How white paint helps reduce temperature of buildings?

Did you know scientists have been studying reflective paint for decades in hopes of replacing commercial paints? But why do you think developing new paint types is important? 

And after a lot of hard work, their efforts are starting to pay off. In an amazing development, a group of scientists have revealed a white paint for buildings which they worked on that has the ability to cool the temperature during the day by 9 degrees, and at night by 19 degrees Celsius. This could end up lowering the Earth’s overall temperature and reducing electricity consumption, as the need for air conditioning would naturally go down.

Guinness World Records ended up declaring it the whitest paint ever back in 2021, and that wasn’t the only award the special paint ended up winning.

The team behind the paint

Back in 2020, a team revealed their creation to the world: A type of white paint that can act as a reflector, bouncing as much as 95 percent of the sun’s rays away from the Earth’s surface, up through the atmosphere and into space. A few months later, they announced an even better formulation that is able to increase sunlight reflection up to 98 percent.

Xiulin Ruan, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, is part of the team that’s working on this new paint, and he said he didn’t set out to enter the Guinness Book of Records when he set out to try a new kind of paint, and that his simpler goal was to find a way to cool buildings without damaging the earth in the process.

Professor Ruan said that this paint, which would still feel cool to touch even after being under the sun, would not need any energy to work, nor will it make the air outside warm, in contrast to air conditioning.

More about the paint

While the paint’s original purpose was for it to be used on rooftops only, the desire for it to be possible to be used on clothing, shoes, cars, trucks, and even spacecraft has been let know to the team behind it. Last year, Professor Rowan and his team announced that they would come up with a version that was more lightweight and could reflect vehicle heat.

And also, while the paint is white, it isn’t blindingly white and the chances are someone won’t be really able to tell it and another white paint apart, and that the paint is one year away from being ready for commercial use.

With the climate crisis on earth right now, this paint couldn’t have come at a better time. It’s always nice to know that experts who care about the environment are doing their best to try and help out in their own way.