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SunGuard: A Roofing Tile for Natural Cooling--PowerLight Corporation, 2954 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94710; 510-540-0550
Mr. Thomas L. Dinwoodie, Principal Investigator
Mr. Thomas L. Dinwoodie, Business Official
DOE Grant No. DE-FG03-99ER82862
Amount: $100,000
Maintaining a cool roof deck can significantly reduce air conditioning costs in cooling-dominated climates while reducing humidity build-up and other moisture problems within the home. A preferred method of cooling roof decks is by natural convection, which should have wide market acceptance for residential applications. This project will develop novel residential roofing technology that accomplishes significant roof deck temperature reduction through strictly passive means. The technology integrates cooling load avoidance and humidity removal to reduce building cooling loads. Phase I will optimize product construction and validate product performance under full-scale system testing. A system prototype will be constructed for in situ testing at the Florida Solar Energy Center's Flexible Roof Facility.
Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The passive cooling technology targets residential roofing for roof slopes of 2:12 and higher, representing 77% of the residential roofing market. Assuming 5% market penetration, the U.S. would save over 35 million barrels of oil per year, with annual environmental reductions of 18.6 million tons of CO2, 80 kilotons of NOx and 178 kilotons of SOx.