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A/C in a paint can?

Comments

  • jumper
    jumper Member Posts: 2,226
    How long does white stay white?
  • Steamhead
    Steamhead Member Posts: 16,796
    When I had my roof replaced, I went to a lighter color and it made a very noticeable reduction in summer heat gain. Not sure how this paint gets to a negative value, but if it rejects the most heat gain of anything out there, it should be worth using.
    All Steamed Up, Inc.
    Towson, MD, USA
    Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
    Oil & Gas Burner Service
    Consulting
  • SlamDunk
    SlamDunk Member Posts: 1,570
    That is interesting because I have an eccentric neighbor around the corner who years ago painted his roof shingles with this "NASA created" coating, thick like batter, and swore his house was cooler. He even painted the tops of his cars! Fast forward to today and he has new shingles and different cars but still....
  • RayWohlfarth
    RayWohlfarth Member Posts: 1,459
    I read that and shook my head. Wondering how well it removes the latent heat :)
    Ray Wohlfarth
    Boiler Lessons
  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 15,583

    I read that and shook my head. Wondering how well it removes the latent heat :)

    Many areas do not have issues with latent heat, in fact, they even use swamp coolers with good success.

    Single pipe quasi-vapor system. Typical operating pressure 0.14 - 0.43 oz. EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Control for Residential Steam boilers. Rectorseal Steamaster water treatment
  • RayWohlfarth
    RayWohlfarth Member Posts: 1,459
    @ChrisJ They would not work up here but I would love to see one in person
    Ray Wohlfarth
    Boiler Lessons
  • jumper
    jumper Member Posts: 2,226
    Won't white radiate heat slower at night?
  • unclejohn
    unclejohn Member Posts: 1,833
    When we bought our first house it happen pretty quick. House went on the market and that day we made and offer and they excepted. It was a divorce and the husband was already gone. At settelment I asked the lady what brand A/C unit she had. She said the house dosen't have A/C, it didn't need it because there is a breeze. Probably why we got the house at 5k under asking price. And she was right about the breeze for the first two weeks in May the house was nice and cool. Then the breeze stopped.
  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 15,583
    unclejohn said:

    When we bought our first house it happen pretty quick. House went on the market and that day we made and offer and they excepted. It was a divorce and the husband was already gone. At settelment I asked the lady what brand A/C unit she had. She said the house dosen't have A/C, it didn't need it because there is a breeze. Probably why we got the house at 5k under asking price. And she was right about the breeze for the first two weeks in May the house was nice and cool. Then the breeze stopped.

    A breeze would be convection.
    Single pipe quasi-vapor system. Typical operating pressure 0.14 - 0.43 oz. EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Control for Residential Steam boilers. Rectorseal Steamaster water treatment
  • Ironman
    Ironman Member Posts: 7,366
    You guys help me because I think that I’m missing something here.
    What about the benefit of the heat that’s absorbed from sunlight (passive solar) during heating season? Would that be lost or greatly reduced? In our area, the heating season is 7-8 months of the year and cooling is 3-4. In the overall picture wouldn’t I be better off without this wonderful paint?
    Bob Boan
    You can choose to do what you want, but you cannot choose the consequences.
  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 15,583
    Ironman said:

    You guys help me because I think that I’m missing something here.
    What about the benefit of the heat that’s absorbed from sunlight (passive solar) during heating season? Would that be lost or greatly reduced? In our area, the heating season is 7-8 months of the year and cooling is 3-4. In the overall picture wouldn’t I be better off without this wonderful paint?

    Just like anything in HVAC, it depends on your area and situation.
    Some never need AC. Some need AC 365 days a year. Some rarely need sensible cooling but need a lot of latent cooling. Some need zero latent cooling but a ton of sensible.


    I'm not sure what you're missing but not everyone lives where you do. ;)
    Single pipe quasi-vapor system. Typical operating pressure 0.14 - 0.43 oz. EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Control for Residential Steam boilers. Rectorseal Steamaster water treatment
  • Hot_water_fan
    Hot_water_fan Member Posts: 1,823
    You guys help me because I think that I’m missing something here.
    What about the benefit of the heat that’s absorbed from sunlight (passive solar) during heating season? Would that be lost or greatly reduced? In our area, the heating season is 7-8 months of the year and cooling is 3-4. In the overall picture wouldn’t I be better off without this wonderful paint?


