Ask any roofer and they will tell you most roofing material (asphalt shingles and cedar shakes in particular) is built to withstand the intense heat generated by direct sunlight. But when they are also baked from underneath by a 150 degree attic, they just don’t last as long. Keeping your attic cooler helps make your shingles last longer. Ice dams that occur in the winter months are also very hard on your roof…we discussed earlier how a solar powered fan can inhibit the cause of ice dams.