I must admit that I was charmed by the cool roofing revolution when it first began. Here was a way of improving roofing systems that would prompt owners to replace their roofs a little ahead of schedule in hopes of saving on their energy bills. Then there was news about the urban heat island effect, and later our nation’s energy secretary famously declared that white roofs are good. The roof was becoming the darling of the building envelope. How nice was that?
And who can’t agree that white is cooler than black? As a kid growing up in the South, I knew you could usually walk barefoot on a concrete sidewalk in the middle of a sunny day, but you could not walk on an asphalt-paved street without taking home blisters. I also knew walking barefoot was best done on the grass, but that is another roofing system analogy — just talking black and white membranes here.