• Journal title: Universal Journal of Environmental Research and Technology
• ISSN: 2249 0256 (online)
• Publisher: Euresian Publications
• Country of publisher: india
• Date added to EuroPub: 2017/May/21

• LCC Subject Category: Environmental Sciences
• Publisher's keywords: Energy conservation, radiation, roof surface solar energy, surface coating
• Language of fulltext: english
• Full-text formats available: PDF

Shruti Poonia, A.S.Jethoo and M.P.Poonia

• Peer review
• Editorial Board
• Aims and scope
• Instructions for authors
• Time From Submission to Publication: 10

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Hot and dry climatic regions are known by very high solar radiation levels, high ambient temperatures and relatively low specific humidity. The roof surface of the building is always exposed to Sun directly for the longest duration in hot and dry regions to the intense perpendicular solar heat radiations. Solar radiation is a significant mode of heat transfer through the building roof. Solar radiation heat the roof which in turn reradiates the heat onto the ceiling and finally on to the room occupants. Most of the roofs in the world are of dark colour. In summer, the surface of a black roof can increase in temperature as much as 65 to 90 ˚ C. At higher roof temperatures the deterioration of roofing materials starts and leads to increased roof maintenance costs, and high levels of roofing waste directed to landfills. The best way to reduce this is with the help of radiant barriers such as light coloured metallic or non metallic surfaces which have high solar reflectance and a high emittance to redirect the radiations back to the environment. Due to this, the heat transfer from the roof surface to the ceiling will become negligible. By blocking the solar radiations, the building conditioning is largely mitigated because heating and cooling usually use largest portion of energy in buildings. Low temperature roofs benefit the environment and public health by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by conserving energy for air conditioning; therefore less CO2 is emitted from power plant. In the present paper various approaches to redirect the solar radiations by using different roof coating materials from the roof, their relative benefits in terms of energy and cost savings has been discussed at length.