Sweating Bullets A Dramatization

It was another hot day outside, and John rolled up his sleeves as he worked at his desk.  Every afternoon during the summer, the office got so stuffy that he had to loosen his tie as he listened to the complaints of the employees and stared up at the water-stained ceiling tiles.  As the general manager of the central region facility, he had to play his part in controlling costs and saving energy.  So the thermostat was set at 76 degrees.  Yet when he checked the thermometer in the front lobby, it often read just under 80 degrees.  Rarely, on these very hot days did it drop below 78 degrees – unless one of the employees broke into the locked cover and reset the thermostat.

Most times when John worked late, he had noticed that the air conditioning never seemed to shut off.  In fact, the only time the units seemed to be silent during the summer was when he came in very early in the morning.  Maybe there was something wrong with them.

He picked up the phone and called Bob, his maintenance supervisor.  “Bob, what’s wrong with the air conditioners?”

“What do you mean?” asked Bob.

“Well, there must be something wrong because it never cools off in this office and I’m tired of getting grief from the employees.”

“John, I’ve checked all the units and they’re fine.  And they get serviced every month whether they need it or not.”

“Are you sure?” asked John. “Because it’s almost eighty degrees in here.”

“Positive.  Let me take you up on the roof tomorrow to see for yourself.”

The next morning, John went up on the roof with Bob and Lee, the air conditioning technician.  As they walked across the black rubber roof that had been installed just a few years ago, John tripped on a seam that had peeled back.  “Should that be like that?” asked John.

“No, but we’ve got a number of those places up here, so be careful.  The roofer has been called but the most he can do is patch the roof.  We’ve got seam separations and leaks all over the place.”

As they reached the back of the building, they heard all of the air conditioning units already groaning away.  Lee explained the details and specifications about the units and described the checks he performs.  “You know,” said Lee, “the problem is we just don’t have enough units or large enough units to handle the load for this building.”

“Don’t think I’m going to throw more money out here for new air conditioners and hope the problem goes away,” replied John.  “That would just make the electricity bills worse.  We need to find another solution.”

“Tell you what,” said Bob. “Come back up here with me this afternoon at around two o’clock and I’ll have something for you.”

The last thing John wanted to do was go up on that hot roof in the afternoon, but Bob said he’d have a solution.  So, at two o’clock, John rolled up his sleeves and removed his tie and they headed back up to the roof.

They walked to the center of the roof and stood there.  It was blazing hot and John could see the ripples of heat rising from the roof.  Every air conditioning unit was whining away and all John could think about was the electric meter.

“Okay, Bob.  What’s the deal?  It’s hot up here!”

“Exactly,” said Bob.  “That’s what I wanted to show you.”

“Well, of course!  Everybody knows it gets hot on a roof.  It’s ‘only’ 95 degrees but it feels like 150 up here.”

Bob pointed to a thermometer lying on the roof surface and said, “Try 180.”

John looked at the thermometer.  Sure enough it read 182 degrees. “Wow, is that real?”

“Sure is.”

“So what’s your suggestion?” said John.

“Well, remember that seam you tripped over this morning? 

“Yeah.”

Bob explained.  “The heat is causing seams to come apart all over this roof and we can either continue to patch the leaks, or completely replace the roof.”

“No way!  This roof is only 5 years old.  You get that roofer in here and make him honor his warranty.”

“It’s a long story, John, but there’s only so much the roofer can do, and his patching won’t solve the problem.”

“Why not?” asked John.

“Because we’ll still develop leaks, and more importantly, the roof will still be black.”

“Well, what’s that got to do with anything?”

Bob said, “That’s why the building is so hot.”

“So now you’re going to tell me that not only do I need to fork over money for more air conditioners, but I need a new roof, too.  The corporate office will never go for that.”

“What if I told you replacing the roof would pay for itself in five to seven years?”

“How do you figure?” asked John.

“If we replace the existing roof with a Duro-Last® Cool Zone™ roof, it will keep the entire building cooler, and we’ll save on energy costs.  Some buildings have seen their energy costs drop by as much as 40%.” 

“How does it keep the building cooler?”   

“The Duro-Last Cool Zone roofing system uses an ENERGY STAR® labeled membrane that reflects over 86% of the sun’s rays,” explained Bob.  “Because the roof stays cooler, the building stays cooler and we won’t need more air conditioners.  In fact, the existing units will probably be more than adequate to keep the office comfortable.”

“So why didn’t we do that before?”

“You were concerned that it might cost too much.  But it turns out that the Cool Zone roofing system doesn’t cost any more than other systems and it could have been installed in less than half the time.  Plus, because the Cool Zone system is prefabricated in a Duro-Last factory, we wouldn’t be getting the leaks we have now. Duro-Last backs it up with a 15 year warranty – the best in the industry.”

“Can you get me some numbers to back those energy savings up?” John asked.

“Sure.  I can do that on the Internet this afternoon.”

“Good.  Do it then, and let’s get down off of here.  I’m sweating bullets.”

The numbers Bob found at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory web site showed John that he could expect significant energy savings by installing a Duro-Last Cool Zone roofing system.  And after the roof was replaced, they indeed noticed an immediate reduction in the electricity bill, plus the office was much more comfortable to work in.  And Bob finally replaced those stained ceiling tiles in John’s office.