Green Roofs with High Vegetation are 60 Percent More Efficient Than Normal Roofs

There's something to be said for green roofs. Scientists have found that green roofs with high vegetation density are actually 60 percent more efficient than non-green roofs.

Green roof technology has been around for a while, and interest in them has grown over the past 20 years. They have environmental benefits for both buildings and cities. Although green roof technology is considered to be a mature technology and a competitive solution, though, its use has not yet been extended in most countries due to lack of incentive regulation.

In this latest study, the researchers focused on three specific aspects of green roofs: assessing the impact of vegetation density on energy efficiency, developing a simplified numerical model that can estimate thermal resistance values equivalent to plants and substrates, and verifying the numerical model by using experimental data.

The researchers found that when vegetation density is high, the incoming heat into the building through the roof is 60 percent lower than the incoming heat without vegetation. The researchers also found that a roof with a high density vegetation works as a passive cooling system. In fact, the energy released form the building through the roof during the summer is a 9 percent of the incoming energy during the same period.

The findings reveal that green roofs could be huge in terms of reducing environmental impacts. Because they're more efficient as a passive cooling system than other roofs, they could also help reduce costs for residents. In addition, the new model that the researchers created could be used to study the energy saving produced by green roofs.

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