From Harford County government:
On Tuesday September 7, 2010 at 11 a.m., Harford County Executive David R. Craig and Superintendent of Harford County Public Schools Dr.Robert M. Tomback will participate in a ribbon cutting ceremony to highlight the new energy efficient roof on the Ring Factory Elementary School. The new energy efficiency roof replacement supports County Executive Craig’s environmental initiatives to help provide a sustainable future for Harford County residents.
In addition, the new energy efficient roof is not only an Energy Star rated roof but is a ‘cool roof’. ‘Cool Roofs’ are roofs that reflect solar radiation, reduce the heat conducting into buildings and directly reduce air-conditioning use. According to the Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC), an independent nonprofit which publishes reflectivity and emissivity values for roofing products, cool roofs directly reduce green house gas emissions by conserving electricity which in turn reduces CO2 emissions from electricity generating power plants.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Star website advices that solar reflectance is the most important characteristic of a roof product in terms of yielding the highest energy savings during warmer months. The higher the solar reflective value the more efficient the product is in reflecting sunlight and heat away from the building and reducing roof temperature.
The Ring Factory Elementary School roofing project replaced a lesser energy efficient fiberglass asphalt shingled roof with a fully adhered 60 mil PVC roof with decorative PVC extrusions to emulate standing seamed ribs and snow guards. The new energy efficient roof has a Solar Reflective Index (SRI), the roofs ability to reject solar heat, of approximately 104 out of 100. Materials with the highest SRI values, such as those in the new Ring Factory Elementary School roof, are the ‘coolest’ choices for roofing.
The new energy efficient roof was funded jointly by the Harford County Government and the Board of Education. The Harford County Board of Education received $500,000 through Harford County Government’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) for the Ring Factory Elementary School roof repair. Harford County, Maryland was awarded $2,189,400 dollars through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.
But what’s the real gain, environmentally, and in terms of sustainability, if it’s made out of PVC? Also, this doesn’t address runoff.