Dan Garodnick: Going Green by Going White

 The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com από τον/την συγγραφέα Dan Garodnick στις 21/9/2010

In the increasingly urgent fight against climate change, simple solutions can have the most immediate impact. As a growing number of New Yorkers are finding out, one of the simplest -- and most effective -- is white roofs.
Just by coating black tar roofs across the city with a white, solar-reflective coating, we can immediately reduce temperatures inside and out -- making white roofs a quick and easy way to cut carbon emissions and reduce our risk of 'brown-outs' while saving millions in energy costs.
The concept is basic: dark colors absorb heat and light colors reflect it. The reflective properties of a white roof substantially lower the amount of heat absorbed by a building, keeping it about 10 degrees cooler inside and reducing summer energy use by 10 to 15 percent. (In the winter, when we want our buildings naturally warmer, black tar roofs have a negligible effect.)

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