5 WAYS TO STAY COOL IN YOUR STEEL BUILDING THIS SUMMER
Are you planning to construct a metal building but are concerned about mitigating summertime temperatures? Perhaps you live, work or hobby in an older, existing metal building and already notice the interior temperatures are rising now that summer is here. In either case, there are plenty of things you can do to keep your steel building cool during the summer months.
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5 TIPS FOR KEEPING YOUR STEEL & METAL BUILDING COOL THIS SUMMER
From color and materials selection to accessories and landscaping, we’ve highlighted a handful of things you can do – both during the design phase and afterwards – to keep your metal building cool this summer. In addition to improving interior comfort for occupants, regulating interior temperatures will reduce peak season cooling expenditures and will also improve the building’s interior air quality.
- Add a cool metal roof. Traditional roofing materials can heat up as high at 190° F on a hot summer day. Whew! Even with a heap of high-quality insulation in the attic and exterior walls (more on that later), a good portion of that heat is bound to transfer from the roof, to adjacent building materials and right into your building. Once inside, solar heat gain will cause your HVAC system to work overtime to keep temperatures at the desired thermostat settings. You can eliminate the bulk of this heat gain by installing a cool metal roof. These roofs are light in color and have reflective coatings that send a large percentage of the sun’s UV rays back into the atmosphere and out of your home.
In fact, this same solar heat gain is responsible for a thing called the “heat island effect” in city and urban areas, whereby heat absorbed by roofs, concrete and asphalt surfaces elevates the surrounding exterior temperatures. The more cool metal roofs there are, the less your city or urbanscape will suffer from the heat island effect.
- Upgrade your insulation. If you live in an old building, upgrading your insulation will help to bring your building up to current energy efficiency codes in your area. If you’re designing a new building, make sure your insulation meets the minimum suggested R-Value for your geographic location. Adequate insulation keeps heat from traveling from the outside to the inside during the summer months, and will prevent heated air from transferring outside during the winter months.
The majority of heat gain/loss occurs through the attic so make attic insulation a priority. Check with local energy companies and municipalities. In an effort to encourage energy-efficiency, these entities often provide incentives in the form of rebates or affordable financing to make these changes feasible for the average homeowner.
- Harness the benefits of ventilation. Adequate ventilation is another way to keep temperatures in your attic and living spaces to a minimum, and insulation and roof ventilation go hand in hand. At the simplest level, you can use natural ventilation at night (use a programmable thermostat that will keep your A/C from cycling on when windows are open) and then close the windows during the day to keep the cool air in. This can drastically reduce the amount of time your cooling system operates. Use ventilation in your attic space to vent hot air back outside. From heat-activated models to solar powered units, there are plenty of energy-efficient ventilation systems to choose from.
- Add awnings, overhangs and metal canopies. If you are designing a building, we recommend researching the tenets of a passive solar home design, which gives you more total control over solar heat gain. However, even if primary conditions like lot and building orientation are not flexible for you, adding awnings, overhangs or a metal canopy will yield a noticeable difference. By extending your roof or adding awnings to west- and south-facing exposures, you will drastically reduce the amount of sun that transfers from exterior walls and windows to the interior of your home.
- Use landscaping to your benefit. Similarly, you can plant trees and shrubs that will shade western and southern exposed walls and windows, cooling your home’s surfaces considerably. Ideally, especially if your location experiences colder temperatures in the winter months, you should plant deciduous trees and shrubs that will drop their leaves and allow you to benefit from the sun’s rays on cold days. Make sure to mulch the soil around the plant beds that lie adjacent to your home. In addition to conserving water, a healthy layer of mulch keeps the exposed ground cooler, preventing the ground from absorbing heat and radiating it back through your structural components.