The HOTTEST Roof Might Surprise You - Metal Roof vs. Asphalt Shingles

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[TheOneWhoMightBe]

An alternative to these 'high performance' roofing materials is what we here in Oz call a 'Queensland roof' or 'tropical roof' (which i'm sure is not unique to Australia, that's just what I know them as ). It's simply a sheet of normal metal roofing material (CustomOrb or whatever), then a spacer, then another sheet. This creates an air gap so ambient temp air can flow between the sheets and carry away the higher-than-ambient air from the underside of the top sheet before it radiates onto the lower sheet.

[jasonlovell]

I have painted both metal and shingle roofs white and it cuts the heat transfer dramatically. Unfortunately the white paint tends to grow stuff like the bark on an oak tree. Overall the best is metal that was painted white at the factory.

[tonyphelps]

Add insulation between the roofing material and the deck for a retest. Also radiant barrier decking. It’s all about heat transfer into the structure.

[Adesico]

Matt, since everyone is complaining about the heat, and how hot their houses are, give us an update on how well your home is performing. Bonus points for sharing your electric usage

[MagaRickn]

Interesting video! Our situation was a 10/12 pitch roof, asphalt shingle getting older, no leaks but some hail damage. No one wanted to climb up and reroof for us. So we had a steel roof installed, on top of the asphalt shingles, no tear off expense, and amazing results inside the attic and on our electric bills. Been up there for over 10 years, no problems! Lots of layers! Metal, asphalt, felt, and decking. Gable vents, and power vents.

[glasslinger]

A side note on white Henry Roof Coating. I did the same test using the Henry high solids white roof coating onto old black shingles. The result was over 30 degrees cooler roof temperature! The bad news is now 20 years later the coating is almost black from condensed dirt. It is VERY difficult to get this dirt off. Pressure washing is most effective but a lot of work on a 45 degree slant roof! (the roof coating is still solid and intact!)

[wolfpacva]

should have also done white asphalt shingles to compare to silver roof

[KurtisSaiyo]

You should be using thermocouples. Infrared can be tricky with different surfaces, especially emissivity. (Adding that the Flir and the IR gun essentially use the same technology).

[paulstaf]

I am VERY impressed that you took into account the IR thermometer's emissivity issues and compensated for it. Great video!

[literalsweatequity]

Grate Content, Matt.
You can make the metal roofing even more efficient by adding an air gap between the metal and the decking (vented over roof). When I had mine installed the attic was barely warmer than the ambient outside temperature. And that was before insulation. I like the way you approach the "show me" aspect :)

[wallacegrommet]

Asphalt shingles have an immense thermal mass. Which is why you can be uncomfortable all night as they reradiate heat from the day down into your house through the night.

[RobR]

Would have loved to see the cooling effect of solar panels on these. The air gap between the roof and panel would help with cooling.

[arnoldadams]

The shiny metal surface has low emissivity in both visible and infrared so doesn't absorb sunlight well and doesn't re-emit thermal infrared well. The black metal has intermediate emissivity in visible and good emissivity in infrared so absorbs some but not all sunlight energy and re-emits thermal infrared energy well so has similar temperature as shiny metal. The asphalt has high emissivity in both visible and infrared so absorbs the most energy but only re-emits about the same as the black metal. The best solution is paint that is white (non-absorbing) in visible sunlight and black (good emitter) in infrared. Almost all visibly white paints are good reflectors and most are pretty black in the infrared so are good emitters and so would be cooler than your samples. There are recently developed white paints that are very reflective in visible and excellent emitters (very black) in the infrared so on clear days (radiation to/from sky is better on clear days) they will be BELOW ambient temperature!

[TinyGiraffes]

As a gutter cleaner, can confirm. Asphalt is really hot even in the morning. Metal roofs cannot be walked on when wet though. Don't get a steel tiled roof. They have an asphalt texture. The tiles get bent and we can't walk on the roof to clean the gutter. We need to use a ladder the whole way around and it will cost you a lot because it will take us much longer.

[LemonySnicket-EUC]

I installed cheap 3 tab asphalt shingles on my house in 1988. They lasted until 2016. I'm on the south plains of West Texas where the weather is brutal and large hail is very common. I don't play the roofing insurance game like everyone does around here. It's a racket. I installed Malarkey's best shingle and canceled my insurance on my roof to save quite a bit.

[Saranac]

Covered my barn and ranch house with white metal roofs...changed my AC performance drastically...1st time the AC quit running during the hot weather...house even cooled down..amazing.

[TheAmericanGarage]

I have a corrugated roof from 1955, and I recently coated it with white elastromeric roof coating, but I added a ceramic microsphere heat shielding additive. I would like to see some comparisons with that kind of technology. My building is much cooler now-

[LFTRnow]

How about (clay) tile roofs? Also, there is white/light-grey shingle as well which might be interesting to compare.

[dunep]

A real world test would be taking the temperature of the attic in your own home with the ambient temperature outside to compare. So many variables but I believe you're right about the Kynar coatings on metal roofing. The one real world problem is cost compared to shingles. I know if you take the longevity of the metal roof against asphalt metal wins. But people want that immediate savings that shingles give you. I've put a lot of each kind on in my day and I really can't see why metal is so expensive these days. Especially when you have companies roll forming metal roofing right at the jobsite. I guess I'm just getting old... 😂

[kelly]

Black metal roof was just installed in our custom build house about a month ago & love, love it. Now that it’s very hot but inside is still normal temp not hot. Besides the temp of metal roof it looks more elegant 😀