Latest / RoofersCoffeeShop / The Innovation Behind Roofing Granules
Transcript
- Karen Edwards: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips, the podcast that takes you on a thrilling journey across the world of roofing. From fascinating interviews with roofing experts to on-the-road adventures, we'll uncover the stories, innovations, and challenges that shape the rooftops over our heads. So fasten your seat belts and join us as we embark on this exciting roofing road trip. Hello and welcome to Roofing Road Trips from Roofers Coffee Shop. My name is Heidi Ellsworth, and we are live, yes, live at the 3M Center out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am a bit, wow, this is so cool to be here at the 3M offices and to be with my dear friend, who seriously I've worked with from the very beginning of my career. It's been that so long. Brandy, thank you for having me. Thank you for being here. Yes, absolutely. This is so cool. We're gonna be doing some additional video showing you the Innovation Center, really looking around. But first, I just wanted to take the opportunity to visit with Randy about what's going on with 3M granules because they are the innovators and really the part of our roofing systems that makes all the difference. So let's start out with some introductions. So, Randy, can you introduce yourself and tell us what you do? Tell us a bit about your career with 3M. Okay. so my name is Randy Borgan. I'm director of National Accounts for Industrial Mineral Products, our business here at 3M. I've actually been with 3M. I just celebrated my forty second anniversary, so a long time. And I've been in the roofing part of it since late ninety seven, so almost almost thirty years now. And and like I said, you and I have known each other practically that whole time. I think exactly. Well I think we met right when you came into the roofing working for Malarkey. Came introduced yourselves and then you brought us to Minneapolis where we were able to do some granule and color selections. Absolutely. Yeah. That's that's part of what we do. It's been a long time. It has been. I love it. Well, for everyone out there, can you tell us a little bit about 3M granules and just kind of the history of I I think people get a little overwhelmed when they think about how many different things 3M actually manufactures. So so we're actually the oldest business within 3M actually that's still operating today. So 3M was started in in nineteen two, but we started making granules in about nineteen twenty nine or so. So a long time you know of of long history of making roofing granules. We have four plants across the country, Wisconsin, Arkansas, North Carolina, and California. And and those sites are selected to be not only have the right rock property Okay, because that's very important, but also to be close to the roofing manufacturers, okay, because rock is heavy, right? So it's gonna it's gonna cost a lot to transport it. So you wanna be as close as possible, you know, to to where they're making the the shingles and the and the roofing products. What great foresight considering what's happening today with fuel prices and trucking and logistics. Yeah. Makes a big difference. It does, it does. So, you know, again, we started making roofing granules back in nineteen twenty nine and you fast forward I don't know, Forty or so years back to the nineteen sixties or so, we started to see a an issue with these black streaks on roofs. Okay. Yes and we didn't know what it was. Okay. And and and we asked what you know, we would ask people and they said, Well, we think it's a fungus. Some people who live near the airport said, it it's jet fuel, right, dropping down from the sky like that. And we actually worked with some scientists here at the University of Minnesota to figure out that it's actually algae, okay? So Okay, now we know what it is. Now how do we prevent it? we noticed on roofs like where the roof vents are, you know, the metal roof vents, that you you would see it would be clean below those. So that wash down effect. So we're like, okay, something with metal. And so we started looking at different metals and you know, obviously lead was used in in those, but we're like, we don't want to use put lead in granules. Zinc actually was used for a while. in fact is I think today you can still find some zinc strips and things like that, but zinc has a tendency to turn white over time and and turn the granules white, so we died we don't want that. And we turned to copper granules. And you know, so that's we introduced that product back in the in the early nineteen nineties as as algae block and and then in about ten years later we we won the approval from Corporate to rebrand it as Scotch Guard. So that's where we are today. Because everyone knows the name Scotch Guard. Yeah. Yeah. From three Well To me, you're just you're walking me down a little bit of a memory trail here because I was with Malarkey when we introduced introduced algae block and it was a big deal, especially in states like Florida, anywhere in the south where there's just the algae. But then we started seeing it, it was everywhere. Yeah. It