A Study of Energy Saving Cool Roof Retrofit

Through Integrated Energy Plus Modelling:

Cool Roof Validation to Philippine Green Building Code

A Proposed Graduate Thesis

Presented to the

Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

University of San Carlos – Talamban Campus

In Partial Fulfilment of the

Requirements For the Degree of

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering

By:

Philip Rockyboy B. Fuentes

Dr. Michael E. Loretero

Adviser
 CHAPTER 1 – THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

1.1 Introduction
Rapid urbanization in the Philippines has given rise to many challenges as increasing

infrastructure developments contribute to reduced open spaces and increased energy consumption.

According to Department of Energy (DOE), the Philippines has a total electricity consumption

(include sales, utility use, and system loss) of about 99,764.718 MWh in 2018. This is much greater

than the electricity consumption way back 2003 that has 52,940.537 MWh which indeed, has a

trend of variably increasing electricity consumption every year. [1] Both the public and private

construction sectors are responding by reshaping the cityscape and designing building structures

that are as environmentally responsive as they are beautiful and compact. Now, buildings should

not only be sturdy and spacious, they should also be efficient in energy consumption and adaptive

to the changing environment. [2]

Roofs play an important role as to the heats transfer from outside to inside buildings and

residentials as far as energy consumption is concern especially on buildings and houses with air-

conditioning system. The direct sunlight will be easily absorbed by roofs that could results to faster

heat transfer and thus, increasing energy consumption that as well results to higher costs.

To address this need, roof-retrofits by cool roofs and green roofs could hypothetically

lessen the energy consumption of the buildings and houses. According to DOE, A cool roof is one

that has been designed to reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat than a standard roof. [3] Cool

roofs can be made of a highly reflective type of paint, a sheet covering, or highly reflective tiles or

shingles. On the other hand, A green roof forms a buffer zone between the roof and the sun’s

radiation and shades the roof, preventing its surface from heating up and increasing outdoor and

indoor air temperatures. Thus, this technology directly benefits both air temperatures and air

quality and reduces the amount of energy needed for air conditioning. [4]
 CHAPTER 2 – REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Retrofitting Housing with Lightweight Green Roof Technology in Sydney, Australia,

and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil by Sarah Wilkinson and Renato Feitosa.

The built environment contributes around half of total greenhouse gas emissions and with

87% of residential buildings that we will have by 2050 already built, it is vital to adopt sustainable

retrofitting practices. The question is: what are the viable solutions? One answer may be green

roof retrofitting. The environmental benefits include reduced operational carbon emissions,

reduced urban heat island effect, increased bio-diversity, housing temperature attenuation and

reduced stormwater run-off. The economic benefits are the reduced maintenance costs and lower

running costs. The social gain is the creation of spaces where people have access to green areas.

However, the barriers to retrofitting include the perceptions of structural adequacy, the risk of

water damage, high installation and maintenance costs, as well as access and security issues.

Both experimental setups in Rio de Janeiro and Sydney have demonstrated the potential

for lightweight, portable green roof modules to be retrofitted on metal sheet roofing as a means of

cooling buildings, reducing carbon emissions and contributing towards zero carbon targets.

However, the exploratory experiments carried out in Sydney presented a potentially better green

roof performance in temperature attenuation, which may be attributed to the closer positioning of

the data loggers in relation to the roof. There are different typologies regarding green roof

technologies. At different scales, from extensive to intensive systems, it is expected that different

soil depths, substrate composition, water retention layers, types of plants, soil moisture content,

etc., have a particular role in heat transmission, thermal inertia and evapotranspiration. The low

cost, modular, portable, lightweight green roof adopted here comprises an extensive system, where

all the components are gathered in a single module. The only difference between the experimental
systems explored here and the conventional ones is that there is no full contact between the

modules and the underlying roof, which provides some air circulation (and some extra insulating

effect). However, considering that there is partial contact between the modules and the roof, it was,

in fact, observed that there was some effect on inertia and the time shift when the inner

temperatures of the bare and green roofs are compared. Similar results from experiments where

modular systems were employed show the same trend observed in the present exploratory study.

[5]

2.2 The Philippine Green Building Code (Referral Code of National Building Code P.D.
1096)
According to the GB Code, Section 10.3 (BUILDING ENVELOPE COLOR) that light-

colored building envelope, especially the roof areas which are the most vulnerable, can reduce heat

transfer from the outside to the inside of the building by having surfaces with high Solar

Reflectance Index (SRI).

METAL SURFACE SRI

Reflective white 86 to 92
Basic white 80 to 88
Beige / Tan 74 to 80
Dark brown 0 to 33
Light to medium brown 45 to 56

However, Section 10.4 (ROOF INSULATION) Insulation can help reduce heat gain in a

building thus improving thermal comfort, acoustic quality and reducing the load on the air

conditioning system. Buildings shall be provided with roof insulation so that the average thermal

resistance value (R-Value) of the roof is at least R-8. [6]

2.3 Retrofitting of Academic Building by Energy Efficient Techniques by Brijesh Kumar

Shivare and Dr. Mukesh Pandey

According to this research paper, a building or office which includes unique construction

methods for maximizing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use resources like

energy water and materials while minimizing energy waste, ensuring human health, safety and

comfort throughout the building lifecycle without requiring special materials or construction skills.

It is partially or completely covered with vegetation or soil or both, helps retaining rain

water, reduce heating effect both inside and surroundings, increase the lifespan of a roof, increase

green space, improve aesthetic environment, adsorb traffic and other common outdoor noises and

provide inhabitant for airborne species. It effectively lowers the energy about 30% or more

required for cooling the home which is major contribution in energy saving by slight modification

using highly reflective type of paint, a sheet covering or highly reflective white glazed tiles or

shingles.

Retrofitting and slight modification in an existing or a new structure by energy efficient

techniques can boost the use of natural resources and ultimately making it eco-friendly and energy

saving throughout the life cycle.

Future work can be done for similar other energy efficient techniques for cooling, heating,

ventilating, air conditioner and insulation the buildings to develop more other energy efficient

systems to prove cost effectiveness of these techniques in comparison to conventional methods, so

that adoptability of energy efficient system in building can be increased to made them acceptable

for public, thereby goal of energy saving can be achieved. [7]

 CHAPTER 4 – METHODOLOGY

4.1 Flow of the study

This study involves modelling and validation through actual experiments of Rooftop-

Retrofit (Cool Roof vs. Green Roof). Modelling Studies will be done using Energy Plus

Application for this study. The flow chart of the study is shown in Figure 4.1

Design Conceptualization

Formulation of the Mathematical Model

Installation and Data Gathering

Rooftop Retrofit

Experimentation and Data gathering

Data Comparative Analysis

Conclusions and Recommendations

Figure 1. 1 Flowchart of the study

References:
[1] Department of Energy, 2018 Power Statistics.

[2] Rusworth J., Green Roof and Water Management in Government Office Building.

[3] Department of Energy, Definition of Cool Roof.

[4] Federal Energy Management Program, Definition of Green Roof.

[5] Feitosa R. and Wilkinson S., Retrofitting with Lightweight Green Roof Technology in Sydney,

Australia and Rio de Janeiro, January 2015

[6] Philippine Green Building Code, June 2015.

[7] Pandey M. and Shivare B., Retrofitting of Academic Building by Energy Efficient Techniques,

October 2017.