roof

OneRoof Solar is offering a new twist on the solar lease: when you replace your roof, you can get integrated solar panels with no incremental cost.

The company today announced it raised a $50 million series A round led by the solar arm of Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group. The company also said it has secured the funding to finance solar installations at residential customers.

Solar leases, which are available in about 20 states now, have quickly become a popular way to have solar photovoltaic panels installed. Instead of purchasing the panels, homeowners pay a monthly fee and the solar installer … Read more

What's light green, sprayed on top of asphalt, and lowers the temperature of parking lots by 30 degrees? If you went to school at Robert L. Duffy school in Phoenix, you'd know the answer.

Late last month, the charter school became the testing ground for "green asphalt," a concrete-based reflective covering designed to make asphalt surfaces cooler and more durable.

Phoenix-based Emerald Cities installed the coating at the school to demonstrate the viability of the technology to city leaders and contractors, company CEO Sheri Roese said yesterday.

As part of its efforts to be carbon neutral, … Read more

Archeologists and NASA scientists have "unearthed" a complete ancient Mayan city that employed a system of green urban architecture, the group announced Tuesday.

"The NASA technology aboard the Cessna saw beyond the rain forest and detected thousands of new structures, 11 new causeways, tens of thousands of agricultural terraces and many hidden caves--results beyond anyone's imagination," the group said in a statement.

The project was led by a husband and wife archaeological team from the University of Central Florida who have been in Belize manually excavating the ancient Mayan city of Caracol out from under … Read more

A group of scientists with funding from the Department of Energy has presented a new type of roof coating that would allow all the benefits and none of the drawbacks of black and white roofs combined.

It's long been agreed that a white roof, because it naturally reflects sunlight, reduces the amount of heat a building absorbs in extremely hot and sunny situations, thus, contributing to keeping the building cool (think Greece). Some have even gone as far as to propose white "green" roofs as a geoengineering idea for reducing global warming because they may both reduce air conditioning use and reflect more sunlight … Read more

RoofRay is a tool that helps you figure out whether it's worth plunking down on money to put solar panels on your roof. If you've long been contemplating going solar to stick it to the man, this tool will give you a fairly rough estimate of how much efficiency you can expect and how it will affect your monthly bills based on past weather conditions, monthly power bills, the slope of your house, and how much paneling you can cram onto your roof.

It does most all of this with the help of Google Maps. It's one … Read more

Here's some bright news to go with your daily dose of bad these days.

It may sound like sacrilege, but owners of new Ford Mustangs may actually have a chance to look cooler than Steve McQueen while driving.

The $1,995 factory-installed panoramic glass-roof option that Ford announced last December is now available on its 2009 V-6 and GT models, the company announced Wednesday.

From the photos, this really looks like more than just your typical moonroof.

Not only will the glass roof look cool, it might also help you stay cool. Ford claims that the specially tinted glass … Read more

A San Francisco nightclub installed on Monday what it's promoting as the city's first vertical garden. Several plant-filled boxes turned on their sides and bolted outside near the entrance are the first step in the Zen Compound's plans to cover the facade of the building in greenery.

"The hope is to have a living building," said Mike Zuckerman, director of sustainability at the 40,000 square foot complex. He spotted a butterfly hovering near native licorice ferns on Tuesday.

Green rooftops are in vogue in cities around the country. Hanging, wall-mounted gardens, on the other … Read more

Hope you didn't buy that Mustang Bullitt for the Ali MacGraw in your life just yet.

Ford announced it's now offering a factory-installed panoramic glass roof option for both the Steve McQueen-inspired Bullitt and the Shelby GT500KR. The glass roof, as an option for its V-6 Mustang and Mustang GT, will become available in the summer of 2008, according to Ford.

To be clear, this is not a hardtop convertible, but a fixed glass roof option. It will be available for $1,995.

And, as no one wants an over-heated driver, the glass roof is made of tinted … Read more

It's bad enough to be perennially paranoid about the status of one's home, scoping out all makes and numbers of cameras to keep an eye on your property while you're at the office. But anxiety levels rise exponentially when you're away for extended periods or have a vacation home to worry about. Cameras may be useful for limited surveillance but can't detect all the physical threats to your abode, such as those from the elements.

That's where the "Sensaphone 400" comes in, according to Gadgetizer, with sensors that monitor "water, wind, … Read more