    There's a lot less sunlight to go around in the heating months and the sun is lower so the net benefit is usually pretty high.
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,160
    There is something to be said for decreasing radiant heat gain during the sunnier and warmer months. Fancy paint isn't the only solution -- in many areas there are such things as trees...

    Not, I grant, everywhere!

    Swamp coolers are really great in areas where there is low humidity. They can't get the air temperature too low, but they work fine where the ambient relative humidity is in the 20s or 30s. If the dewpoint is below freezing, as it is in some true desert climates, in principle they can even create -- or at least keep -- ice! A principle known several millennia ago in Persia.

    All that said, while a reduction in radiant heat gain is always going to help in warmer weather, it's not going to keep you comfortable in, say, Houston or Miami in the summer, with the air temperature hovering around 100 F and the relative humidity around 90...
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    delcrossv
  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 15,583
    Is there a such thing as an absorption type air conditioner that uses heat from the roof?
    Single pipe quasi-vapor system. Typical operating pressure 0.14 - 0.43 oz. EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Control for Residential Steam boilers. Rectorseal Steamaster water treatment
  • jumper
    jumper Member Posts: 2,226
    ChrisJ said:

    Is there a such thing as an absorption type air conditioner that uses heat from the roof?

    Some Japanese maybe Yazaki offered an absorption chiller that could be fired by water from solar thermal collectors. That was in the seventies. I think the condenser was expected to be evaporatively cooled. If you're in the middle of nowhere and rich.....

    Indirect evaporative cooling can often work somewhat. Especially for agriculture where animals cannot complain.
    ChrisJ
  • delcrossv
    delcrossv Member Posts: 740
    I have to call BS on the article. it's 98% reflective, so it's 2% absorbent. Absorbing energy and getting cooler violates thermodynamics. And thermodynamics is NEVER violated.
    Wonder how it lasts on window sashes. :p
    Trying to squeeze the best out of a Weil-McLain JB-5 running a 1912 1 pipe system.
  • Zipper13
    Zipper13 Member Posts: 229
    Most articles about this are very limited in their discussion, but that article specifically offers VERY little information. From what I've read, the groundbreaking part of this paint isn't so much about it having more white pigment in it, but rather the physical structure of the particles that make that pigment. The shapes, sizes, and physical properties of the chemical particles making the pigment allow it to reflect and efficiently scatter more than previous paints.

    to the point about it ONLY reflecting 98% so it must be absorbing 2%. Consider that it just says "solar radiation" and doesn't clarify which constituent wavelengths and energies are preferentially reflected/absorbed. Further, the paint is said to also emit IR, so it follows that at least some amount of the absorbed 2% is subsequently re-emitted leading to less heat gain in the surface relative to an untreated surface. The fact that is emits IR must mean that cooling is occurring. Indeed, pretty much everything emits IR, but if you can reduce absorption and increase emission, I'd call that a "cooling effect" even if its nothing like standing in front of an AC fan.

    If you don't believe in the "cooling" power of reflection, lay a reflective blanket over a patch of snow in your yard this winter and notice how much more slowly that patch melts than the surrounding unprotected snow.

    I suspect that all of these articles, like nearly all science-centric articles have latched onto a soundbite that the authors think is most relatable to readers like us, but present it in the wrong context.



    New owner of a 1920s home with steam heat north of Boston.
    Just trying to learn what I can do myself and what I just shouldn't touch
  • Zipper13
    Zipper13 Member Posts: 229
    delcrossv said:

    I have to call BS on the article. it's 98% reflective, so it's 2% absorbent. Absorbing energy and getting cooler violates thermodynamics. And thermodynamics is NEVER violated.
    Wonder how it lasts on window sashes. :p


    I do not know if this paint is such a material, but there are indeed substances that can absorb energy and store it as latent heat without raising the material's temperature. For these substances, the absorbed energy does work to change the substance's structure rather than raising the temperature. Consider how much energy boiling water will absorb without getting any hotter! That energy does work to produce a phase change from liquid to steam. Thermodynamics is still happy here.
    New owner of a 1920s home with steam heat north of Boston.
    Just trying to learn what I can do myself and what I just shouldn't touch