What is the best material to use for heat and cold insulation in your home? The fact is that the material that the insulation is made from is not what provides the heat and cold barrier. It is the air that is trapped in the insulation that provides the thermal barrier that keeps you warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.
Each type of insulation, whether it is a foam product, fiberglass batts or shredded paper provides different sizes and numbers of air pockets within them. That is why crushing insulation or pushing insulation into a crevice is counterproductive, it removes the air pockets, which is what provides the thermal barrier.
A relatively new product to enter the market provides air pockets within paint. The principle of the product is based on a complex blend of microscopic hollow ceramic spheres. Each ceramic sphere has a vacuum inside it, similar to mini thermos bottles. By mixing the ceramic spheres into paint it creates a product that provides enhanced insulation and saves you energy and money.
The paint, with its ceramic additive has proven to increase the R
insulation level of walls and ceilings. While use of the product on interior walls is extremely beneficial, its use on exterior walls is even more dramatically effective since it blocks the extreme heat of the sun.
The ceramic materials have unique energy savings properties that reflect heat while dissipating it. The hollow ceramic microspheres reflective quality affects the warming phenomenon called Mean Radiant Temperature
, where heat waves from a source such as direct sunlight cause a person to feel warmer even though the actual air temperature is no different between a shady and sunny location. It is the molecular friction within the skin caused by the sun's radiant energy waves, which makes the mind think that the body is warmer. The ceramic microspheres in the paint refract, reflect, and dissipate heat.
The performance of the additive when mixed with light colored house paint can reduce exterior solar radiant heat gain into a home and interior heat loss from a home by over 20 percent. Summer heat gain through a building's exterior walls can be reduced by over 20%. Winter heat loss through interior walls can drop to the point where a once chilly room is now a pleasantly comfortable one - making your home more comfortable in the winter, and summer!
The product is available as a premixed paint or it can be purchased as an additive.
