This article was originally published in the May/June 1994 issue
of Home Energy Magazine. Some formatting inconsistencies may be
evident in older archive content. | Home Energy Home Page | Back
Issues of Home Energy | Home Energy Magazine Online May/June
1994 Every House Has a Roof One of the feature articles in this
issue describes the air conditioning savings that can be
obtained by simply changing the color of a home's roof (see
Saving Energy with Reflective Roof Coatings, p.15). To be sure,
the savings from this measure appear to be greatest in Florida
and other southern states, but the results shouldn't be ignored
elsewhere. Reducing cooling-energy use is a challenge because
the heat comes via so many different paths. Unlike space
heating, where most of the heat loss is caused by a difference
in temperatures, the heat gains to be removed by the air
conditioner are spread among several paths, all of which can be
significant: outside temperature, solar gains, humidity, and
internal heat gains. An air condi