Energy Efficient Roof System

There are three ways heat can be transferred.

• Direct heat transfer occurs when the heat source is in direct contact with the object. Example: think of a tea kettle boiling due to contact with the flame.
• Convective heat is transferred when the air is heated and is in contact with the object. Example: think of a turkey in an oven.
• Radiant heat is transferred when a radiant wave is directed at an object. Example: think of popcorn in a microwave.

Our new roof ventilation system uses a thermal break to slow down direct heat transfer, like an ice chest keeps the cold in and the hot out.

We use air ventilation under the roof to actually vent the hot air. As the air heats up under the roof surface the hot air will rise and vent out of our vented ridge cap. As the hot air exits it will draw in cooler air from the eave. We have a venting eave system built into our roof system.

We top off our venting system with the highest quality Radiant barrier available.  This highly sophisticated system works automatically using the basic laws of physics. As long as a thermal break can stop heat transfer and as long as hot air rises and as long as a radiant barrier reflects the sun’s rays then this system will work automatically.

Depending on your current insulation you should see between 10% to 25% savings in your cooling cost during the summer months. We installed this type of system in a house in Little Washington, Virginia.  However, we only vented under the roof, we did not install the thermal break or the radiant barrier. The house had a problem with poor attic ventilation on the top floor and was difficult to get it below 95 degrees in the summer.

Once we installed only the venting under the roof we were able to reduce the temperature to 75 degrees. In the south where the summers are longer and hotter some houses achieve as much as a 50% reduction in cooling costs. We think in Virginia where we have a more moderate climate we will achieve around a 10% to 25% reduction.

We don’t think there will be any significant energy savings in the winter. The whole goal of this system is to bring the attic air temperature to the same level as the outside air temperature, if this is achieved then you are only cooling your house from 100 degrees to 70 in the summer, instead of from 140 degrees to 70, therefore, in the winter you are heating from around 30 degrees to 70.

Yes, one of the reasons we want to adequately ventilate our attics in winter months is to remove the moist humid air that builds up in your attic during the winter. This system will work no matter what season and will keep unhealthy mold and mildew from occurring in your attic.

No, we have found in the Energy Efficient Roof Systems we have already installed that the noise is not noticeable. On a house that we installed this system over an asphalt roof the customer reported that he could not hear the rain at all and later reported that he was able to barely hear the rain, but it was during an inch an hour rain.

He also reported that he has never heard the Standing Seam metal roof make any type of noise during temperature changes. In normal metal roof installations noise is normal due to expansion and contraction of the metal roof. For there not to be any noise during temperature changes it means that the energy efficient roof system is working by venting the roof and allowing the roof temperature to be the same temperature as the outside air thus reducing expansion and contraction.