Walk out to 100 degrees wearing a black shirt, and you will feel very ironic than if you were wearing white. Now think about your roof: if darkness too, it absorbs more sun energy and encourages that heat inside. If its color is lighter, it would be as if your home was wearing a giant white shirt all the time.
This is the idea behind the “cold ceiling”. Last month, Atlanta joined an increasing number of American cities These new surfaces require Be more refined. This greatly reduces temperatures not only in the building, but in the surrounding urban environment. “I really wanted to be able to deal with climate change in Atlanta with a variety of tactics,” said Liliana Bakhtari, a member of the city council, who has composed the draft law, because I am much easier to change the local climate. “
because Cities Placing their construction codes, they can organize surfaces regardless of the Trump administration whims, which are Traded Climate policies. Experts say cold surfaces are a simple, relatively cheap and effective way to save people from the intense heat. Daniel J. Metzger, an older colleague at the Sabine Center at Sabine College at Colombia College of Law: “I would like to say that the reflective materials have turned the roofs of the houses from a problem into power.” “Cold surfaces give homeowners the ability to improve health results and air quality while saving money on their energy bills.”
Other cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, have also approved cold roof decrees, but they often cover flat surfaces only, as you see them in a commercial building. Atlanta decree covers all the surfaces, although it is supposed to become only the new terrible – no one is forced to tear it if it is not time to replace it. So it will take some time until every ceiling changes in the city, but Atlanta grows rapidly with a new building. “It will be a kind of gradual and continuous response, but perfectly, a permanent response to the increasing temperatures,” said Brian Stone, Director of the Georgia Urban Climate Laboratory Technology. “This causes Atlanta to one of the most aspirations.”
The Smart Surfaces Alliance – a non -profit institution that works with cities to age cold roof decrees – estimates that the new construction code in Atlanta will cool the city in general by 2.4 degrees Fahrenheit during peak summer temperatures, with 6.3 degrees in the hottest city neighborhoods. It is also calculated that over 35 years, the decree will lead to 310 million dollars in energy savings, due to the having to operate the air conditioners less. “It is a high -cost way to make the city more healthier, more competitive, reduce energy bills, and job protection,” said Greg Katz, founder and CEO of Smart Surfaces.
The cold ceiling is a negative technique that continues to work on its own. For the flat ceiling of the commercial building, you will do a simple layer of white paint. Manufacturers also A wonderful special ceiling roof That reflects more sunlight. Whatever the strategy, the cold surfaces are not more expensive to install from that traditional, and can be cheaper. It also extends the life of the ceiling because there is less woes than the material that expands in the temperature, then contracting when it cools.
Like any other city, Atlanta is struggling with the effect of the urban island of heat: with the summer on the summer, the environment built for asphalt, brick and concrete absorbs more sunflower. This raises temperatures, perhaps 20 degrees Fahrenheit, above the surrounding countryside, as there is more water steam to launch the vegetation to cool the air. At night, this stored heat slowly starts from the city, while maintaining high temperatures abnormally in the morning.
The Island URBAN Island effect becomes particularly bad in low -income neighborhoods, as there is usually a lower tree cover than the wealthiest areas. “These people get triple beating,” said Mark Conway, a member of the council who sponsored the Timur. Cold roof decree. “Not only more hot in those areas of the city, but then, they do not have trees and shade to help them, and they cannot pay for the frequency current.”
The effect of the urban heat island becomes very dangerous during the heat waves that extend for several days, because human bodies cannot obtain a break from high temperatures unabated. It builds stress and builds, especially those who suffer from asthma and heart conditions, as the body tries to pump more blood to cool itself. Infants and the elderly are also at greater risk because their bodies do not cool efficiently like others. Accordingly, it kills the intense heat Weak number of people in the United States Every year as hurricanes and hurricanes combined.
While getting more air conditioners in more houses will help save lives with an increase in more hot, they are not a treatment. For anyone, the units use a lot of energy, and the residents of Atlanta are already dealt with Some of the highest energy burdens in the countryThis means that a large percentage of their income goes to electrical bills. Two, air conditioners increase from urban heat in fact: they work by extracting heat from inner air and pumping them outside – and for this reason you feel a hot air explosion if you walk next to one of them. And if the network falls because many people run AC and other devices simultaneously, then everyone is now in a much greater danger. “When the house loses power, if its only intervention in staying is cold is air conditioning, it is very likely that people will decline inside this house,” said Grace Wixon, Senior Director of Climate and Health at the Union of American Scholars, and he is not profit.
At the same time, American cities complete cold surfaces with more trees – for example, Cleveland set a goal in getting all their residents within a 10 minutes on foot from a green area by 2045. Trees provide shade and also the release of cooling water vapor, such as rural vegetation. Gardens and gardens also absorb rain water, prevent floods. “There is just a long set of good causes of planting the largest possible number of trees, and cold surfaces do not fall from that,” Metzger said. “They work together to cool the city in general.”
