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Cool roofs and cool pavements

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Denia Kolokotsa

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 Sustainable Cities and Society 37 (2018) 466–474

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Sustainable Cities and Society

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scs

T
Cool roofs and cool pavements application in Acharnes, Greece
a,⁎ a a b
Dionysia – Denia Kolokotsa , Gerassimos Giannariakis , Kostas Gobakis , Giannis Giannarakis ,
Afroditi Synnefac, Mat Santamourisc
a
Energy Management in the Built Environment Laboratory, Technical University of Crete Kounoupidiana, GR 73100 Chania, Greece
b
Section of Environmental Physics and Meteorology Group Building Environmental Studies Physics Department University of Athens, Athens Greece
c
Faculty of the Built Environment, University of NEW south Wales, Sydney, Australia

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The continuously increasing urban temperature results to the well-known urban heat island phenomenon. Cool
Cool roofs roofs and cool pavements are very promising mitigation techniques as they can be easily applied to new and
Cool pavements existing buildings as well as urban spaces. In the present paper, the application of cool materials in the urban
Energy efficiency region of Acharnes municipality in Greece is described. Cool roofs in the form of ceiling tiles are installed on the
Thermal comfort
rooftop of the municipality building while cool paving stones are used to replace conventional pavements. A
series of monitoring activities are performed for the building and the urban region. Measurements of the outdoor
meteorological conditions, the indoor thermal comfort of the case study building, the surface temperature of the
roofs and pavements as well as thermal imaging are exploited for the analysis of the cool roofs and cool pa-
vements’ performance. Thermal models using EnergyPlus and Envi-met are developed for the analysis of the cool
roofs and cool pavements respectively. The overall study showed that the application of cool roofs results to 17%
reduction in the annual cooling demand for the case study building while the surface temperature of the urban
pavements is reduced by almost 10 K.

1. Introduction
One of the main problems of urban life nowadays is the con-
tinuously increasing urban temperature resulting to the urban heat is-
land (Akbari et al., 2015; Santamouris, 2001)that causes an increase in
air temperature in cities versus suburban areas. The air temperature
increase has a direct effect on the energy demand of cooling during
summer in cities (Santamouris and Kolokotsa, 2016). In addition, the
ongoing growing urbanization rate, in fact, exacerbates the problem as
natural vegetation is converted into structured urban areas (Radhi,
Fikry, & Sharples, 2013).
The urban heat island has been investigated by numerous re-
searchers targeting to quantify the urban heat island intensity and the
impact of the various technologies on urban heat mitigation and
adaptation and energy consumption. For example, (Santamouris et al.,
2001; Zoulia, Santamouris, & Dimoudi, 2009), evaluated the impact of
urban heat island on the cooling demand of various building typologies
in the Athens region. The research showed a 100% increase in the
cooling needs and peak electricity demand in the urban region versus
the periphery.
Urban heat island mitigation techniques involve the incorporation
of cool materials and green infrastructure within cities (Akbari and
Kolokotsa, 2016; Ferguson et al., 2005; Magli, Lodi, Lombroso, Muscio,
& Teggi, 2015). The change of urban surface albedo by the building
materials and pavements creates a significant difference in the thermal
balance of cities versus their surroundings. Building materials and pa-
vements absorb solar and infrared radiation part of which is dissipated
to the atmosphere resulting in an increase of the ambient temperature.
Cool materials have higher solar reflectance and infrared emittance
compared to conventional materials and therefore can dissipate the
absorbed heat. Therefore cool materials can maintain lower tempera-
tures compared to conventional building and paving materials (Gaitani
et al., 2011; Santamouris, Synnefa, Kolokotsa, Dimitriou, & Apostolakis,
2008; Synnefa, Santamouris, & Akbari, 2007).
Based on the above, the selection of buildings’ and pavements’
materials influences the energy consumption and indoor environmental
quality of buildings as well as the users’ well-being in open spaces.
Moreover, cool materials present some significant advantages since
they can be easily applied to new and existing buildings. In addition,
cool materials can extend the lifetime of the surfaces they are applied to
(Karlessi and Santamouris, 2013; Santamouris, Synnefa, & Karlessi,
2011;Zinzi, 2010).
To this end, many case studies are presented in the literature out-
lining the impact of cool roofs and pavements in the urban heat island

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: dkolokotsa@enveng.tuc.gr (D.–.D. Kolokotsa).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2017.11.035

Available online 27 November 2017

Received 25 July 2017; Received in revised form 22 November 2017; Accepted 25 November 2017

