Testing for tomorrow: How ACE Labs supports the CRRC’s mission

By Emma Peterson.

Dive into the world of ACE Laboratories and cool roofing rating tests!

The Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC) is known in the industry for their crucial work related to cool surfaces and the mitigation of heat islands, extreme heat and overconsumption of energy in the built environment. One of the resources they provide is the Rated Roofing Products Directory that helps contractors identify roofing products that comply with building codes, green building programs and financial incentives. In order to create this directory, they partner with independent labs who test the products for them. Recently, one of those labs, ACE Laboratories, announced the expansion of their equipment capacity to perform tests for CRRC. In a new episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Megan Ellsworth got the chance to chat with Erick Sharp from ACE Laboratories to talk about this expansion and their work.  

ACE and the CRRC started working together back in August of 2022. Erick explained how they grew from there, saying, “We wanted to have the capacity and redundancy to really be able to do large volumes of this type of testing and wanted to position ourselves as a market leader for being able to turn this type of testing. So, we started with six technicians getting accredited to do all the various methods of CRRC testing...” Now, years later, they have multiple units testing for the CRRC and are prepared to keep growing as CRRC continues to expand into new technologies and sectors.  

So, what exactly are those technicians and units doing every day? Erick shared a bit about the type of testing work ACE performs for CRRC, saying, “The ultimate testing that we're accomplishing is evaluating the solar reflectance and admittance against the materials. So, some parts of the test aim to simulate what the products are going to be like on the roof. For example, you can take the brand-new product, lay it out and test its performance.” The one thing about this specific type of test is that it can take a while to get results. That’s why ACE developed their rapid rating test. Erick explained, “That's where we're putting it in the soiling station, we're trying to simulate how gunky this is going to get after it's been on the roof for that long and then we do the solar reflectance test. So, we're able to do rapid ratings to hold a rating for somebody until the long-term results can come back.”

Read the transcript or Listen to the full episode to learn more about ACE Laboratories, their work with the CRRC and what having a cool rating means for a product.