was everywhere. And you just some states are worse than others. I th that's right. You you you don't find it in it as prevalent in like the Rocky Mountain states because it's much drier there. Mm-hmm. But anywhere west and east of that, and when you get down to the southeast or you know, up in the Pacific northwest where it's really humid, yeah, y you really find a lot of algae there. And it's and it's something that's wind borne, so it's it's gonna spread from roof to roof. So your neighbor may have it, guess what? You're gonna probably gonna get it sooner or later too, you know. So it's algae, but I love the fact that we thought, is it fungus? I mean Yeah, yeah. And you I don't know if you remember it, but originally some shingles were were listed as FR shingles, fungus resistant shingles. I do remember that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow, how things have changed. Well, 3M didn't start there, 'cause I mean, obviously known for innovation. What was the next granule to hit? The next thing was was reflective granules. Okay. So we so there was some interest in making what's now known as cool roofing granules. And so we we started that I believe in about 2005 or so. we started looking at that technology. And we came out with our first iteration, if you will. And you know, back then the pigments that we used to to color it and get that reflectivity weren't as good as what they are today. So those original ones were kind of more, you know. Whitish, if you will, pastel colored. And so, you know, our our customers would say that's great, but you we really want some darker colors. So we had a second iteration, now we've actually got a third, and we've actually got, you know, black granules that are that are pretty reflective, which you know, you look at your shirt, right? Black, that's not reflective, right? I mean if if you want to go outside in the summertime and be cool, you're gonna wear a white shirt, not a black shirt. Exactly. So black is hard to do, but we keep working with the pigment manufacturers and And trying to get darker and darker colors. So it's important because it it helps keep your roof cool, it helps keep your attic cool. Right. And it helps reduce what the air conditioning bill right. The air conditioning level. Yes, and you know, I think about when that the the energy s star on the cool roof granules came out and those first colors were great for Florida. They were great for California. I can remember selling those into those markets and people are like, Ooh, we like these light colors. and they're reflective. So it is interesting how then that continues to move across the country where you know darker colors are more the are more the thing. And now of course it's everywhere is everything. Well a and the interesting thing is too that there's a there's a phenomenon called the urban heat island effect where the our cities are actually retaining heat during the day, right? And then at night it's not actually escaping as much. And one of the misconceptions is that cool roofs are really like a southern US phenomenon. Okay. But I'm I remember listening to one a gentleman that was with Climate Resolve I think and he asked the question he said, who would need a cool roof more? Someone that lives in Toronto or someone that lives in Tucson? Now what would you say? Well, I might say Tucson, but it's probably not, right? Most people would say Tucson because it's hot there, right? Yeah. He said, No. Tucson, you have air conditioning. And so he said, you know, you can just stay inside, it gets hotter and turn the air conditioning down or whatever like that. He said, most of the northern climates don't have air conditioning. And so they really need this these cool roofs to help keep their attic space cooler to avoid some of the issues that, you know, like Chicago had an issue years ago with with the with the heat. Wave, right? And unfortunately they had several deaths because of that. And so, you know, you really need to keep even in a northern climate, keep your roof cooler to help, you know, help mitigate those heat waves. And we all see, I just heard on the news today they said here in Minnesota, they said so far this this month we're five to nine degrees warmer than history. That's amazing. That is amazing. That's amazing. That's a lot. Five to nine degrees. Wow. Well and I think there's a lot of people out there who don't realize they they just think obviously roofing is protection, right? We protect the building, we've it's watertight, but through the three granules a roof does so much more. obviously you're protecting it against algae, it's reflective, so now we're we have the cool and the energy savings, but you didn't stop there. No, no one more which it's really I get so excited about. Before I move into that, let me just say that it's really neat to combine the the the Scotch guard technology with the cool because really what good is a reflective roof if it gets black streaks on it and it can no longer be reflective, right? So you wanna keep it you wanna keep it clean so to speak. The perfect product for Florida, for California. I mean I know it's for everywhere, but