The dog days of summer are here, and with it, high heat and unrelenting sunshine. Walking around every day, you can feel the difference in the heat of the pavement, especially blacktop roads.
This same principle applies to your commercial property’s roof. Depending on which commercial roofing system your commercial roofing contractor installed, your commercial property’s roof could be hitting temperatures up to 200° F! Do you know how hot your commercial building’s roof is getting?
But which roofing types get hotter and what kind of effect can this have on your property? Let’s take a look:
Which Commercial Roofing Systems Get the Hottest?
Much like blacktop roads, blacktop commercial roofing types such as black EDPM Roofing Systems tend to reach the highest temperatures because they absorb most of the heat the on bears down on it. Without any reflective properties, little to none of the heat these commercial roofing systems absorb is released, causing the temperatures they reach to climb rapidly as the day goes on. The same cannot be said about their counterparts, however. White EPDM Roofing Systems are far more reflective and thusly average temperatures 30-50 degrees cooler.
We’ve all mistakenly touched a piece of metal that has been out in the sun for too long and have paid the price. That is because metal is one of the best heat conductors in the world and heat up accordingly. When this principle is applied to a Metal Roofing System that absorbs all the sunlight hitting your commercial property throughout the day, it results in a roof that can average temperatures up to 170° F.
One Commercial Roofing System that handles the heat particularly well are green roofing systems, more specifically living roofs. The glory of these roofing systems is that they are where nature meets industry, allowing the vegetation to enact photosynthesis on your roof. This allows the vegetation to absorb and then release the heat while also converting CO2 into oxygen. This keeps your property’s roof at manageable temperatures, while also making it a generally pleasant place to be.
How Does This Effect the Interior of Your Commercial Property?
If you’re not a commercial roofing contractor, then there is a good chance you don’t have to be on an extremely hot roof during the summer. That being said, depending on how much heat your commercial roofing system is absorbing, being inside doesn’t necessarily completely get you away from the summer sun’s wrath. Unfortunately, the more heat your commercial roofing system absorbs, the more heat it radiates inside. The age of your commercial roof and the quality of its insulation will ultimately determine the severity of this. A commercial roofing system heading towards the end of its lifecycle will see its interior temperature shift drastically throughout the day, sometimes increasing the interior temperature 10-15 degrees. This in turn requires your HVAC to work even harder to keep your property’s temperature regulated, which uses more energy and dramatically increases your bills accordingly.
It gets hot during summer and thusly things in direct sunlight get hotter, this, of course, is unavoidable. As far as commercial roofing systems are concerned, different commercial roofing types will react to this heat differently. Blacktop roofs and metal roofing systems absorb and retain a great deal of heat throughout the day causing their temperatures to spike, where whitetop roofs and living roofs are designed to reflect this heat causing significantly lower temperatures. While these more reflective roofing types work great during the summer, there is also the winter to keep in mind where this heat may come in handy. To determine what is best for your commercial property, it is best to contact your commercial roofing contractor who can make a recommendation based on a number of factors that affect your building.
Not sure which commercial roofing type is best to weather the seasons for your commercial property? Contact us today to speak to our highly trained commercial project managers!