Is Your Metal Roof Safe During a Lightning Storm?

So, you are planning to upgrade your roof from traditional asphalt shingle into high-end metal roofing system. However, you are anxious how safe is your metal roofing system during thunder storms. Indeed, metal can attract thunderstorm and it is the number one conductor of electricity but it does not necessarily mean that your home is at risk if it is installed with metal roofing.

• Metal improves the value of your home
• It is durable that can last up to 80 years or even more which is a good investment
• Recyclable material as an Eco-friendly choice
• Fire resistance which means insurance companies may reduce premiums
• Decreases your annual property tax from the federal government.
• Energy efficient roofing system which is beneficial for locations with extreme heat during summer season.

With all these advantages, there is no doubt while lots of residential home owners are turning their interest to upgrade roofs and find metal roofing contractors northern Virginia.

When it comes with the thunderstorm issue, the answer is pretty much simple. Your metal roofing is guaranteed safe during this type of weather. Yes, metal conduct and attracts electricity but your metal roof won’t attract lightning and this is a fact. Also, lightning strikes rarely to buildings. Instead, lightning can potential strikes to tall structures such as trees, poles and towers.

If worse comes to worst which the lightning strikes to your metal roofing system, the roof will actually help to keep you safe by dispersing the energy throughout the building. It is extremely fire resistant so you don’t have to worry about such myths.

Stay safe with lightning storm

When you are outside and thunderstorm strikes, the best you can do is to find shelter but not to the tallest objects. It is also recommended not to go to an open field or park. In order to be safe, find sturdy shelter but be cautious. You can find more details about the lightning issues here in this FAQ.

To Get Energy Efficient Home Can I Install Solar Panels on a Metal Roof?

Thanks to the development of technology, homeowners and companies these days are beginning to learn how to maximize natural resources for energy. There are lots of devices that can be powered by solar panel technology which can help everyone who wants to save up and free from paying skyrocket electricity bill. Apart from the fact that solar panel allows you to save huge amount of cash, such technology never requires high maintenance.

Solar Panel Roofing System

You can replace your roof into premium metal roofing powered by solar roofing fans in order to have an energy efficient roofing system. The solar roofing fans works as hard as it could as the temperature rises which will turn your home’s attic air flow stable. These fans allow you not to turn your air-conditioning thermostat up to the max especially during hot summer days. These fans let your home interior comfortable to live with. The metal roofing system designed with solar panel for ventilation system brings out positive energy buildings that produces as much as energy as they use over years to come. Another benefit is the fact that you are going to get 30% solar tax credit for metal roofs and solar film.

Wise and Practical

You can get an energy efficient ventilation and roofing system at home with your solar panels. We, Alpha Rain Incorporated one of the most prestigious metal roofing contractors Virginia, developed a unique design and plug in style that allows your roofing system to become energy efficient. No need to worry about expensive maintenance and repairs. Our patented ventilation system powered by therma-vent which features our solar fans can really pay off. Most residential homes in Virginia estimate that 2-4 kilowatt offset their expenses. The roof helps your home to reduce heating and cooling loads because of its high reflective radiation roof. In addition, our design integrates solar thermal heating panels for wind turbine application.

 

How to Maintain the Quality of your Ventilation and Metal Roof

Not so long ago, lots of non-profit organizations conducted programs about healthy homes. How to keep it dry, keeping it clean and pest free. As a homeowner, you might not be aware of your home as having an efficient ventilation system. Yes indeed, homes must have a good ventilation system to combat the high heat that roofing systems creates.  Normally this is done by industry standard soffit and ridge vents that only lower your attic air temperatures down to 130 degrees on a 90 degree day.

Most likely, a typical home will normally let the heat out from the attic. But, a well-ventilated home allows removing the moisture, pollutants and odor at the same time. Keep in mind that there are more pollutants from home rather than from outside the home.

Proper ventilation system plays a vital role for many residential homes and industrial areas as well. When your home does not have good ventilation or even industry standard ventilation you house will stay hot in the summer months, by the heat in the attic trying to come into the home.  Even if you AC unit keeps your home cool with a hot attic it will run longer and cost you more money in you electric bill.  Plus without proper ventilation you might even create a mold or mildew problem which is very dangerous and costly to have removed.  Having a under roof ventilation system installed also referred to as a Above Sheathing Ventilation (ASV) will help keep you home pleasant while keeping your attic temperatures down.  Not every ASV is the same; we use the most efficient one made called Therma Vent.

It also controls humidity and heat by releasing, reflecting and stopping all three ways heat is transfer keeping you cooler and saving you money.  You should also be aware of taking good care of your metal roof to ensure you everything is working properly. Yes, a metal roof is the longest lasting roof materials but there are few things you can do to keep those roofs of yours in perfect shape. Damaged roof such as leaks will primarily affect your ventilation system.

• Constantly, monitor trees and bushes against your metal roof. Trees which are always moving as the wind blows can damage your roof. It is highly advisable to trim your trees from time to time especially when storm season arise.

• Maintain the quality of your metal roof by cleaning and minimize debris such as dry leaves and branches. These objects might damage the gutter system of your roof which leads to leaks. Carefully use a hose or probably blowers with high MPH.

• Always clean your gutter most especially during the fall season. Accumulation of dry leaves and other debris can potentially damage your roofing system. The problem could cause corrosion on a roof, clog and damage the drainage system.

