Energy saving paint

Veröffentlicht von Claus Diekötter auf 18. November 2013, 10:23am

Kategorien: #energy efficiency, #Buildings

This post is about a product which can be used inside buildings to save money. Have you ever heard of energy saving paints? If not you might be interested in getting to know that these exist and how they work.

When I visited the energy fair in Frankfurt in 2013 I came across one stand which produces this paint. In this text the material from the company MIG will be used to describe the technique which can reduce the heating demand by 40%.

The idea of this technology is to keep the heat (infrared radiation) inside while keeping the cold outside the house. In addition to that the air humidity is controlled with this technology.
Without the energy saving paint the infrared radiation can pass through the walls very easily as there is no reflection and conduction and convection is high.
With the energy saving paint the infrared radiation will be reflected up to 90%. Therefore there is a smaller percentage of heat which is transported to the outside via conduction and convection.

This is done with small ceramic balls within the paint, which are put on the walls in several layers. In addition to the infrared reflection the air humidity is controlled within the room. The steam can go through the walls, but it is water resistant. In combination with chemicals the production of moldy walls and bad odours are prevented. For this purpose photocatalyic additives are needed.

Beside of reducing the heating demand of the house this technique has the advantage of reducing the risk to become allergenic as there is no dust which is dispersed through the air with other heating systems. As well the noise pollution will be reduced because of the cavities within the ceramic balls.

As there is a paint available for the interior and exterior the effect of the paint can be experienced all over the year and anywhere in the world. In winter times the heat will be kept inside as the reflection of the infrared radiation takes place. Outside the radiation is very low as the temperature is low as well.
In summer times the reflection of the infrared radiation takes place outside of the wall. The heat is reflected and cannot get into the house. Inside the house the temperature will get equalized through several reflections of the infrared radiation. According to the material from the company the difference of the interior temperature of two containers where one had the energy saving paint and the other one did not was around 8-10°C. This measurement took place in the Middle East.

As the temperature of the surface of the wall and the air temperature get equalized with this paint the people feel more comfortable living in these rooms. In addition there is not such a high difference between the temperature at the bottom and at the ceiling of the room.

There are already houses using this technology. There are several pictures on the webpage, which use this paint. In particular a historical monument in Switzerland was renovated with using this paint

There is high potential for saving energy in houses and with all these described characteristics. Not only based on financial aspects but as well as on healthy basis.

Sources: