Browse Forums Eco Living 1 Feb 05, 2011 1:29 pm I have a question about roof tile colour I'm hoping someone in this forum can help me with. I've done a search for previous threads, but nothing came up. I'm wondering if the colour of the roof tiles makes a difference to their effectiveness in keeping a house cool? Eg, would a lighter coloured roof tile reflect more heat and therefore not allow as much heat into the house? And would a darker tile attract more heat and therefore make the house hotter on a sunny day? Re: Roof tile colour and heat transfer 2Feb 05, 2011 2:33 pm Hi.. Yup it will make a difference. Black is a combination of all colours (or most i think) and will absorb more heat as compared to other light coloured roof tiles. Lighter coloured roof tiles will reflect more light as compared to darker coloured tiles. I think its safe to say that if you want to keep your home cooler in summer its better to use light coloured roof tiles but then there is always AC/fan/evaporative cooling...... 26/2 - Sales 23/3 - Colours 31/3 - Tender 14/4 - Contract 7/5 - Taps 12/6 - Site start 15/6 - Slab 27/6 - Frame 1/8 - Lockup/Fixing 29/9 - PCI 25/10 - Handover Re: Roof tile colour and heat transfer 3Feb 05, 2011 4:15 pm Thanks for the reply SavantAmeya Our new home will have ducted evap cooling and ceiling fans. Do you think the colour of the tiles makes enough difference to warrant choosing a light coloured tile even though I think they look ugly? I much prefer the look of the darker tiles, but don't want to end up with a house that is difficult to keep cool! Re: Roof tile colour and heat transfer 4Feb 05, 2011 5:19 pm The Basix assessment done in NSW takes into account your roof tile colour (and bricks). Light coloured tiles are graded one level lower than moderate or dark tiles which achieve the highest score. I have know idea what that means though........... You can achieve a lower rating still if you go with a light coloured (surfmist) colourbond. Building an Eden Brae Saville 27 http://karry327.blogspot.com/ Building thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=44247 Re: Roof tile colour and heat transfer 5Feb 05, 2011 5:32 pm Friends of ours have built 2 homes, one with dark tiles and one with surfmist colorbond. They have always said the black tiled house was hotter in summer, hands down. Depends where you live in Aust. on whether it makes a real difference though...... Building with Life$tyle Homes in Perth SOR Key Dates on First Page of my Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=38761 Re: Roof tile colour and heat transfer 6Feb 05, 2011 6:52 pm Pinchy Thanks for the reply SavantAmeya Our new home will have ducted evap cooling and ceiling fans. Do you think the colour of the tiles makes enough difference to warrant choosing a light coloured tile even though I think they look ugly? I much prefer the look of the darker tiles, but don't want to end up with a house that is difficult to keep cool! Our is the same case too (evap cooling and ceiling fans) and we still gone ahead with darker shade tiles (they look good with any brick). It depends on on what shade you would select with your bricks. Not all light shades will look bad if you select the correct brick. There are plenty of pictures on this forum with lighter roof tiles or just google it. They look good too. 26/2 - Sales 23/3 - Colours 31/3 - Tender 14/4 - Contract 7/5 - Taps 12/6 - Site start 15/6 - Slab 27/6 - Frame 1/8 - Lockup/Fixing 29/9 - PCI 25/10 - Handover Re: Roof tile colour and heat transfer 10Feb 10, 2011 2:17 pm Melbourne's heat is fierce at times. In any case good insulation and weather sealing will make a darker roof have no effect in winter. A big house with a dark roof is horrid though, next door has a modern black roof and he cooks in there. His aircon comes on at midday, mine comes on for an hour after 4pm. I have terracotta tiles (red) so the heat gain is similar. I have sarking now and 3.5 batts. I also have shaded northerly walls and high ceilings. He has a standard pine roof with no insulation and no sarking. He is using 6kwh a day in warm weather, I am using around 2kwh. In winter similar numbers are the norm. His roof leaks heat whereas mine has insulation bulk then a draught barrier in the sarking. My windows, though old wooden sash are better sealed than his aluminum frames. He has down lights and I have 3 inches of decorative plaster. I can see the lights through his roof tiles. Each downlight is like a drain in the shower only in reverse. 1 kwh = 22 cents. Re: Roof tile colour and heat transfer 11Feb 20, 2011 12:35 pm It's not only the question of inside of the house. Dark (heat absorbing) colours on the roof and paving raise the ambient temperature in the vicinity of the building by significant amount, up to 10% or more. So the official 38C becomes 42. That heat gets in through windows, walls and doors. My father rode a camel, I drive a car, my son flies in a jetliner, his son will ride a camel.Saudi saying Re: Roof tile colour and heat transfer 12Feb 21, 2011 1:51 pm And it takes hours if not all night to cool down. I lived in a 3 story cream brick crap box in North Melbourne for 4 years. Every summer there we died trying to sleep. The heat radiating from the surrounding buildings created a blanket of heat that did not go away for days sometimes. We now live 8kl away from that and its easy to sleep here. I have insulated the roof, placed in sarking and covered the walls with greenery. The temp in here remains 3c cooler than outside on a hot day and only rises in the late afternoon. It cools down quickly but if all surrounding houses did the same the temps would decrease more. I will be putting a green roof on the garage and rendering the walls with a cement / blown polystyrene mix as an experiment. The results should be interesting. Re: Roof tile colour and heat transfer 13Feb 23, 2011 7:33 am Thank you all for the replies, the information you have all given me is very interesting. I will be considering all of it before making a decision regarding roof tiles. Our builder, Carlisle Homes, has confirmed that they install insulation batts in all external walls and the roof as standard, but I have not yet found out what 'R' rating the batts are, which will make a difference. Re: Roof tile colour and heat transfer 14Jan 23, 2012 11:25 am Hi Pinchy We were about to ask Carlisle the same question about what 'R' rating their batts are. Have you got an answer yet? Cheers Re: Roof tile colour and heat transfer 15Feb 15, 2012 2:54 pm Hi I am building at the moment too, and it really depends on where you are living. We were trying to get the highest energy rating we could, so were prepared to go a light roof, but living in victoria we rated better with a dark one. Hubby and I decided to compromise and go one of the 'medium' shades. Re: Roof tile colour and heat transfer 16Feb 17, 2012 5:29 pm If you go onto the Colorbond site, they have a section where they give a thermal grading on all their colours. Even if you are having tiles rather than colorbond, it should give you an idea on colours & their relative heat transfer. "Whoever says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain!" Re: Roof tile colour and heat transfer 17Feb 29, 2012 7:05 am Tile colour definitely has an effect! If you have ever noticed that in the warm mediterranean countries, particularly in their islands like Sicily or Santorini, the houses are typically white brick. The white acts to repel sunlight, which helps keep the homes themselves a bit cooler in the crisp summer months. The same is true, of course, here in Aus... Lighter tiles = cooler, darker tiles = warmer. There may be answers here but can't find anything. I have a closed in veranda, four windows. North facing, just had sunblock blinds installed. A bit cooler (actually… 0 2965 Looking for advice on whether this variation in tile colour is acceptable. The large tile on the left was used in my main bathroom renovation 1 year ago. My ensuite… 0 8392 Thank you so much. We ended going with the terrain that’s part of our brick. 2 2470 |