Painted white roof drops house temps 8-10 degrees

[Mobile Master Tech]

Back on this forum after a long absence! The Certainteed Landmark shingles in Silver Birch color have held up well. A minor issue: they seem to lose more granules over time than others I have seen. I just had a whopper of a storm damage the roof, so they may be re-replaced by insurance. So far it looks like I will go with the same thing again, as there don't seem to be any new entrants with greater than 0.25 initial solar reflectance (ISR) to qualify as Energy Star rated that also avoid a significant cost premium. If I find some that do, I'll post.

One interesting find for those who want or must have a black roof: Certainteed now makes Landmark Solaris and Pro Solaris in Moire Black, Satin Black, and Max Def Black with a 0.19 ISR, according the the Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC, coolroofs.org). While not great, that's amazing for a black roof! CRRC has the ISR of most roof choices listed, and many non-white asphalt shingle colors now have an ISR of 0.20 or greater. That's not good enough for Energy Star certification, but significantly higher than the 0.03-0.08 that most shingles used to have.

I didn't keep track of exact energy savings and also made some other changes around the same time, but I would estimate my roof saved 30% on peak summer electricity usage without losing much winter heat gain (there's far less winter heat to gain than there is summer heat to reject). Even though the roof is supposed to be algae resistant, significant amounts of algae darkening have increased my summer electicity usage. I'll see if it goes back down again if the roof is replaced or cleaned.