Reflecting the Horizon: Hot Takes on Cool Roofs at Embry-Riddle
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
In Person or Zoom Presentation
In-Person
Campus
Daytona Beach
Status
Student
Student Year and Major
Sophomore, Aerospace Engineering
Presentation Description/Abstract
For decades, Florida has answered the issue of excessive heat with air conditioning, now powered mostly by natural gas: 75% of the state’s electricity in 2022, up from 31% in 2002 (EIA). Where air conditioning is rare, heat is deadly: an Imperial College and LSHTM study linked about 24,400 deaths in 854 European cities to summer 2025 heat. Radiative cooling may offer a way out, and in 2014 researchers made it work in full sun. I compare cool-roof paint, radiative-cooling paint, and rooftop solar on three low-rise Embry-Riddle roofs, using Facilities’ FY2026 chiller-plant data, Florida Solar Energy Center field savings of 19-25%, and one year of campus rates and EPA grid data. Since two roofs are already white, the paints only help the gray ICI Center. There, cool-roof paint saves $2,900 and 10 tonnes of CO2 a year and repays its paint in four years. Radiative paint saves up to twice as much but costs 22 times more, wearing out decades before it pays off. Solar could supply about 3% of campus electricity for $2.2 million. Humidity, dirt, glare, and hurricanes limit all three. Embry-Riddle’s best move is a white coating at ICI’s next recoat, with solar as budgets allow. As prices fall, radiative paint could still ease heat for people without air conditioning. Sustainable horizons may just be the ones we reflect the sun’s heat back into.
Keywords
radiative cooling, passive cooling, cool roofs, energy efficiency, Florida, campus sustainability
Reflecting the Horizon: Hot Takes on Cool Roofs at Embry-Riddle
For decades, Florida has answered the issue of excessive heat with air conditioning, now powered mostly by natural gas: 75% of the state’s electricity in 2022, up from 31% in 2002 (EIA). Where air conditioning is rare, heat is deadly: an Imperial College and LSHTM study linked about 24,400 deaths in 854 European cities to summer 2025 heat. Radiative cooling may offer a way out, and in 2014 researchers made it work in full sun. I compare cool-roof paint, radiative-cooling paint, and rooftop solar on three low-rise Embry-Riddle roofs, using Facilities’ FY2026 chiller-plant data, Florida Solar Energy Center field savings of 19-25%, and one year of campus rates and EPA grid data. Since two roofs are already white, the paints only help the gray ICI Center. There, cool-roof paint saves $2,900 and 10 tonnes of CO2 a year and repays its paint in four years. Radiative paint saves up to twice as much but costs 22 times more, wearing out decades before it pays off. Solar could supply about 3% of campus electricity for $2.2 million. Humidity, dirt, glare, and hurricanes limit all three. Embry-Riddle’s best move is a white coating at ICI’s next recoat, with solar as budgets allow. As prices fall, radiative paint could still ease heat for people without air conditioning. Sustainable horizons may just be the ones we reflect the sun’s heat back into.