I just think when I'm driving through the southern states, all of the black algae but then to be able to reflect. Right. Yeah. So you're right, we didn't stop there. So we had the idea excuse me of how do you How do you take a technology that we had learned about and put it on a granule? And what we now we've came up with what's called smog reducing granules. Okay. So people look at us like what so smog is is everywhere. I mean it's it's in most parts of the country. You can look up online, you know, like a heat map of of smog and obviously the big major urban areas are gonna be greater than others, but smog is usually produced by, you know, cars, trucks, et cetera, but it's also a byproduct of wood burning. stoves. So even in areas that maybe are you're out in the country, if you've got a wood-burning stove, you're actually generating smog, right? Yes. So what these granules do is they actually change those smog molecules into a harmless nitrate salt, if you will, that just washes off your roof. And people will ask, you know, and I asked right away too when I heard about this, I said, nitrate salt, isn't that like a fertilizer? How much fertilizer is on my roof? And the answer is on an average residential roof, it's about the amount of like one of those little miracle grow kits that you would put on your over a whole year. So it's very it's it's not gonna harm your plants, you know, you know, harm your animals or anything like that. As it comes off, it might help Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it's it's a great technology. you know, and again you can combine all three of those technologies together too. So you could have a a cool roof that's, you know, stays clean and also helps you know, clean the air, if you will. Yeah. And and we're smoking. We equated it to trees do this naturally. So we equated it to the power of trees, so to speak. So like you on an average residential roof, a thirty square roof, it's the same as if you planted two or three trees. Now, you know, you drive around a new subdivision and they've usually cleared all the trees, right? So so in essence you're kind of helping to replant what was there and keeping the air clean. Yeah. Randy, from when you and I met. Back in the nineties to today, are you just kind of blown away with all of this? I I am. I I and and it really makes me proud to be in roofing too. You know, it's like doing our part and through the 3M granules and we would be remiss if we didn't mention the amazing manufacturers out there who are bringing these granules to performance products. Obviously I you know, I used to be with Mullarkey, people know that. but there are so many great companies. That have really been on the forefront of this. Atlas, Roofing, Suprema, Garland, I'm gonna miss some few, but I mean these are all manufacturers who are making use of these granules and really in their own way saving the planet. Yep, that they are. And we thank them for that. Yeah, yeah, it is so great. So, okay, as you're looking at this trends, anything That you see, I mean, I know color is a big deal. You have a beautiful lab here to create the colors that we see in the shingles and even in some of the flat roofing. anything kind of to leave us with? Any thoughts on trends? Well, n no, not really. I I think that we kind of rely more on our customers and their feedback for that kind of thing, right? So it's like we'd be interested to hear, you know, are there colors out there that that you think would be more popular than what are today? And that And keep in mind that a color is not necessarily one granule, right? It could be a combination of different colors, if you will, of granules. But you know, maybe somebody wants a who knows, a purple roof or a you know, a turquoise roof or something. I don't know. I mean it's but you know, it's like let us know because we'd be certainly interested to hear about it. So well I have tell you, I have very beautiful black three tab roof. And people think I'm crazy, but I love it. And so it's all about what you love and the look that comes out there. So thank you for the granules that protect my home. thank you all. What a great opportunity to spend time with Randy. We're gonna be doing more around the Innovation Center and hearing what's happening at three So stay tuned. We'll have more soon. Thank you, Heidi. I'm Andy. I've been here at three twenty three years. I've been over here at the Innovation Center doing tours like this for about nine years. So again, ask questions at any point. you've been across the campus, right? Yes. Okay, so I won't really talk about that, but a lot of space, a lot of people. So energy management, we are not an energy company, but we help you manage energy, whether it's about distribution of energy for an energy company or basically just helping you use less. Okay. speaking of roofing granules, okay? We were talking about you know this, not many people do, okay twenty nine, or no, it was like thirty two? 32 sounds about right. A couple hundred pounds. And now we talk tons every day. Yeah, ra railroad cars. Right, right. It's just such a different comparison. But yeah, started with 200 pounds