I was a bit surprised to find that roofing was the topic of this Sunday’s “Doonesbury” comic strip. In it, Mike Doonesbury is chatting with his friend Bernie about “cool roof” initiatives.

I was a bit surprised to find that roofing was the topic of this Sunday’s “Doonesbury” comic strip. In it, Mike Doonesbury is chatting with his friend Bernie about “cool roof” initiatives. He states, “Okay, so there are all these ‘cool roof’ initiatives to paint black asphalt roofs white so they won’t absorb so much heat in the summer. The problem is that the lower air conditioning costs are offset by increased heating bills in winter.”

“So here’s my question,” he continues. “How hard could it be to develop a roof coating that changes color with the seasons?”

Now, while some experts might argue that Doonesbury framed the problem poorly, you have to admit that his solution is intriguing. Hopefully roof coating manufacturers were reading the funny papers on Sunday and are hard at work today.

Looks like Bernie is …

www.doonesbury.com/strip/archive/2011/08/07