The roof of my tiny studio is a gigantic black rubber solar thermal absorber. EPDM is great stuff, but it’s literally too hot to touch when the sun’s out (which, here, is 361* days a year). Fine for winter, but we’re heading into the warm months and I figured it was time to address the issue.
I’m a very savvy mechanical engineer with a specialty in HVAC design and twelve years in the sustainable building industry so you know I’m going to do something highly sophisticated and clever involving spreadsheets and Fourier transforms. Behold!
Squinting due to the brilliance of my successful design. No, literally!
I built a 2x4 fence and dumped very white gravel on the roof. (Total cost about $120). Bam.
Here’s a video:
*That’s probably not actually true. But 361 days/yr of full sun feels truthic.