A recently announced procedural amendment to the Energy Star program for roof products, which became effective June 5, 2003, allows aged solar reflectance of roofing products to be measured for program qualification through exposure of test panels on weathering farms. This is an option to the requirement of using roofing assemblies on actual structures in metropolitan areas.

“This will be a boon to the metal roofing industry at large since it will speed the introduction of Energy Star-qualified products into the marketplace,” says Jim Robinson, vice chairman of the Cool Metal Roofing Coalition. “The practice of using actual roofing as a weathering performance test bed has been rather daunting to the metal roofing industry because of the logistical difficulty and expense. Weathering farms are a practical and yet responsible way to go since they comply with established quality control procedures and receive accreditation from professional independent standards organizations.”