The Cool Roof Rating Council, commonly referred to as the CRRC, is a nonprofit organization that evaluates and labels the radiative properties of roofing and exterior wall products. Manufacturers must adhere to strict program requirements for their products to earn a CRRC Label and get published in the Rated Products Directory.
Standard products are measured initially by an Accredited Testing Lab for Solar Reflectance (SR) and Thermal Emissivity (TE) before they undergo three years of outdoor weathering in three designated climate zones (hot/dry, cold/temperate, and hot/humid).
These climate zones collectively represent an average climate across the U.S. After three years of exposure, the samples are returned to an Accredited Testing Lab and measured for aged SR and TE values to be submitted for a CRRC product rating.
With thousands of color options for each application, the process to test and rate every variation would be cost-prohibitive for end-use markets and require three-year lead times to be rated. Recognizing the intricacies of this market, the CRRC implemented a Color Family Program that groups products by resin/binder technology in narrowly defined color spaces.
To establish these Color Families, Representative Elements have been tested by Sherwin-Williams and weathered in the defined climate zones for three years to establish an overall performance for each Color Family Group.
Having established these groups, we are able to rate products as Color Family Additional Elements so long as they fall within the defined Hunter color coordinates and meet or exceed the initial SR and TE established by the Color Family Representative Element. This distinctive program offered by the CRRC benefits the pre-painted industry by minimizing cost and improving the speed to market for product ratings.
An important question we get a lot from our customers is, “Why don’t the values on my color card match the values on the CRRC Rated Products Directory?” It is important to note Color Family Additional Elements inherit the initial and aged values from the Color Family Representative Element.
The values published on the CRRC Rated Products Directory reflect the performance of the Color Family Representative Element when it was tested.
This serves as a conservative rating for the Color Family Additional Elements since they must meet or exceed the performance of the Representative Element to qualify for the Color Family Program.
Thank you, Alex Nicol, R&D Group Leader of the Sherwin-Williams Fort Myers
Weathering Center of Excellence, for this guest post.