NEWS FLASH

Doonesbury Gets Cool Roofs Wrong | Garry Trudeau’s Sunday Doonesbury took on Energy Sec. Steven Chu’s favorite energy saver, cool roofs. “So there are all these ‘cool roof’ initiatives to paint black asphalt roofs white so they won’t absorb much heat in summer,” Mike Doonesbury says. “The problem is that the lower air conditioning costs are offset by higher heating bills in winter.” In reality, cool roofs save far more energy in the summer than they lose in the winter. Not only does air conditioning cost more than heating, but deflecting strong summer sun is a bigger benefit than absorbing much weaker winter sun. (HT: Green Miles)