'Smart roofs' can keep you cool and save energy

From New Scientist - Latest Headlines:

If you feel bad about cranking up the air conditioning in summer, there's a remedy on the way to reduce the temperature and boost your green credentials at the same time. Engineers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have developed a system which can be installed in your roof and attic to soak up the sun's heat during the day and then release it back into the sky at night - keeping houses cooler. "This could reduce the cooling bill for houses by up to 8 per cent," says Bill Miller, a member of a team testing roof and attic energy-saving systems at Oak Ridge. "We're able to intercept 90 per cent of the heat energy that would otherwise penetrate into the living space through the attic floor," he says. In tests, the system reduced attic temperatures on sunny afternoons by more than 5 °C.

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