and and now it's tons. Yeah. A thing called tar paper, which was watertight but didn't last very long, maybe a few months. And so by putting these little pebbles on the tar paper, you could actually get a little bit of curb appeal. You could have different colors, make it look a little different, and make it last. Because this is much more weather resistant. It's rock, right? And so by coating those little rocks with color, we have the ability to make it last instead of a few months, a few decades maybe. Okay, so the first innovation in roofing granules was and and the first thing about sustainability of these things was the durability. You don't have to change this all the time, okay? About twenty-five years ago we came up with these cool roofing granules. These are not cool just because I think they're neat. It's because they are less hot. Definition number two. Well, even the darker colors, I found it fascinating that it reflects the infrared portion of the spectrum. And so you see the visible light still, that's why we get the darker colors. But it reflects what we can't see. So that's it's kind of a mirror for the light you can't see. And that's exactly what we do with our window films too. And the reason why that's important is because it reflects heat then, right? A dark roof It's called the albedo effect. We all know about wearing light colors in the summer. We wear white, it reflects more light just through color. Okay? So that keeps you cooler because less of it stays on the roof. But a dark roof would actually retain a lot of that heat. Okay, and then there's this thing called the urban heat island, right? Dark pavement, dark roofs, it traps heat, and that means that large cities stay warm later in the evening than out in the country. And then it just radiates away in the evening. These things. Do two things. One, it reflects the heat right away, so you don't actually retain it, you have to air condition less. It will keep your house cooler. And number two, it reverses the urban heat island effect. And parts of LA where these have become mandatory by building code, you can actually see with before and after satellite photos that that part of the city is now cooler than it used to be. So we're reversing some of that human footprint on the planet. Okay? So it's I mean, it's like a green roof, but it's any color you want. Okay? And speaking of window film, so by the way, so these are the cool granules, that's about 25 years ago. I don't have them on this table, but they look the same because we also, about 10 years ago, came up with the coolest one. Well, these are cool. The coolest ones, the most neat ones, in my opinion, are smog reducing granules. And those have a coating that's on the outside that will literally take smog out of the air and chemically change it into. plant fertilizer that then rains off of your roof and fertilizes your lawn. Okay? Because what we have in the air as a part of smog is NOX gases, right? Nitrous oxide, nitrogen dioxide, NONO2. They're components of smog. The coating on these granules on the roof chemically changes it by attracting the smog, binding it on. Sounds bad to have pollution on your roof until you hear what we say next. That With ultraviolet light from the sun, binds on one more oxygen molecule, turns it into NO3, which is nitrate. Nitrate is a plant fertilizer. And then when the rain comes, it washes that rain, that that nitrate off the roof, fertilizes your lawn with the smog you took out of the air, which is awesome. We talk about how do we share that? Because it's all microscopic. Everything's happening at the microscopic level. So How do we explain it? And how do you see somebody who has a need for it, right? they're more expensive that way, right? And so people are gonna price shop. But when I got a roof because I had a hail storm three years ago, new roof, I asked for them because I was aware of them. And then the contractor said, Yeah, it's one of the two brands we sell. We have the smog reducing granules on these and stuff. And people just don't know about them, right? There's kind of almost a disincentive for a insurance company to tell you about them because it's gonna cost them more. Right? Or a contractor, it's gonna cost them more, and you just still get the same check from the c the contr the insurance company, right? So their profit margins lower, right? But if you know about them and you want them, you can get them. And the thing is, is it's a green roof, it's a green thumb. Why would I not want this? And I have a beautiful roof. And it also is helping clean the atmosphere. And I think we actually should use that same coating in a lot of other places, maybe even near sound walls that go up near highways and keep the keep the smog closer to its source. Right? And it could potentially be used in all these different things. And we can even mix these technologies. You can put cool roofing granules and smog reducing granules on. And by the way, there is actually a an objection to this sometimes. People are like, what about all the excess nitrate if it runs off? Okay. Farm fields they have this issue of their overfertilizing, all that kind