If your commercial building needs a new roof and you’re concerned about energy efficiency, you need to consider metal roofing. A properly-installed metal roof is not only long-lasting, wind resistant and fireproof, but it can also dramatically improve the building’s overall efficiency and lower your energy consumption and costs.
Reflectivity and Emissivity: The Keys to Metal Roof Efficiency
When heat that’s absorbed through the roof on your commercial property transfers down into the building, the HVAC equipment has to work harder and consume more energy to maintain the desired interior temperature. Installing metal roofing with these two key properties can increase energy efficiency and reduce your property’s cooling costs:
- High reflectivity, or the ability to reflect the sun’s thermal energy.
- High emissivity, or the ability to radiate any heat energy absorbed.
Metal, even if it’s unpainted, is a good solar reflector but it has a relatively low emissivity. Painting or coating the metal boosts its ability to shed absorbed heat, so its surface temperature stays as much as 50 degrees cooler compared to conventional roofing materials.
Installation Considerations to Maximize Energy Performance
To get the full energy-saving benefit of your investment in a metal roof, keep these installation considerations in mind:
- Ensure that your commercial roofer has expertise with metal roof installations, as well as skill installing sub-framing if you’re retrofitting a flat roof.
- Make preventing water intrusions a priority, because leaks into the existing roof system can ruin the building’s insulation and negate any energy saving benefits. Before installing the metal panels, your roofer should first address any deficiencies in the existing roof, then apply a vapor retarder to prevent condensation.
- Choose a durable metal product from a quality manufacturer that offers a lengthy warranty. You can opt for an Energy Star-rated “cool roof” product with a factory-applied reflective coating. Alternately, you can choose a more basic metal and have your roofer apply a highly-reflective coating after installation that also seals the new roof against leaks and reduces expansion and contraction or thermal shock.
- Talk to your roofing contractor about your options for adding insulation such as spray polyurethane foam in the space between the old roof and the new metal roof to create an air and moisture barrier and further increase the overall thermal resistance.
To learn more about your options for installing an energy efficient metal roof on your Miami property, contact us today at A-1 Property Services.
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