The goal is to cool 1 million square feet of rooftop in 2010 as part of Bloomberg’s pledge to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The citywide program is a partnership among public and private organizations, non-profit groups and individual property owners.

Con Edison has agreed to replace 156,000 square feet of traditional dark roofing on its buildings across the City with white roofing membranes; it will also coat the 25,000-square-foot roof of its Third Avenue Yard facility in Brooklyn, partner with NYC Service to coat the rooftop of a YMCA building in the City and offer incentives to homeowners who participate in the NYC °Cool Roofs program. Other rooftops scheduled to be coated this week include a Brooklyn building owned by the Mutual Housing Association of New York, an affordable housing developer and manager, and the Bronx headquarters of The Bridge, a mental health, housing and rehabilitation agency.

A cool roof absorbs 80 percent less heat than traditional dark colored roofs and can lower roof temperatures by up to 60 degrees and indoor temperatures by 10 to 20 degrees on hot days. The decrease in temperature reduces the need for air conditioning, lowering electric bills and reducing energy consumption. Coating all eligible dark rooftops in New York City could result in up to a 1 degree reduction of the ambient air temperature – a significant and lasting change towards cooling the City.

The decrease in energy usage from cool roofs also will help reduce the likelihood of blackouts and brownouts, as the strain on the power grid during times of peak demand will be lessened. Financial savings after converting to a cool roof will vary from building to building, but a self-applied cool roof coating (no labor costs) typically pays for itself after three years through energy savings. A cool roof can reduce air conditioning costs by 50 percent in a one story building, 25 percent in a two story building, and by 10 percent in a five story building. Further, cool roofs can extend the life of a roof by five to ten years by reducing the stress caused by extreme heat.The NYC °Cool Roofs Program will be monitored by Columbia University’s Center for Climate Systems Research, which will report on the energy and cost savings generated by cool roofs on participating buildings.

Contacts - Tony Sclafani/Ryan FitzGibbon (DOB) - (212) 566-3473,
Marc LaVorgna (Mayor’s Office/Service) - (212) 788-2958
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/news/pr_cool_roof_launch.shtml
http://www.nyc.gov/html/coolroofs/html/home/home.shtml