Babylon Roofs launched in 2019 with the mission to transform unused roofs into value-added roofs. Such as circular and biobased green roofs, which both insulate better and contribute to lower energy consumption and help improve water drainage. To make this added value and benefits more transparent, founder Eduard Beekhuizen has had Inscio Roofs' sensors installed in a number of projects. Here he recounts his practical experiences.
Adding value to the roof
For decades, roofs have been primarily a sealing means of protecting buildings and homes from all weather conditions. Only in recent years have more and more people become aware of the possibilities and advantages that green roofs have to offer. Especially if they are made from biobased materials, instead of difficult-to-recycle roofing, root-resistant foils, drainage layers and growing layers of oil-based materials. "I started Babylon out of a passion for sustainability and roofs, to create value-added roofs for our customers," says Beekhuizen. "These are mainly private individuals, whether or not united in a neighborhood initiative, companies, housing associations and government organizations. Besides adding value, we distinguish ourselves in the roofing market by completely unburdening customers as a responsible central point of contact. "A lot has gone wrong with roofs in recent decades and I was extremely surprised that so little measurement and research data is available on this."
Need for objective measurement data
"With circular and biobased green roofs, there is a big opportunity to make homes and buildings more sustainable," Beekhuizen continued. "This is why we have partnered with a number of complementary entrepreneurs, governments and educational organizations to accelerate circular innovations. The solutions of this Circuloco initiative were on display at the Floriade in Almere. Because the functions, advantages and disadvantages of roof structures until now are mainly based on model-based calculations, arguments and information from manufacturers, I felt the need for objective measurement data. By asking questions about this within my network, I came into contact with Jeroen van de Laar of Inscio Roofs. Inscio Roofs supplies sensors and an analysis platform for virtually real-time monitoring of all roof conditions. So the temperature development, insulation values, the occurrence of leaks, etc. This solution to my measurement data needs has now been implemented in a number of our projects."
"With circular and biobased green roofs, there is a big opportunity to make homes and buildings more sustainable. The main advantage of Inscio Roofs solution is that they can measure temperature trends and other conditions in multiple layers of a roof structure and make them accessible via the cloud. I haven't seen that anywhere else."
Floriade and an office full of trash
In addition to the roof structure of the Circuloco pavilion at Floriade Expo 2022, Babylon Roofs also had measurement sensors installed in the Office full of Waste (KaVA) project. "In this project, we are investigating the application and performance of a fully circular biobased green roof in collaboration with the National Property Agency," Beekhuizen explains. "The main advantage of Inscio Roofs solution is that they can measure temperature trends and other conditions in multiple layers of a roof structure and make them accessible via the cloud. I haven't seen that anywhere else. Of course, you can buy and install all kinds of sensors, but then you are far from having a turnkey measurement solution. Via the sensors installed by Inscio Roofs, I now have insight into the temperature and humidity of our roofs every hour, or 24 x 365 measurements per year. These measurements help us to develop, install and preventively maintain even better performing circular green roofs."
Better than expected results
The measurements collected and analyzed by Babylon Roofs from various roofs over the past year yielded better-than-expected results. "For example, the temperature under our green roofs never dropped below zero last winter, compared to a black roof where temperatures lower than -15 were measured. In summer, the green roof never got warmer than 30 degrees, while those of black and white bitumen roofing rose above 70 and 45 degrees, respectively. In short, the insulating effect of green roofs is considerably greater than many people think, depending, of course, on the roofing and insulation materials used. In the coming time, we will expand our measurements to more conditions and more materials in subsequent projects. The data we collect and analyze with Inscio Roofs' sensors helps us get all stakeholders to look at construction in a more sustainable way. But also better calculate the life-cycle costs of alternative roof structures for clients and consultants."
