White Roofs Albedo

Installing white roofs or painting them white has been promoted as a way to help slow global warming.

White roofs albedo.

White roofs and albedo email page print bookmark. White roofs change surface albedo and affect energy demand. Surface albedo is defined as the ratio of radiosity to the. A worldwide conversion to white roofs accounting for their albedo effect only was calculated to cool population weighted temperatures by 0 02 k but to warm the earth overall by 0 07 k.

The most well known type of reflective surface is the cool roof. Solar panels cool daytime temperatures in a way similar to increasing albedo via white roofs according to a study by scientists at the university of new south wales. By jann swanson on monday while discussing dark roofing materials we mentioned albedo a word we are sure the majority of non scientists have. New research shows that white roofs may actually add to global warming.

Albedo æ l ˈ b iː d oʊ latin. White roof local cooling may also affect energy use thus emissions a factor not accounted for here. Albedo meaning whiteness is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0 corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation to 1 corresponding to a body that reflects all incident radiation.