of stuff. We did the math, okay? About ten percent of the greens on the roof are gonna actually be coated with this coating because that we found it reduces the smog in the atmosphere equivalent to about three trees, but it gives you about as much nitrate as you need to fertilize a plant. So it's not going to, you know, over fertilize. Even if you have a small yard, it will get absorbed by that and stuff like that. We're cleaning the air. We're returning it as something useful, reducing smog, win win-win, all the way around. Right? And the thing is is people just don't know about this, right? So there's two ways that this can get more popular. One is we talk about it more, and so maybe some of the people that are hearing about this for the first time, right, are gonna actually start asking, hey, can I get smog reducing granules? But the other thing is legislation, which I don't love, right? I don't love compelling people to do things that they don't wanna do just because the losses that they have to. In LA that worked. The building code says you have to have cool roofing granules because i everybody realizes this is a good benefit. Atlanta put that rule in too. A couple of years ago they had the hottest summer on record. So all new commercial construction down there has to have a cool roof. This is one way of getting there. Okay? The cool roofing granules. The other way is through our brand new film. this particular film is a pretty one. But this has very particular purpose for greenhouses. Okay? So the real question is this: why is a plant green? Anybody? Chlorophyll. Chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the is the chemical that makes it green, but that's a biologist's answer. Okay? What's a physicist going to say about why a plant is green? It is because it is reflecting green light. Okay? This is not red. This is reflecting red light. So it's absorbing all of the other colors. Okay, what this means is a plant does not need green light to grow. It's reflecting it. So that means that I can take the green light and do something else with it. Guess what this does? It reflects green light only. Okay? And so if you see the shadow on the or the reflection on the table, that's the green light that's coming down. Okay? Or if I focus it over there on the wall, it's a little bit hard if you see it floating around. Mm-hmm. Might need to turn the camera around, right? Why fighting? Of the shadow on the table that comes through, no matter which angle the sun goes through this panel at, this will not turn green. It'll turn purple, red, orange, yellow. So what we do is hang this up in the top of a greenhouse. Okay, plants still need light to grow, but they don't need the green light. So we can use the same light twice. Okay? What we do is we hang up these big butterfly wings and then we direct it at a photovoltaic cell, a solar panel. And it turns out That this reflects the green light and ultraviolet, so you can use some of that to create energy. So the light goes through and grows the plants, but then we can also split that light and use it again to create energy so we can have a self-powering greenhouse. Or even create excess and then start selling the energy as another benefit, which is pretty awesome, right? I'm using the same light twice. And this is on this big molded panel because this is going to have kind of that parabolic. Shape that's going to collect up a big area and focus it at a small solar cell. and then the thing that makes it work though is one of our multi-layer optical films. There are hundreds of layers of plastic in this film that is less than a hair's width. And depending on which angle you look at this at, it will change colors. That's just a property of how we've layered together these hundred lay hundreds of layers of transparent plastic. And we're really good at reflecting specific wavelengths of light. So this only reflects green. It's called a notch filter in that way because it only reflects a certain. section of the visible light spectrum. That's how we can use it. So quick question on that. That energy then goes into batteries? Whatever you want to use it. I mean the the back end of this, once it goes through the solar collector or sort of the photovoltaic cell, sure, you can charge a battery and take that energy somewhere else. You could use it directly in the powering of your greenhouse that you're in, lights, whatever, fans Cooling fans, all that kind of stuff. Whatever you want, really. But as I mean, you know, as long as you know how to use a photovoltaic cell, you can use it whichever way you choose. It's cool. And it's pretty. It is pretty. Yeah. It is very pretty. Windows. If I want to keep the heat outside, okay, I have a couple of options. I can make things dark. But then you can also, what if you want the light without the heat? Well we can do that. Okay? And the reason why we can do that is because we actually have the bright science figured out. Okay? So we can reflect light in specific wavelengths. Just like we talked about before, we can reflect only the green light. What about if we want to reflect basically none of the visible light? Have a nice light