HeidiAllen.com

In December 2005, an article in New Scientist postulated that a US conversion of residential and commercial buildings to white roofs could offset global warming. The offset, it said, would be temporary, since the model used assumed that the same amount of particulates and greenhouse gases would continue to be released into the atmosphere. However, since white roofs reduce energy use, emissions are also reduced.

Unfortunately, most people don’t like white roofs, and many assume they’d be counterproductive in colder climates. A 2004 article in Building Operating Management covered the latter topic (sans the global warming angle) and concluded that the advantagtes of cool roofs still outweight the disadvantages, even in northern states.

As for the “white roofs are ugly” problem, that too has been solved. To increase Cool Roof adoption by consumers, and to meet California’s strict building codes, many companies have engineered other “cool” colors. I’ve listed these from best performance on down. Be aware that companies like BASF have traded a high “best” reflectance rating for the ability to provide a wider range of roof colors:

Davlin Coatings
(white, custom colors)
Best reflectance (R value): 0.88. Best emittance (E value): 0.90.

Henry
(white, gray, silver)
Best reflectance: 0.87. Best emittance: 0.88.

Certainteed
(white, gray, tan, green, terra cotta)
Best reflectance: 0.86. Best emittance: 0.91.

KM Coatings
(white, gray, tan)
Best reflectance: 0.86. Best emittance: 0.91.

Lapolla Coatings
(white, gray, tan)
Best reflectance: 0.86. Best emittance: 0.90.

Ponderosa Paint
(white, gray, tan)
Best reflectance: 0.86. Best emittance: 0.88.

Johns Manville
(white, gray, sandstone and custom colors)
Best reflectance: 0.86. Best emittance: 0.86.

Weatherstar Coatings
(white, standard & custom colors)
Best reflectance: 0.85. Best emittance: 0.89.

Everest Coatings
(brown, terracotta, tan, green, gray, white, red, ivory)
Best reflectance: 0.83. Best emittance: 0.90.

BASF Ultra Cool
BASF Superl SP II ULTRA-Cool
(36 different colors, including black!)
Best reflectance: 0.74. Best emittance: 0.84.

The best overall performance in any roof coating available at this time is National Coatings A-590 High Reflectance White, which has a reflectance of 0.92 and an emittance of 0.87.

UPDATE: I went on to write a much more comprehensive tutorial on this topic in ‘Cool Roofs: What, Why, How & How Much?’.

Tomorrow morning, voting for the general election begins. I’ve been blockwalking and handing out voter and candidate information for the past week. I’ve spent the last couple of days in very poor Hispanic neighborhoods, all of which are in the biggest Democratic stronghold in my county.

Yesterday, a man saw me approaching and shouted, “Keep on walkin’!”. I explained that I was just handing out voting information for Democratic races. “Ok.”, he said. “I guess I’ll take some of that.” After I handed him a flyer, he said, “I ain’t talkin’ to NO MORE Republicans!!!”. I wasn’t sure what he meant, so I just laughed and said, “I don’t blame you!”.

Today, I walked up to a man sitting on his porch and realized too late that he had a shotgun across his lap with his finger on the trigger. He took the flyer I was holding out and saw the word “Democrat”. Then he let go of the trigger. In a mixture of Spanish and English, he asked me about the info on the flyer. In my terrible Spanish, I explained things as best I could and he thanked me.

Then he said something in Spanish about a dog. Since I clearly didn’t understand, he said in halting English, “Big dog. Careful. Slow.” I turned around to find a massive rottweiler calmly regarding me as it apparently waited for a command. I thanked the man and left the yard in the most non-threatening manner I could manage, wondering to myself why this man felt the need to be so over-protected.

We saw many yard signs for a local Republican candidate, Rudy Galindo. At first, we didn’t go to those houses, but then we discovered that the residents didn’t know Galindo was a Republican. The signs were there because “a man” had asked if he could put a sign in their yard, and some people agreed out of politeness.

At another home, an elderly woman cowered behind her screen door while she asked me what I wanted. Again, I explained that I was handing out voting info for the Democratic party. She let out a sigh of relief, smiled and opened her door. After I went over everything with her, she asked meekly, “Can I ask you about some things?”. “Sure!”, I answered.

She asked if she’d have to use an electronic voting machine. If so, she didn’t want to vote. She’d been told that the machines were confusing and that she’d probably make a mistake. A friend had said that mistakes couldn’t be corrected. I explained that they could, and how.

Then she said that she couldn’t vote anyway. She explained that “Republicans” had told her friend that voters had to have a special plastic card to vote, and that all she had was her voter’s registration. I told her that she had everything she needed, and what other forms of ID to use, if necessary.

I have no problem with Republican volunteers covering the same ground that I have. That’s their right. But there seemed to be a lot of fear and misinformation out there, and if it was spread intentionally, that’s just plain wrong.

UPDATE: Rudy Galindo was running against Democrat Diana Guerrero for the District’s Justice of the Peace (JP) judgeship. On election day, Galindo’s brother (Randy?) went to the polls where the race was on the ballot and verbally harassed the volunteers holding Guerrero signs. Despite this, Guerrero held onto her seat.

In addition, a Democratic Court of Appeals candidate won her race by the percentage of straight ticket voters that we were able to turn out in the neighborhoods I blockwalked. I feel particularly good about this, because it’s concrete evidence that my individual efforts paid off. One person can make a difference!