2210-6707/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

D.–.D. Kolokotsa et al.
mitigation and energy efficiency.
In the present paper the application of cool materials in the urban
region of Acharnes municipality in Greece is described. Cool roofs in
the form of ceiling tiles are installed on the rooftop of the municipality
building while cool paving stones are used to replace conventional
pavements. Experimental measurements coupled with thermal models
are included to analyze the potential of energy efficiency and urban
temperature reduction.
2. Application of cool roofs in the municipality building of
acharnes
2.1. Description of the Acharnes municipality building
Acharnes is an urban region in Attica, Greece with almost 107,000
inhabitants. Acharnes is very close to the Parnitha mountains. The
climate is typical Mediterranean with hot summer and dry winter. The
municipality building is selected for the application of cool roofs. The
specific building was built in 1998 and since then it accommodates the
offices and departments of the municipality of Acharnes. The building is
in Philadelphia 87 Avenue & Bosda, Acharnes.
Fig. 1 shows one of the different building elevations.
The building is mainly heated using oil fired boilers. Cooling is
performed by heat pumps.
The overall assessment of the cool materials is focusing on the 2nd
and 3rd floor of the building which is attached to the flat roofs where
the cool materials’ testing is performed. The roofs are covered by
marble tiles of 30 cm × 30 cm. The photos below briefly describe the
study area (Fig. 2).
2.2. Monitoring activities at the case study building
The monitoring procedure (Kolokotroni, Gowreesunker, &
Giridharan, 2011; Kolokotsa, Diakaki, Papantoniou, & Vlissidis, 2011;
Romeo and Zinzi, 2011; Synnefa and Santamouris, 2012; Zinzi and
Bozonnet, 2013) includes measurements of the outdoor climatic con-
ditions, the indoor environmental parameters and the surface tem-
perature measurements of the roof. All measurements are performed
during summer 2014 and 2015.
The following measurements are performed:
1. Outdoor air temperature and outdoor relative humidity using
TinyTag data logger.
2. Indoor air temperature and indoor relative humidity using Supco
LOGiT data loggers placed in eight different locations in the 2nd the
3rd-floor office spaces.
3. Measurements of surface temperature using HH309 Omega data
loggers with K type thermocouples.
4. Infrared thermography using a thermal – camera (type: FLIR B2).
The measurements collected during July, August and September
2014 are depicted in Fig. 3.
The indoor temperature and relative humidity of the 2nd-floor
Fig. 1. The building case study.
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Sustainable Cities and Society 37 (2018) 466–474
offices are depicted in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 respectively. The indoor tem-
perature extracted by all data loggers fluctuates between 26 and 32 °C.
The maximum indoor temperature occurs for all cases during late
afternoon between 19:00–21:00 while the building is unoccupied. The
lowest indoor temperature is measused during occupancy hours and the
air conditioning is operating.
Moreover, it can be noticed that when the air conditioning systems
are turned off, i.e. during weekends, the indoor temperature is about
2 K higher than those recorded during the weekdays.
The relative humidity levels are between 30 and 60% which cor-
responds to average comfort levels. The relative humidity is decreasing
when the indoor temperature is increasing as expected.
Similar are the monitoring results of the indoor temperature and
relative humidity on the 3rd floor.
The roofs’ surface temperature measurements using the infrared
camera are depicted in Figs. 6 and 7. From Fig. 6 we can see that there
are considerable surface temperature differences in the roof tiles. In
Line 1 (Li1) the difference between the minimum and maximum surface
temperature is almost 2 K while for Line 2 (Li2) the difference is almost
3 K.
In Fig. 7 the temperature fluctuation is more than 13 K in less than
4 m2 surface and is attributed to the difference in construction mate-
rials.
Therefore, based on the surface temperature measurements:
• Large temperature differences are measured on the exterior surfaces
of the roofs reaching almost 10 K.
• The construction materials of the roofs (tiles, binding cement) re-
quire reconstruction or replacement.
2.3. Development of the municipality building’s thermal model
The thermal model of the building is developed using Energy Plus
(Fig. 8) in order to evaluate the energy performance for the case study
(Clarke, 2001). The building is equipped with personal computers,
printers and related equipment. Lighting is provided during daytime
from the window openings, while artificial lighting is provided using
energy-efficiency lamps.
The building is permanently occupied by three persons per office
performing seated, light work.
The operating schedule for the building is:
– 08.00–14.30 from Monday to Friday (five mornings per week), and
– 17.00–21.00 on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday (three afternoons
per week) excluding national vacancies.
The validation of the model is performed using the measurements of
indoor and ambient temperature described in the previous sections.
This validation is tested for all zones and especially for the 2nd and 3rd-
floor offices. In Fig. 9 the predicted and measured indoor temperature
values are shown for 8/6/15–9/6/15 on the 3rd floor. The R2 correla-
tion of the measured versus the model predicted is 0.90–0.92 for all
zones.
2.4. Cool roofs application
During spring 2015 the roofs’ tiles were replaced with cool tiles. The
properties of the gray tiles, i.e. its solar reflectance and infrared emit-
tance are measured using Cary 5000 spectrophotometer with in-
tegrating sphere and Devices&Services Emissometer Model AE1 re-
spectively. The measurements are tabulated in Table 1.
2.5. Energy performance of cool roofs in the case study building
The energy performance of the installed cool tiles is based on the
energy savings achieved, the peak power reduction, the peak surface
D.–.D. Kolokotsa et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 37 (2018) 466–474