window, but we want to reflect the infrared and ultraviolet, which is what's carrying a lot of the heat. Okay, we can do that. That's what this film is here. So I have a lamp shining through this stuff. This is called Prestige Series Window Film. We also sell it under the same under a trade name Crystalline when we put it in cars. So this goes on buildings or autos. And you can feel a major difference because this particular film reflects 97% of the infrared and 99.9% of the ultraviolet light, but almost none of the visible light, right? So if you see how bright it is for my hand under here, I'm gonna shine it through. here it doesn't look like it's tinted down okay but you can feel the difference now your viewers won't be able to see this but lend me a hand okay put your hand under this side it's plenty warm right this is just my lamp what about this No. You don't feel any heat, do you? Right? Yeah. And go back? I mean, right? So this is hot, this is not. Now everybody thinks that window tint is the way to go. It's not. Okay, we actually have some really cool tech service videos, maybe you can find one, where you see how this one pane of glass with prestige on it will outperform the heat rejection of three panes of window darkening film. Dyed window film does two things. One, it makes your windows hot because it's absorbing a lot of the light. Remember, dark things they absorb heat, right? And so that window is going to get hot. And guess what? It doesn't block the heat from going through, it blocks the light. And we all think that dark equals cool. Not so. With three panes of window darkening film, what we do in this video, we set up one heat lamp, we block half of it with three panes of window darkening film, and then on this side we block it half of it with Just one pane of this, and we set up two bars of chocolate. And then we run a timer, and guess what? After five minutes, the one behind the three panes of window darkening film melts. Ours stays solid because you can block the heat without blocking the light. And this is what you get when you have the science on your side. You can get both and I can get light and cool, not either or. I don't have to trade one for the other. So this white film that doesn't look like much is called PRCF. PRCF stands for passive radiative cooling film. Okay, it's a very technical way of saying that this is a heat sink. What you need to know is that whatever you attach this to will actually radiate away heat from the inside to the sky. So this will keep whatever it's attached to cooler. Here's how. Okay? It is a multi-layer film. Just like our window films, which are multi-layer optical films, we use hundreds of layers in something that is thinner than a post-it note or thinner than a hair of transparent plastic to reflect light or reflect parts of light, like this, or reflect the light we can't see. That's what Prestige is. It's it's a mirror for the light we can't see, ultraviolet and infrared, and we let the rest through. This is an opaque film and it's doing a different job. The job is that it's taking thermal heat, which I'm imparting to these bars of aluminum by this heating pad underneath, turning it into near infrared light, and radiating away that light to space. Okay, so this is called emissivity. Okay, your grass already knows how to do this. Okay, grass is about 98% thermally emissive. You ever wake up on a cool morning when the grass is frosty, but your sidewalk isn't because it's still 35 degrees. Why is ice forming above zero above freezing temperatures? It's because the grass loses heat faster, and so it can actually conduct heat away to space and cool itself below the ambient air temperature. Ancient people, the Persians, knew how to make ice when it never got freezing at night. They would pour water into a shallow bath at sunset. The water radiates away heat to the sky, chip off the ice that forms before the sun comes up, and now you can actually make ice in the desert. Okay? So this is not new technology, but we've been able to capture that kind of thing in this film. And here's what happens. Okay? There's a multi-layer film in here, and it's taking that heat, turning it into light, and radiating away to the sky. Just to show you how this experiment is working, I took this piece off to show this, right? So we're heating these two bars the same. Okay, same heating pad. Okay, and then what we did is we came along and taped down this thermal probe, a thermometer, on the top of this thing. And it's under this film. Okay, if it was on top of the film, I agree, it should read at a cooler temperature because the film would be insulating the probe from all the heat. It's not, it's under here. Okay, when we start covering things up with a plastic film, it should insulate it and actually make it hotter even. Doesn't do that either. Here's the live data, okay? This side is operating at 110 degrees Fahrenheit, 110.6. This side is operating at 130. It's 20 degrees cooler because this film is on top. Okay? And you can feel the difference cautiously. Alright? This side is nice and warm. This side is a little bit too hot to leave your hand there for more than a