Somewhere across the vast stretches of the Nevada desert are hundreds of small concrete boxes, each about the size of a garden shed. Sitting about 12 miles apart, these buildings ensure that AT&T’s fiber-optic communications remain powerful as they travel across the country. During summer 2000, the engineers wanted to find out whether something as simple as paint color could help them reduce energy costs. According to the study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Heat Island Group, researchers tracked three of these "regen" buildings through a Nevada summer and watched what happened before and after their roofs were painted white.
Why a roof's colour matters more than you'd think