Fig. 2. The roof of the buildings.

temperature reduction, and the reduction of the surface temperature
fluctuations. Monthly energy demand figures for heating and cooling
before and after the application of the cool tiles are presented in Fig. 10.
A slight increase of the energy demand is noticed during winter months
following the application of the cool tiles. During summer, the cool
roofs installation shows a significant decrease in the cooling demand,
especially during July and August.
More specifically, by applying the cool roofs:
• The total annual energy savings for cooling and heating collectively
is 20.1 MWh which account for a decrease of 8.9%.
• The peak power reduction for cooling is 10.4 kW which translates to
10.4%.
• The average peak surface temperature reduction is 1.51 K which
accounts for 4.79%.

• The total annual energy savings for cooling is 22.2 MWh which
account for a reduction of 17%.

Fig. 3. Air Temperature Measurements

August-September 2014.

468
D.–.D. Kolokotsa et al.
3. Application of cool pavements in the urban area of Acharnes
3.1. Description of the urban area and cool pavements ‘application
The case study area for the application of cool pavements is the
Saint Vlassios square in Acharnes city. In Fig. 11, we can see the exact
position of the cool pavements’ application.
The cool pavement is implemented in the side walk in front of a
school building in the Municipality of Acharnes (Fig. 12). The activities
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Sustainable Cities and Society 37 (2018) 466–474
Fig. 4. Indoor Temperature at the 2nd-floor
offices.
Fig. 5. Indoor Relative Humidity at the 2nd-floor
offices.
Fig. 6. Thermal and visual photo of 2nd floor's roof
tiles.
involving the cool material application were the following:
• Removal of old paving slabs in the specific area.
• Cleaning of the surface of loose materials.
• Construction of the cool pavement, in a layer of lime-cement plaster
with a thickness of 2.5–3.0 cm (consisting of one part lime, five parts
clean sand and 180 kg/m3). The grouting of the cool pavement was
made with a marble-cement plaster containing white cement in a
ratio of 650 kg/m3. The solar reflectance (SR) and emissivity (e)
D.–.D. Kolokotsa et al.
Fig. 8. 3D model of the building.
coefficients of the applied material are: SR = 0.69 e = 0.9
In Fig. 13 we can see the thermal image representation of the cool
and conventional pavement at 9:00 on 15 June 2015. Although the
ambient temperature is still relatively low and around 22 °C the surface
temperature difference between the conventional (AR03) and cool
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Sustainable Cities and Society 37 (2018) 466–474
Fig. 7. Thermal and visual photo of 3rd floor’s roof
tiles.
pavement (left square AR02) is almost 2 K. At midday and during noon,
while the ambient temperature increases, the surface temperature dif-
ference between cool pavement and the conventional sidewalk is more
evident (Fig. 14) and reaches 4 K.
3.2. Evaluation of cool pavements ‘application
The urban model used for the surface and air temperature simula-
tion is the ENVI-met software (Huttner, Bruse, & Dostal, 2008;
Elnabawi, Neveen, & Hamza, 2013).The 3D model in Envi-met is de-
veloped using in-situ measurements of the urban layout, maps, and
photos. Two types of files are developed to support the Envi-met si-
mulation:
• The input file.
• The configuration file (Configuration File-CF).
Fig. 9. Model validation based on model predicted
and measured indoor temperature for 8/6/15-9/6/
15.
D.–.D. Kolokotsa et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 37 (2018) 466–474

Table 1
Values of reflectivity and emissivity (%).

