” would make an enormous difference in generating scale for a business still unfamiliar to most Americans. “I’ve only been able to hire on an as-needed basis,” she says. “I’d like to send employees out on jobs and focus my energy on a bigger pilot project for commercial buildings. The market is there.”
With climate predictions getting more dire, the employment rate tickling 10 percent, and summer roofing season already halfway over, the situation remains in limbo. “We could be leveraging this opportunity to save energy and create jobs,” Miller says. “The work is definitely ‘brush-ready.’”
July 16th, 2009 at 12:02 am
I suppose I’m wondering what materials these whitening projects are using. If it’s just white paint, I think that just looking at the benefits of a white rooftop is a bit of an oversight. Use of a chemical paint, both when applied and when heated by the sun, can emit harmful toxins into the air.
July 16th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Roof Whitening?! How UNCOOL! I only want my stimulus money spent on the COOL projects. Like high speed rail. Now that is a COOL project.
They didn’t get the money, because our elected representatives think like 7th graders. Remember there is also no money for water-works infrastructure upgrades either.
July 16th, 2009 at 9:29 am
[...] that paint roofs white having no luck getting US stimulus funds [...]
July 16th, 2009 at 10:35 am
White roofs are a proven approach to reduce energy use and definitely should be at the top of the list for support. Toronto is providing an incentive of CAN $2 - 5 / square metre up to $50,000 for eligible projects. One of the things people notice flying in/out of Toronto is how green the city is because of our mature tree cover (which is also receiving an infusion of funds for aesthetic as well as cooling reasons). Soon the white ‘coolness’ of the roofs will be another notable feature.
July 16th, 2009 at 11:05 am
If you can cut your bills by 40% for the cost of a few cans of paint, why would the government need to subsidize that cost?
And won’t the white roofs lead to higher heating bills in the winter? Maybe the government can fund two paint jobs each year, a white cover in the summer and then a black one in the winter. All the paint and painters being used for the plan will stimulate the bejeezus out of the economy.
July 16th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
While it’s certainly fair to say that painting one’s roof white will save a great deal on cooling in the summer, it would also probably increase heating costs (and consequentially, greenhouse gas emissions) in the winter, wouldn’t it?
July 16th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
I really don’t think it would lead to higher heating costs in the winter. In snowy areas it would probably help as the snow would act as an insulant as in eskimo land. You just have to make sure your roof can handle the weight. Besides, the biggest bang for the buck is in warmer areas that don’t get much snow anyways.
July 16th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
“it would also probably increase heating costs (and consequentially, greenhouse gas emissions) in the winter, wouldn’t it?”
My thermo might be wrong but I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works. Actually, the white paint is white on both sides. The white underside of the paint surface would also reflect infrared light back down into the house as well. The reflective surface would work both ways, few materials reflect from only one direction, and are translucent from the other.
Granted, a white roof is no substitute for actual adequate insulation.
July 20th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
White roof paint reflects UV rays (solar reflectance) and blocks heat from being absorbed.
White roofs do not affect heating in the wintertime because 1) daylight hours are shorter, 2) there are many more cloudy days than in summer, and 3) the angle of the sun is much lower. Insulation (and sealed windows and doors) to keep interior heat from escaping is what matters most, according to Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory. White roofs and lighter-colored pavements were featured on NPRs Science Friday last week.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106733879&ft=2&f=510221
August 15th, 2009 at 1:17 am
So what are the chemicals in the paint? You can’t put a water based paint on a roof and you have to have something that will withstand weather and sunlight. I am guessing the paint will cause as much damage, just shifted to another area. Let’s see, how much emissions to make the paint at the factory, mix the chemicals, ship it to the painters, painters driving to the locations to paint, chemicals being added to your roof that no doubt will have some adverse affect with heat by sun or rained on verses keeping you brown or black roof. (Most the houses where I live have brown roofs, not black) Seems like a money scam to me. I’ll keep my brown roof thanks.