The world is getting hotter, right?

Lucky for us, scientists, engineers, and chemists are working to find ways to keep our homes cooler in the years to come – saving energy and greenhouse gas emissions in the process.

Here are three ways that the temperature of our homes will be regulated in the future.

ONE: New Cool Rooftop Technologies

Think of this.

Even though dark colors absorb light waves and therefore soak up the most heat, 90% of the roofs in the United States, are dark-colored. A black roof can increase the temperature by more than ONE HUNDRED DEGREES over the air temperature!

So smart people came up with cool roof technology.

Cool roofs are designed to reflect a significant portion of the sun's energy, preventing heat absorption by the building. If the interior of a building stays cooler, air conditioners don’t have to work as hard and don’t burn up as much energy.

One kind of cool roof technology is coating roofing materials with substances that effectively bounce back sunlight. Purdue University recently engineered the whitest paint ever. This ultra-bright-white paint reflects 98.1% of the sun’s light.

Reflecting that much of the sun’s light makes a huge difference in the temperature of the building. During the afternoon, a surface painted with this paint can be 8 degrees cooler and 19 degrees cooler at night.

Cool roof technology also includes specially designed metal or membranes that reflect light.

Not only do certain materials reflect light, but they also release the heat that it has absorbed. The ability to release heat is known as thermal emissivity.

One of the biggest benefits of cool roof technology is that it saves energy and therefore saves money. Studies suggest that energy consumption can be reduced by 10-30% with new cool roof technology.

TWO: Smart Climate Control Systems

We’ve often talked about smart thermostats as one way to save energy and keep your home at a comfortable temperature when you’re there.

But the way we’ll keep homes cool in the years to come is so much more complex.

Future homes might feature smart climate control systems that leverage advanced sensors, data analytics, and AI algorithms to create personalized and efficient cooling strategies. These systems can do “cool” things:

·Use sensors to know when a room is being used, adjusting cooling settings accordingly. Unoccupied rooms could be maintained at higher temperatures to save energy.

·Analyze historical temperature data, user preferences, and weather forecasts to predict cooling needs. This predictive approach could optimize cooling in advance so that your system doesn’t suddenly have to make energy-intensive temperature adjustments.

·Integrate with other smart home devices, such as smart blinds or shades, to control natural sunlight and heat entry during peak hours.

·Enable remote control and monitoring through mobile apps, allowing you to adjust settings and gain insights about your energy consumption.

THREE: Advanced Insulation Techniques

Do you know what an R-value is? If you’ve ever built a home or insulated an attic or roof, you might be familiar with the term. It is a measure of how well your insulation’s ability to resist heat traveling through it.

In Florida, ceilings must have an R-value of at least 30 because insulation is one of the best ways to keep a home cool in hot weather and warm in cold weather.

New innovations in insulation will help keep our homes cool in the years to come.

One exciting innovation is the Vacuum-Insulated Panel, a VIP. The VIP consists of a core material that’s encased in a vacuum-sealed panel. This design minimizes heat conduction, making it highly efficient at preventing thermal transfer. VIPs are even more effective than foam insulation.

Another interesting advance in insulation is an aerogel. An aerogel is one of the lightest solid materials known to man. A super-porous foam, aerogels are nicknamed “liquid smoke” because they have such low density. They can be used as insulation blankets to effectively slow down heat transfer through walls and ceilings.

Finally, a new development in insulation is what’s known as PCMs, Phase Change Material. A PCM is a substance that changes its physical traits when it absorbs or releases heat/energy. The simplest example of a PCM is water, which changes from water to ice. Other PCMs include the use of salt hydrates, fatty acids, and paraffins.

Think of having a special gel pack – similar to the ones you use on injuries - used as a “phase change material” kind of insulation in certain places of your home. They could help regulate indoor temperatures by absorbing excess heat during the day and releasing it at night.

We’ve come a long way!

We’ve come a long way from the days when the only way to keep your home cool was to build it under a big tree, open the windows, and hope for a good breeze!

Now we have amazing air conditioners in all shapes, sizes, and types to effectively cool our homes.

But the future of “cool” is only getting better.

Our air conditioners will work in tandem with the actual construction of the home to keep us comfortable at all temperatures.

Call ServiceOne to talk about how to be even cooler than you already are. We can repair, replace, and maintain your system, making your air conditioner more efficient and lowering your energy consumption.