Reflective paint?

[mike]

The front of my house faces the evening sun. When it's 100 outside, the brown front door is 184 degrees F. Stuck a square of white insulation board in front of the door. It got up to 107 degrees. The light-gray house is at 164 degrees. I started thinking about painting the front of the house white. Did some online research and found mention of paint that's highly reflective in both visible and IR parts of the spectrum, but nothing on where to buy it.

Most info was about coatings for roofing.

There's even some ceramic sphere additive that claims to cut solar heat gain to near zero. Seems like if this worked as well as they claim, it'd be everywhere. Went to big-box stores and dedicated paint stores. Nobody heard of it.

Will repainting the front of the house buy me anything? The walls are R19 and the windows are low-E R3.3-ish with SHGC of .3. Door is fiberglass r5-ish.

Reflective paint recommendations?

Thanks, mike

[hallerb]

the ceramic spheres are very costly since they are a realtive of space shuttle tiles.

white paint will get you less heat gain in summer, but cut winter heat gain too.....

you could reside adding a layer of foam insulation between the existing siding and new siding, plus no more painting:)

foam board is around R6 or R7 per inch.

so you could double your wall insulation

[Frank]

The glass spheres are only a couple of dollars a pound. Not sure I'd want to paint my door with them as it would look like a road sign when headlights hit it at night.

[HeyBub]

A white door is artistically acceptable, but before you paint it, what's the temperature on the INSIDE side of the door. The door itself may already be adequate.

Trees, shrubs, and awnings will not cause as much palpitation by your HOA as a reflective house.

I've got an awning over the patio - in front of the glass, sliding, patio door. Using the $9.95 remote-sensing thermometer from HD, the concrete directly in the sun measured 130° while the concrete on the patio measured

104°.

[ransley]

Gloss is reflective, if your door was gloss brown it would be maybe

5-20f cooler but white is best and will be nearest to 100f. I tried the ceramic beads but not in your heat or sun. You could buy a pint and do your own test, in my tests it failed. You need trees or something to block the sun, its to bad they take forever to grow tall.

[mike]

I haven't discovered anywhere to buy it in small quantities.

in my tests it failed. Details???

You need trees or

I did a stupid. Last week I trimmed the tree WAY back. Stupid, stupid, stupid...

[dpb]

mike wrote: ...

...

Lighter/higher gloss will help some, yes. How much depends mostly on how big a difference you make.

--

[ransley]

er to grow tall.

I forget the site I googled for the ceramic stuff, try variations of Insulating Paint Ceramic Beads, I painted my basement walls and a section of the furnace duct and with an IR thermometer showed no difference to unpainted. They have been around since at least 85, I figure if it really worked it would be standard practice by now in housing and industry to use the stuff. Consider awnings

[Smarty]

Move to a cave!

[Tony]

You could cover the front of the house with mirrors!!!!!

[mike]

to grow tall.

I agree...stuff that works is adopted rapidly. Snake oil takes longer. ;-) I'm not surprised your test didn't work. As I understand it, the only good it does is on incident radiation. Claims to re-radiate the energy back toward the source rather than conducting it to the underlying material. That's why it sounded good to reduce solar heat gain.

I did some quick tests painting small "swatches of wood" with two different white paints. Both were substantially cooler than my brown door.

If you've got any ceramic paint left, try painting a small board and sticking it out in the sun.

I hit a few garage sales today and came back with several hanging shades. They make a substantial difference where they hang...but not practical to hang them all over the front of the house ;-) If i could figure out how to keep them from banging around in the breeze, I'd be a happy camper.

mike

[Doug]

Information that you are seeking can be found at

Not all CERAMIC INSULATION COATINGS are created equal! There is also a vast difference between an insulating coating and a "reflective paint". Any legitimate product will have the appropriate ASTM testing that has been performed by an Certified Thermal Laboratory. The ASTM, ASHRAE, ENERGY STAR, LEED, ICC, ECAP and other tests for SUPER THERM =AE Multi ~ Ceramic Insulation Coating can be found under Certifications. I trust this is satisfactory for your purposes however should you have any questions or require additional information please feel free to contact me personally at [e-mail]

Best Regards, Doug D. W. ( Doug ) Pearce President

[mike]

Interesting. If this stuff is as great as it sounds, it's the simplest thing one could do to save energy. The tree-huggers oughta be all over this. Oughta be able to buy it in any home-improvement store. California would have made it a requirement in building codes. The fiberglass insulation people oughta be outa business by now.