Alpha Rain Incorporated

You don’t have to worry too much about your metal roofing if you’ve found the right metal roofing Virginia contractors. Alpha Rain incorporated metal roofing.  We provide quality and have been installing only metal roofsfor over 15 years, check us out at metal roofing contractors of Virginia.While we at the Alpha Rain Incorporated always ensure that you can count on them.Our dedicated team will ensure that you’ll have a quality metal roof installed for decades and generation to enjoy.

Get Outstanding Ventilation System in Virginia

A proper ventilation system on residential homes and commercial offices is often the single most important factor you need to consider pertaining to a roofing system and attic. A metal roofing that has a good ventilation system along with properly installed material will be able to maintenance its durability and effectiveness over a long period of time. It will provide longer services and comforts you and your family at home with the idea that you will not have to replace your roof for the next 100 years. When it comes with commercial offices, it allows the area to become very conducive for work with a clean look and appearance for years to come.

Metal roofing is designed within buildings which are exposed to natural elements such as strong winds, blizzards, hail and sunlight. It works best with a suitable natural ventilation system in order to control the temperature under the roof and in the attic and living space.  However, most homeowners and commercial building proprietors still neglects this aspect and are not aware of how important a proper ventilation system is for roofs and attics alike.

What Constitutes a Good Ventilation System?

The principle of any ventilation system structure is the balance of the air that comes in and air that flows out. A proper ventilation system must consisted of proper air intake in order to make sure that the air is accurately ventilated under the roof and allowed to flow freely as the roof heats up and hot air naturally rises.

The ventilation system’s opening allows the external air to come in to keep the outside air temperature the same as the base of the attic. The other ventilation system’s opening at the ridge of the roof and attic will serve as the conduit to allow for the hotter air to escape as it naturally rises. This cycle of heat exchange regulates the temperature making your investment in roofing cost effective and there is even a ROI when you take into account the savings on electricity and prolonging you AC units as well.

When selecting a ventilation system, there are a few that work properly and based on budget you can choose from basis all the way to up the platinum ventilation system.  It is good to have a knowledgeable ventilation expert help inspect your attic and roofing system to be able to suggest the best possible ventilation options available.

Metal Roofing VA

We Alpha Rain Incorporated, makers of high quality metal roofing and ventilation systems, serving in most parts of Virginia, have developed a patented under roof ventilation system. This patented ventilation system is installed with verified test and proven results on real homes.

Unarguably, for the past several decades, most ventilation systems involved a great amount of money with little real results. But, with our state-of-the-art ventilation system using eco-friendly techniques powered by thermal energy, your attic’s air temperature will never be the same. We tested our innovative approach with 96 degrees outside air, and an extremely hot 149 degrees in the attic room. Once we installed our Therma Vent system we then waited for another day that was 96 degrees outside, and then tested the temperature inside the attic and it shrink down from 149 to 96.5 degrees.

Why us?

We Alpha Rain Incorporated are the most prestigious metal roofing company in VA and has been in the roofing and ventilation system for over 15 years solely installing metal roofing, and offering a 35 years of warranty concerning the paint on your metal roof.  An average house with our new metal roof will last over a hundred years.  A huge problem is ventilation since most of the older homes were designed with standing seam metal roof but back then they did not think about ventilation, we have solved this problem for old home and new alike with our panted under roof ventilation system called “Therma Vent”. We will provide you with many references about your metal roofing and ventilation system. We look forward for the opportunity to meet you concerning about your metal roofing needs.

We are AlphaRain.com @ (540) 222-1642. We didn’t know the true answer so we conducted an experiment. We recently installed a roof ventilation system that had soffit vents but not a lot of ridge vent. There was about 25% of the total ridge that was vented and then there were two gable vents at either end of the main gabled roof.

We took the attic air temperature on a sunny 88-degree day at 2 PM. In the middle of the attic at the peak, it was 150 degrees. At either end close to the gable vents at the peak, it was 129 degrees.

We then installed the roof in such a way that as air escaped through the full length vented ridge vent cooler air was drawn in through our unique vented eave vent.

Here are the results:

Date: Saturday 9/6/14

Time                                      Outside Temp                                   Attic Temp

12 noon                                                86                                           100

1 PM                                                      89                                           105

2 PM                                                      90                                           114

3 PM                                                      90                                           114

4 PM                                                      86                                           112

5 PM                                                      83                                           104

As you can see by only ventilating the attic properly we reduced the attic air temperature by 36 degrees.

Keep in mind the standing seam metal roof  was not a light colored standing seam metal roof but an Antique Black color.

Watch this video to see how to reduce it to 103 degrees with the Roof Ventilation System.

 

 

For more information please visit our website, AlphaRain.Com or call us @ 540-222-1642 for pricing information

 

On April 18th 2014 we installed a new metal roof in Leesburg Virginia.  This is the live video we shot from the job site.  Please give us a call at (540) 222-1642 to learn more about our amazing energy efficient metal roofs.  We have complete many metal roofing projects in Leesburg and we’ll soon be uploading some new videos from those projects. Click here to watch the video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hiuJfFXsaI or watch below:

Our first attempt at installing a roof ventilation system worked great but was very expensive and labor intensive. As you can see this prototype started with a bubble foil bubble insulator and then a cumbersome wooden counter batten system Even though it really cooled the interior of this historic renovation on this converted barn it was labor intensive and expensive.

In our next post we will share with you our next step in the development of our roof ventilation system.

For more information please visit us at AlphaRain.com or call us at 540-222-1642.