Product Description Photo of sample SR (%) SRuv (%) SRvis (%) SRnir(%) Emissivity factor (e) (error ± 0.02)

Grey tile 66 7 69 66 0.89

Fig. 10. Monthly heating and cooling en-

ergy demand before and after the applica-
tion of the cool material.

with each grid sized 1.30 m × 1.30m. In the configuration file, the total
simulation time is set at 24 h. The initial conditions of the model are the
average meteorological conditions extracted by the meteorological
station that was installed in the Municipality of Acharnes. The simu-
lation day was the 16th of June 2015. The initial conditions for the
simulation are:

Fig. 11. Top view of the cool pavement application area.
• Average temperature: 29 °C
• Wind Speed 1.0 m/s
• Wind direction WNW
• Relative Humidity 50%
The results of the Envi-met simulation for the surface temperature
regarding the initial condition without the cool pavements, on a typical
summer day of 16th of June, are presented in Fig. 14 for 14:00.
Following the cool pavement application, the simulation of the
urban microclimatic conditions was performed using Envi-met. A
second configuration file is created containing the cool pavement in-
formation.
The results of the Envi-met simulation for the surface temperature
after the cool pavement application and 14:00, are depicted in Fig. 15.
The surface temperature difference is depicted in Fig. 16.
The application of cool pavements has the following results in the
urban environment:

• The reduction in the average maximum summer ambient tempera-

ture in the cool pavement area at height 1.80 m, at 14:00 is almost
0.3 K.
• The reduction of the surface temperature in the field of the cool
pavement application is almost 10 K.
Fig. 12. Street view of the sidewalk with the cool material application.

3.3. Cool pavements’ monitoring

The input files contain all the relevant information about the geo-
metry of the simulated area and the neighboring buildings.
Furthermore, in situ measurements were taken at the same day of
The study area is organized in a grid of 90 × 90 × 20 cells (x,y,z)
the simulation, in sunlight and shaded spots of the cool pavement and

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D.–.D. Kolokotsa et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 37 (2018) 466–474

Fig. 13. (a)The Cool pavement application

and its viewpoint through a thermal camera,
at 9:00 (b)The Cool pavement application
and its viewpoint through a thermal camera,
at 12:00.

Fig. 14. Spatial distribution of the surface temperature at 14:00 with the conventional pavements.

the conventional cement pavement boards using thermal camera FLIR extracted results of the Envi-met simulation. In addition cool pavement
B2 on hourly basis during the daytime. has in all cases lower temperature than the conventional pavement
As it is observed in Table 2, the surface temperature reduction in a either under shaded or under unshaded spots.
place under the sunlight at 14:00 is about 10 K which is in line with the

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D.–.D. Kolokotsa et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 37 (2018) 466–474

Fig. 15. Spatial distribution of the surface temperature at 14:00, after the cool pavement application.

4. Conclusions Cool roofs showed a considerable contribution to the reduction of

Urban Heat Island effect and local climate change increase the
ambient temperature of the cities, resulting in a significant impact on
the energy consumption of buildings and the thermal comfort of the
outdoor spaces. To mitigate the urban heat island in the region of
Acharnes, cool roofs and cool pavements are proposed.
the energy demand for cooling and the peak power requirements.
Lower surface temperatures are experienced to both cool roofs and cool
pavements resulting to the improvement of the outdoor conditions and
the mitigation of the urban heat. The ease of application of cool roofs
and cool pavements make them an attractive retrofit solution for both
buildings and urban spaces.

Fig. 16. Spatial distribution of the surface temperature difference at 14:00 before and after the cool pavement application.

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D.–.D. Kolokotsa et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 37 (2018) 466–474

Table 2
Measured surface temperature of cool and conventional pavement on 16/6/2015.

Surface Temperature (°C)

Day Time Cool Pavement Conventional pavement

9:00 27.9 (shaded by nearby buildings and 28.1(shaded by nearby buildings and
trees) trees)
10:00 31 (non-shaded) 33.3 (non-shaded)
11:00 35.1 (non-shaded) 29 (shaded by nearby buildings and 31.1 (shaded by nearby buildings and
trees) trees)
12:00 37.4 (non-shaded)
13:00 39.3 (non-shaded)
14:00 32.9 (non-shaded) 31.7 (shaded by nearby buildings and 42.6 (non-shaded) 34.9 (shaded by nearby buildings and
trees) trees)
15:00 32 (shaded by nearby buildings and 34.2 (non-shaded) 37.2 (non-shaded) 33.5 (shaded by nearby buildings and
trees) trees)
16:00 35.3 (non-shaded) 32.5 (shaded by nearby buildings and 39.3 (non-shaded) 34.5 (shaded by nearby buildings and
trees) trees)
17:00 31.5 (non-shaded) 38.0 (non-shaded)

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