half second. Okay? That's warm? That's pretty hot, right? And that's the actual difference. Now that is using this 72-degree room as your heatsink. If we were to take this same experiment outside. And put it in the sun, no heating pad. The sun just starts heating it because that's what this is for is rejection of solar heating. The difference between these two would be about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. That's a picture of a bus sitting in the sun in Hong Kong. Okay. You see one side has the film, the other side doesn't. The picture next to it is the thermal image of those same two buses. Okay? So you can see how much cooler that surface of the bus was. Inside that bus with the film, it was 9 Fahrenheit degrees cooler. Cooler 5C. And that's the difference. Same sun, same bus, same air conditioning, very different temperature. Okay? And like I was saying, we do it, we did an experiment with this hot car sitting in the parking lot. On a 72-degree day, a black car was sitting in there. We took came along with a heat gun. Surface of that car's hood, 135 degrees. Take the same part of that car and paint it white, now it's down to about 85 degrees. Okay? Better. This, the temperature of the surface of that part of the car was 68 degrees. It was below the ambient air temperature, which means that that car is actually going to radiate away any of its heat to the atmosphere. So it imparts a net cooling effect on the thing. Getting rid of heat is a very important thing for a lot of things these days. Commercial roofing, again, like I heard in Atlanta, is requiring commercial roofs to be cool roofs. This absolutely does it. Not only does it get rid of heat very well, like our cool roofing granules, it actually cools down what's inside. So you can and and guess what? It's passive, right? So that's how it's a radiative cooling film, right? We take the heat, and this is about 93% thermally reflective and emissive. We get the reflectivity of the heat simply by making it white. That's the albedo effect. We get rid of heat through color. But that only gets you part of the way. The construction of the film is what's going to do the rest. And that's going to be very highly thermally emissive, just like grass, which is 98%. You got to get above 90% to make a net cooling effect. This will get you there. And guess what? That construction of the film, which is turning heat into near-infrared light, will now radiate away to space. Okay. Very good. This is very new, just commercialized this year. Yep. And where is it being used? A lot of different opportunities, but if you have ideas, we're open to listen. Here are a couple of the things that we're actually interested in. So one of them, everybody's talking about data centers. Right. Okay. Any building that needs to stay cool, and there's a lot of them, especially if you're in the south and if you have huge warehouses, okay? the roof, the sides, any part of the building can be covered. With this. Okay, and if you do that, it's going to take the heat from the inside out, and it will do this 24-7-365 for free once you put this stuff on. Okay, you need no energy. That's why we call it passive. It doesn't require sun, it doesn't require any power source. Right? You could put up photovoltaic cells, solar cells on the roof of your factory and call it, we have a green roof. Guess what? This is three times more efficient at removing heat from your warehouse than by putting up all the solar cells. Needs no wiring, doesn't need sun. This only works when it's sunny. This works all day and all night. You can pre-cool in the nighttime hours and get your facility cooled down. so that's one way, right? Data centers, again, most of the energy that people are talking about and water consumption is going to be for cooling things down. Guess what? You don't need as much if you have this on there. And it can go on the entire building envelope. Yep, exactly. And it has to be exposed to the sky to work, right? You can't put this say inside the hood of your car because it would you know Yeah, on engine components because it would just radiate away heat inside your car. Exposing it to the sky on a clear cloud just stays when it works best. And it will impart that net cooling effect to whatever it's attached to. A bus, a building. We did actually test this out on the roof of a truck. Refrigerated trucks. They travel across the south getting groceries to the store. That refrigeration unit uses power from the engine, okay? Which is powered by diesel fuel. By putting this on the roof of a truck, 15% fuel economy boost. With the price of diesel today just going over six bucks a gallon, do you know how fast this is going to pay itself off? Yeah. Okay, so it's a wonderful energy saver. Because frankly, the planet's heating up. And if you want to get stuff to be cool, this is a great way to get there. By you put it down, you walk away, it'll stay cooler. If you've enjoyed the ride, don't forget to hit that subscribe button and join us on every roofing adventure. Make sure to visit rooferscoffeeshop.com to learn more. Thanks for tuning in and we'll catch you on the next roofing road trip.