If every building had an energy-efficient roof, we would be able to cool the surrounding areas and reduce heating and cooling costs inside the building. That is the reasoning behind a California law requiring light reflective roofs on all new buildings.
It is already the law for new flat roofs here, and information is available on rating coolroofing here.
Here, architect Richard Meier and his partner Michael Palladino have apparently created a design to go one further. It’s entirely white; roofs, walls, and interiors.
So this luxury design of a cool and airy Southern California beach house is glamorous and climate friendly.
Well, no.
The McMansion-sized size of the thing at 4,280-sq.-ft is not so planet friendly; because it takes more energy to heat and cool a larger space. But this house would be well suited for a ground heat exchange to passively heat and cool itself with 55 degree air cooled from 10 feet under the ground.
As architects in California get closer to 2020, they will need to think more about passive cooling and heating and zero energy houses, because by 2020 – every new building must be zero energy by then.
Incorporate solar roofing on the white roof, and this could be a zero energy house.