But I can't find it anywhere. Paint stores ain't ever heard of the stuff. I can't find out what it costs. Best I can find on the web is a questionnaire that doesn't even promise a price quote.

The videos are cleverly constructed for "wow" factor, but not sure how they relate to actual reduction in solar heat gain. Blowtorches on unspecified metal with THICK applications of supertherm seem unrelated to what I need.

Got any data on performance vs color? How much can I tint it from blinding white...to keep the neighbors off my case... when I paint the front of my house with it?

Any representatives in Portland, Oregon? I'd like to drive-by and see what it looks like. And get some actual data in exterior wall applications. Most of the info I find is about roof coatings. Where can I buy small quantities?

Thanks, mike

[ransley]

It isnt great and the reason it isnt "everywhere" is it isnt great. I know folks at Sherwin Williams corporate, they did tests to market it under their own brand 10 years ago, and they still passed. Im sure its been tested to death and it would be mandatory code if it worked

[ransley]

Created Equal? Research that a bit more, it was invented and its all made by 3M or Dow or some other conglomerate

[terry]

Slightly amusing story ..... re reflective paint.

A USAF base in another country had a supply of reflective paint which was used in a limited manner for runway markers etc. to make them more visible at night and in fog etc.

Since the paint was very expensive it was specially stored in locked storage and to be obtained needed a special requisition for use by US personnel.

One night an USAF officer was driving privately along a local peninsula, and, so the story goes, his headlights picked up the outline of rural shed/barn near the coastline.

The paint trim on it lit up in the headlights like nothing ever seen before!

An investigation followed, finding that someone had had unauthorized access to the reflective paint; some had 'disappeared' and locally had been found useful to paint the trim on the fisherman's barn.

After all "Paint is paint isn't it?' especially if 'free' off the US base?. Very revealing anyway!

[Doug]

Hi MIke,

I already responded to your email however here is a copy and paste for everyone else...

If this stuff is as great as it sounds, it's the simplest thing one could

See ASPHALT SHINGLE ROOF OBAMA/CHU INITIATIVE

be sold by a clerk. It ain't paint. Unfortunately One size does not fit all. Unless the correct product is applied to the correct specifications you won't get the correct performance. Different products for different applications. See HOME AND GARDEN ARITICLE PDF

ROOF PROGRAM California Building Energy Efficiency Standards adopted July

2003.

kidding. In addition to the inherent thermal deficiencies in fiberglass, there is also the possibility of some inherent health concerns. For further information regarding the very real possibility of fiberglass being as carcinogenic as asbestos visit the Fiberglass Information Network.

See SUPERTHERM ® VS. FIBERGLASS (6.8 mb)

stuff. It ain't paint.

questionnaire that doesn't even promise a price quote.

Architectural Review with Morley Safer SUPERTHERM Video.

For more technical videos see FLORIDA ENERGY OFFICE VIDEO ( 6.51mb )

or DENVER ENERGY REPORT VIDEO ( 8.17mb )

How much can I tint it from

Architectural Specifications

EXCELLENT ICE ARENA - SURREY, BC

Best Regards, Doug D. W. ( Doug ) Pearce President

_________________________ Message sent through

[mike]

You left out one critical part: A one gallon can of SUPER THERM ® Multi ~ Ceramic Insulation Coating is $122.00 and a five gallon pail is $510.00. These prices are FOB Kansas

Solved my problem. Stopped by a garage sale and got a hanging shade. Hung it in front of the door. Solar heat gain now near zero. Cost zero. It's a win-win.