On a hot day, does watering your roof cool the house down?

Question

On a hot day, does watering your roof cool the house down?

Answer 1

Yes, it will work by cooling the roof and attic which in turn will keep your house cooler as you wil not get as much heat penetrating into your home.

Answer 2

I always water my roof. It cools down the house very much. I will also hose down the driveway in the evening to help cool the ground in which helps cool the air near the house.

Answer 3

sounds like a good idea ... maybe just a little water at a time ,, and collect and route the "roof-runoff" into your garden ...



BTU's to evaporate H2O are BTU's that do NOT go into heating the mass of your house .... sounds reasonable



540 cal/gram ...

Answer 4

It won't do much to cool your house once it gets hot, but it can do a lot to keep it from getting hot. Basically it will prevent heat from getting inside where you are. But once it gets hot inside, water on the roof will do very little in the way of drawing heat out of your living space.



Some people across the street from me did it in the recent heat wave Ca. just went through. Got to say though, they did look like dweebs.

Answer 5

Wow, OK. here's my 2 cents:

almost all of the heat in a house is caused by the roof materials absorbing solar radiation then conducting, convecting and re-radiating it into the attic space. From there it convects, conducts, and re-radiates into the living space. The goal of attic insulation is to slow the heat transfer. If it is slowed enough the sun goes down and some of the heat reverses course to reach the nigh time sky.

Watering a hot roof will pull out a great deal of heat. That bit of heat heat does not get to enter the home. So yes! watering a roof can help avoid heat gain on the roof. This is not the same as cooling the house. A hot house with a wet roof is still a hot house.

A much more effective idea is to use highly reflective roof material, even to add white or silver paint to a roof.

I hope this helps.

Answer 6

Start a energy-smart fashion and paint your roof white. White reflects the heat. It made a big difference in the temperature inside the house and I didn't have to run the A/C so hard.

Answer 7

Yes this will cool down.this is the age old method when the airconditioner or electric fan were not in sight.

Answer 8

yes

Answer 9

yes, my brother does this all the time to dramatically cool the patio

Answer 10

yes

Answer 11

you will look like a dweeb the water will burn off to fast buy an air conditioner or look into an attic or gable fan

Answer 12

I think you would just waste water and make it more humid (if that is possible in Florida) around your house.



There should be insulation between the roof and the top floor of the house. Any heat under the roof should not be getting into the house through the ceiling, and any cooling you do to the roof alone would also not affect the temperature inside the living areas of the house.



Cooling the house (in order of effectiveness):

1. air conditioning

2. eliminate or reduce the use of electrical appliances and lights during the day as well as using heavy drapes or plantation shutters to keep the sun out. Then at night open things up so that you get cross-ventilation and use fans



Once upon a time I lived without air conditioning. Whenever I had to be at home in the heat of the day I wet down my hair and kept it damp to help cool me down. At night, I would wet a sheet in the tub, wring it out, and sleep under it. As long as I had a fan, I was pretty comfortable, actually.

Answer 13

No, it doesn't do anything but waste water.



If you want to cool your house down, keep the lights off (if the lightbulbs are flourescent), you don't need them on when the sun is out.



Also open windows and, if possible, screened doors. In the evening have some fans in your windows that face outside so they blow all of the hot air out. And keep windows open all night.



I've learned this from experience. My house is not air conditioned and it can get up to 115 F outside during the summer. This keeps the temperature in your house around 80 degrees.

Answer 14

I dont know about cooling your house, but it will help your shingles grow. It will also help you to avoid your neighbors because when they see the weirdo watering his roof they will avoid contact with you.

Answer 15

Hey! Someone in my Twitter feed posted this link so I came to look it over. I'm definitely loving the information. I am bookmarking and will be tweeting this to my followers!

Answer 16

Leonard Reynolds and Jamie Hopkins posted the same question. You should see the answers side by side.

Answer 17

Besides cooler, it would increase your house humidity.

Answer 18

Don't think so

Answer 19

haha dont do it. who cares its not like your house is gunna melt. and it doesnt make your house hotter..

Answer 20

no not really!