Product Rating Programs
ENERGY STAR®
ENERGY STAR® is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help businesses and consumers save money by making energy-efficient product choices. For low slope roof applications, a roof product qualifying for the ENERGY STAR label under its Roof Products Program must have an initial solar reflectivity of at least 0.65, and weathered reflectance of at least 0.50, in accordance with EPA testing procedures. Emissivity is not currently a requirement for ENERGY STAR qualification. But EPA posts initial emissivity values for all products on the ENERGY STAR Qualified Products List to assist consumers in their purchasing decision. Longer term, EPA plans to revisit the possibility of adding an emissivity component to the ENERGY STAR specification. Warranties for reflective roof products must be equal in all material respects to warranties offered by for comparable non-reflective roof products, either by a given company or relative to industry standards. For a qualified product list, go to: www.energystar.gov.
Also check out ENERGY STAR’s newly upgraded Portfolio Manager tool. This tool currently is in use by more than 40,000 individual accounts to measure, track, assess, and report on the energy and water performance of more than 250,000 commercial buildings.
COOL ROOF RATING COUNCIL (CRRC)
CRRC is the sponsor of a third-party testing and uniform rating program that provides credible reflectance and emissivity data on roof surfaces (including roofing membranes) for building code bodies, energy service providers, architects and specifiers, property owners and community planners. Its rating program provides manufacturers and sellers with the opportunity to label roofing products according to measured initial and aged radiative properties. These properties are determined and verified through testing by both CRRC accredited laboratories and a process of random testing. The Cool Roof Rating Council’s program does not specify minimum or goal values for any radiative property. A directory of all rated products is at: www.coolroofs.org. Click here for the Cool Roof Rating Council’s CEU on cool roofs. [637 KB PDF]
