Mitigating the Urban Heat Island Effect by Utilizing Cool Roofing

Overview

Tests were run using a small model house with corresponding removable model roofs. This research project has had two phases thus far; Phase 1 focusing the difference in energy consumption for different types of roofs, and Phase 2 focusing on the difference in water runoff between different roofs. In Phase 1, two trials were conducted using four different roofs; Trial 1 focused on comparing the energy usage of a steep sloped black shingled roof with a steep sloped gray shingled roof, Trial 2 set focused on comparing the energy using of a low sloped green roof and a low sloped black shingle roof. The low slope black shingle roof acted as a control to the green roof, so the difference in energy usage and water runoff can be properly compared. Temperature probes were placed inside and outside of the model to record various temperature. Results from the Trial 1 showed that on average, the gray shingle roof consumed .22 kWh to cool the model house, while the black shingle roof required .27 kWh, resulting in an 18.51% reduction in energy usage. Results from Trial 2 showed that on average, the green roof required .20 kWh to cool the model house, while the low-sloped black shingle roof required .23 kWh, resulting in a 13.04% reduction in energy usage. For Phase 2 of the experiment, a gutter system was set up for both the green and control black roof. A set amount of water was poured on each roof, and the amount of water runoff was recorded. The control black roof yielded an average water runoff of 19.050 L, and the green roof yielded an average water runoff of 8.670 L, resulting in a 51.45% reduction in water runoff. Using a 2 Sample T-Test with an alpha level of .01, the P>.001, thus the null hypothesis for this phase was rejected. Following Phase 2, a third trial of research was done for Phase 1, comparing the energy consumption between a green roof and a control black shingle roof to heat a scale model building during the winter. A second identical scale model house was constructed in order to run tests more accurately and efficiently. The tests for Trial 3 were run in the exact same manner as the first two trials in Phase 1, the only difference being the addition of the identical scale model house. The results of Trial 3 show that the energy consumption of the control black shingled roof was consistently lower than that of the green roof, the black shingled roof had an average energy consumption of .34 kWh. The green roof, on average, consumed.42 kWh. On average, the control black shingle roof required 19.05% less energy than the green roof to heat the scale model building. Phase 3 of this research focused on the difference on energy consumption between a control black shingle roof and a roof with a solar panel on top, as well as the amount of energy produced by the solar panel. The solar panel consistently produced approximately 11V for all three tests. The black shingled roof consumed .29 kWh on average, and the solar panel roof consumed.24 kWh on average. On average, the solar panel roof required 17.24% less energy than the black shingled roof to cool the scale model building.

Competition history

• AJAS 2018 Category not listed

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