When you're choosing a new roofing material, you have more to think about than just covering your home with a roof you like the look of. You should also think about insulation and energy efficiency.
A good roof insulates your home and reduces your energy costs. This is very important if you live in a region with long hot summers as you may spend a lot of time and money trying to keep your home cool.
While you may not immediately think that metal is a good option here as it holds heat, a metal roof could save you money on summer utility bills. How?
How Metal Roofs Handle Summer Heat
While untreated metals, like steel, can get too hot to handle in the sun, treated metal roofs handle heat better. These roofs typically have special coatings that change the way the metal reacts to sunlight.
For example, instead of getting hot and allowing heat to seep into your home, a treated metal roof absorbs less sunlight and therefore gets less hot. These roofs are designed to deflect more heat than untreated metals. Plus, metal roofs cool quickly at the end of the day.
Roofs that deflect rather than absorb heat and that don't hold residual warmth at night don't carry as much heat into your home. If your roof stays cooler, so does your house. This minimises the amount of time you need to run air conditioning in the summer and cuts your power costs.
Tip: To make a roof even cooler, choose a light colour rather than a dark one. Light colours improve heat deflection.
How Insulation Makes Things Cooler
Metal roofs are also commonly installed with insulation such as reflective foils or insulation blankets. Depending on the materials used, this insulation is placed between roof sheets or under the roof. As well as keeping your home warmer in winter, this insulation works with the metal roof to reduce heat transfer in summer by giving you an extra layer of heat deflection.
You can choose from various types and designs of metal roofs, and it can be confusing to know which one is best for your home. To learn more, ask local metal roofing contractors for advice. Roofers can look at your home and assess the best way to get a good-looking roof that has the right thermal properties to keep you cool in even the hottest summer.