Imagine two brand-new houses standing side by side in the same neighborhood. Same size. Same layout. Same blazing California sun overhead. The only real difference between them is the roof: one is topped with dark asphalt shingles, the other with light-colored reflective tile. Now imagine keeping track of all the changes in temperature and all the electrical power that these houses consumed throughout the entire year. That was roughly the case in Fresno, where the findings showed how much your roof can affect comfort and power bills. The study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, ‘Measured temperature reductions and energy savings from a cool tile roof on a central California home,’ found that the home with the reflective tile roof used much less cooling power compared to the other house, although both houses were exposed to the same weather conditions.
A real experiment, not just a computer model
