Does a new roof keep your house cooler in Raleigh?
The summer months in North Carolina can be quite brutal during July and August. Many people around this time of year are looking for as many things that they can do to reduce their cooling costs. It will be a surprise to you that yes a new roof can in fact keep your home a little bit cooler. Getting a new roof on the home however keeps your home cooler in ways you would not have thought. Cold air can leak out of many locations of a home such as the windows, doors, attic and other small cracks that lead to the outside. Most of the time however cold air doesn't leave the home through the attic, hot air can easily get into the home from the attic thus making the AC unit have to work harder. If you have a very old roof then the heat from the sun can easily work its way through the shingles and into the attic. A new roof however will be a brand new barrier between the attic and mother nature. This means that a new roof will indeed help keep some hot air from entering the attic space.
While a new roof will help block some of the heat, there are most important aspects that will affect the cooling of the home more directly. Attic ventilation and insulation will affect the temperature of the home more so than a roof will. If your attic only has a minimal amount of insulation then the heat will pass right through it and into the home. If your attic is not constructed properly, hot air can get trapped inside the small space and begin to leak through the vents and into the home making it hotter. Replacing old and worn insulation in your attic will make a much larger difference in keeping you home cool during the summer months. New roofing materials will aid however in keeping the home cool when it can reach more than 100 degrees.
The most common type of roofing material used in North Carolina is asphalt shingles. These shingles tend to reflect a small percentage of the heat (about 30%) and absorb much of it. This means that the shingles absorb quite a large percentage of the heat from the sun. This may not be a bad thing however as the seasons change. During the summer months your roof will be hotter but in the winter months it will also help keep the home warm from the sun. These savings in heating bills often offset the costs during the summer. We recommend installing asphalt shingles (there are a variety of colors) that fit your home's style while also providing the absorption necessary to keep the homes temperature correct.
In hotter climates such as Arizona and California there are certain kinds of roping materials which are designed to reflect the heat over the year. These climates stay hot year round and thus do not need to absorb any heat from the sun. A new roof that is made of material such as metal will in fact keep your home cooler during the summer months, however metal roofing tends to be much more expensive and has both pros and cons compared to asphalt shingles. We advise to do some research on the pros and cons of metal roofing to see if it would be a good tradeoff to help keep the home slightly cooler in the summer. If you need a new roof installed be sure to give our roofing company in Raleigh a call today!
While a new roof will help block some of the heat, there are most important aspects that will affect the cooling of the home more directly. Attic ventilation and insulation will affect the temperature of the home more so than a roof will. If your attic only has a minimal amount of insulation then the heat will pass right through it and into the home. If your attic is not constructed properly, hot air can get trapped inside the small space and begin to leak through the vents and into the home making it hotter. Replacing old and worn insulation in your attic will make a much larger difference in keeping you home cool during the summer months. New roofing materials will aid however in keeping the home cool when it can reach more than 100 degrees.
The most common type of roofing material used in North Carolina is asphalt shingles. These shingles tend to reflect a small percentage of the heat (about 30%) and absorb much of it. This means that the shingles absorb quite a large percentage of the heat from the sun. This may not be a bad thing however as the seasons change. During the summer months your roof will be hotter but in the winter months it will also help keep the home warm from the sun. These savings in heating bills often offset the costs during the summer. We recommend installing asphalt shingles (there are a variety of colors) that fit your home's style while also providing the absorption necessary to keep the homes temperature correct.
In hotter climates such as Arizona and California there are certain kinds of roping materials which are designed to reflect the heat over the year. These climates stay hot year round and thus do not need to absorb any heat from the sun. A new roof that is made of material such as metal will in fact keep your home cooler during the summer months, however metal roofing tends to be much more expensive and has both pros and cons compared to asphalt shingles. We advise to do some research on the pros and cons of metal roofing to see if it would be a good tradeoff to help keep the home slightly cooler in the summer. If you need a new roof installed be sure to give our roofing company in Raleigh a call today!