How Metal Roofing Can Lower Your Clients’ Energy Costs

Contrary to common belief, metal roofs are extraordinary energy savers. Though they are often perceived to penetrate extreme summer heat and barely contain warmth in the winter, the reality is the opposite: Metal is among the best materials for energy savings in a building, aside from its enormous durability.

Today, you can not only offer sophisticated energy saving metal roofs to your clients, but you can also make them look great. Using BECK’s SCRAIL® RoofLoc® Metal Roofing System and a few other handy tools, it's possible to install a robust and energy-efficient metal roof that lasts for decades. Let's get down to the details that you can also convince your clients with.

How Are Metal Roofs Energy Efficient?

Though it might be difficult for some customers to believe, metal roofs are among the most energy efficient roofing options. They beat asphalt shingles and provide both superb insulation and wonderful solar light reflection during warm months. Because of these two factors, they're capable of providing up to 50% more energy savings than most alternatives throughout the year.

In terms of their heat handling, metal roofs are designed to strongly reflect sunlight away. Their capacity for doing this is large enough that as much as 90% of solar radiation is bounced back into the atmosphere instead of being absorbed. As a result, they can reduce indoor temperature by 25 or more degrees compared to alternatives during warm sunny months of the year.

In winter months, metal roofs do indeed leak any heat that touches them from inside the home, but this can easily be prevented through the use of proper interior and attic insulation.

Are Metal Roofs Eco-friendly?

The very fact that metal roofs improve heat reflection and cooling in a home or building during warmer months of the year causes them to create energy savings. This happens in the form of lower AC and HVAC use. That by itself is a tremendous energy cost savings. Aside from AC savings, however, metal roofs also create a low green footprint in a couple of other ways.

The first of these is caused by the high recyclability of metal. Most modern metal roofing materials are themselves made of between 30 and 60% recycled metal, and the ones you install can later be recycled for other uses if the homeowner decides to replace them.

Secondly, because metal roofing material is so durable and resistant to the elements, it can last for much longer than asphalt shingle roofing tiles or wood. This means less spending on repair costs and less use of newly bought replacement materials. Asphalt tiles by contrast slowly deteriorate and curl away with constant solar exposure, requiring their replacement much sooner.

What About the Durability of Metal Roofs?

As we mentioned earlier, metal—and especially the aluminum used in most metal roofing designs—is extremely weather resistant. It doesn't rot, rust or molder away and it's completely impervious to the otherwise warping, destructive effects of solar radiation.

This allows metal roofs to last for between 50 and 70 years. In the case of copper roofing material, lifespan can be as long as a century. Asphalt, by contrast, barely lasts 30 years under ideal conditions and more commonly needs to be replaced within 20 to 30 years. Wood shingle roofs last even fewer years.

Modern metal roofing installation systems are more sophisticated than ever, using composite materials, durable fastening systems and clips to keep them firmly in place for many decades. On a related note, while being durable, metal roofing options can also look great. Forget the notion of simple aluminum sheeting; modern metal roofing options come in all sorts of design forms and colors for a level of aesthetic appeal that's highly elegant and versatile.

What About Cost?

The costs of metal roof installation and materials is notably higher than that of asphalt or many kinds of wood roofs, but the up-front cost is firmly offset by long-term savings. Because these roofs last so long and can endure decades of minimal maintenance and nearly zero material replacement needs, they're extremely cheap to maintain.

The Bottom Line

Installing metal roofing materials also tends to require special tools and know-how in some cases. However, it can be easily learned and the process of placing these roofing materials can proceed smoothly from there. With powerful roofing installation equipment, like BECK’s SCRAIL® RoofLoc® Metal Roofing System, you can have even a large metal sheet roofing project firmly completed with impressive speed.