Doug wrote:

I believe when I was a youngster, my dad put a white shingled roof on
our house and as I recall, we were the only one or two in a large
subdivision with a white shingled roof. This was on Long Island, NY.
I don't recall them ever talking about the electric bill but I was
probably too young to care. My personal thought is that a white
shingle roof is probably minimally beneficial because since I've lived
in Texas and traveling around Houston and Austin, I don't recall
seeing any white shingled roofs. I would think with the heat we get
for many months a year, if it were really beneficial, they would have
a lot more of them around here. So my conclusion is that my father
(a builder then) and the homes I see now, do it for cosmetics more
than anything else.

I think the reason you don't see light-colored roofs in a Texas urban
environment, or any urban environment for that matter, is they discolor from
the gunk and particulate matter in the air. The roofs, moreover, don't
discolor uniformly. They streak and in general look just horrid.