Thermochromic paint for facades
One topic you should know is that white paint reflects heat, and black color absorbs it. From a building energy efficiency perspective, applying this concept results in significant energy savings.
The exterior color of your house is important! But… What if the facade of your home changed color with the weather? When it’s cold outside, the facade darkens, and when it’s hot, it becomes whiter.
The New York industrial designer Joe Doucet has dedicated himself to trying to solve this idea with his innovative climate-responsive paint and it seems he has succeeded!
The industrial designer has developed what he calls “climate-adaptive paint” that can change color according to the outside temperature.
The thermochromic paint (changes color with temperature) is not new, but it has two major problems; the first is the price, very high, and the second, that its effects do not last long over time.
The designer began his research on the effects of color on temperature for his home… “Noticing how colors affect temperature, I imagined that an ideal building would change color like leaves according to the season”.
From here, he began to focus on the “mood rings” of the 90s that work under the same principle, where temperature influences color, but in this case, applied to a building facade.
The patented formula makes the paint turn black if the outside temperature is below 77ºF (Fahrenheit to Celsius approximately 25°C) and white if it exceeds that temperature. It is estimated that using this paint could generate annual energy savings of 20 to 30%.
It is estimated that using this thermochromic paint could generate annual energy savings of 20 to 30%
This innovative paint could be useful not only for houses or buildings but also for industrial facilities, warehouses, and ultimately any surface that can be painted, reducing the need for air conditioning or heating.
Additionally, the formula of the paint can be mixed with other dyes, so we would have walls with colored paint in houses that look lighter in summer and darker in winter.
Doucet’s team used commercially available latex house paint as a base and then mixed it with their own patented formula.
A major challenge in the development was achieving a formula that could maintain the transition from light to dark color without degrading, which would cause the paint to end up being gray.
The initial formulas degraded too quickly. However, the team finally created a “secret sauce” that allows the paint to last at least a year without significant degradation, according to tests conducted in the studio.
It is estimated that this new climate-adaptive paint will cost between 3 and 5 times more than standard paint, but it is expected that this cost will be quickly recovered with energy savings.
Doucet’s goal is not to manufacture the paint but to license the formula to paint companies so that they produce and market it.
We must remember that there are many other color treatments applicable to materials, it is the field of chromogenics.
Chromogenics is the property of certain materials to change color due to an external stimulus and where the color change can be reversible or irreversible.
It is a quite interesting topic whose studies have focused more on industrial design and very little on covering other topics such as the field of energy efficiency or architecture.
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