Fresh news: it’s hot. Much, and it doesn’t look that this summer will give us a break. Betting on fans or air conditioning is a solution, but there is a problem: temperatures will continue to increase and the electricity consumed by air conditioning devices is a problem. It is urgent to find passive solutions, and Singapore may have found the key thanks to a new painting.
Your secret? Makes buildings “sweat.”
Short. In 2022, air conditioning represented 7% of world electricity consumption. The estimate is that, by 2050, that electrical consumption triggers up to 20%. In order to cool buildings, there are already researchers who are experiencing with heat dissipation solutions to create fresher environments without the need for air conditioning, such as nanomaterials or a twist to the technology of the botijo. Although we are seeing how to make the air conditioners more efficient.
But there is an easier solution that could be applied to already built buildings: a layer of paint. The insulating painting already exists, with examples such as the ultra -luncas developed by the University of Purdue that reflects up to 98% of the light to maintain surfaces up to 7ºC cooler than other solutions, even under direct sunlight. Now, in Singapore they have developed a painting that mimics the sweating for which we regulate our temperature.
Buildings that “sweat”. As we read in Sciencenews, a group of researchers from the Technological University of Nanyang is responsible for a painting baptized as CCP-30 and what is of special is not a color, but its operation. It is developed based on cement and combines three cooling strategies: radiative, reflection and evaporative (the latter, the one that uses our skin).
And it works like an organism that sweats. The porous structure of the paint can retain up to 30% of its weight in water, which slowly releases the environment. It is like the air conditioning dehumidification function, but passively. By absorbing water and dissipating heat, the released steam is cooler, contributing to cool the environment.
SUV. If the sensation can be similar to that produced with ultrabrabic paint, why invest resources in replicating something that already exists? The main reason is that this ultrablanca paint that reflects heat does not work at all well in humid environments, such as Singapore itself, but also in Thailand and other areas in which the percentage of moisture is important.
This reflected light is trapped by water vapor in the environment, and in large cities the creation of heat spotlights is encouraged. Come on, which contributes to embarrassment. The new porous painting, when not working by reflecting light and heat, does not have this problem and allows the buildings to be correctly isolated, fulfilling that passive cooling function.
Promising. To hold their arguments, the researchers painted three houses with different types of paintings. One with a common white paint, another with a commercial painting that only uses radiative cooling and another with its new “sweat” painting. After two years exposed to the sun, rain and humidity of Singapore, while the first two became yellowish, the new formula continued with its white color. That is important not so much for aesthetics, but to continue being efficient reflecting the light.
In addition, being prepared to absorb moisture, it does not crack, being another advantage. On the other hand, the house painted with CCP-30 reflected between 88% and 92% of sunlight even when it was wet, and emitted 95% of the heat it absorbed.
Tandem with air conditioning. CCP-30 is designed to cover the outside of buildings, not homes or interior areas, acting as a first shield to combat heat. According to the area, the use of air conditioning will continue to be necessary to endure high temperatures, but researchers claim that a house covered with its new paint meant between 30% and 40% less use of air conditioning. It does not stop turning the building into a botijo.
In the end, as we said, the use of heat paints is nothing new, but renewed formulas can help not only to cool the interiors, but to eliminate those urban heat spotlights in cities with a high percentage of humidity, the so -called “heat islands”. And the good thing about being a painting and not something that requires a new construction is that it can be applied to existing structures without complex reform.
I only ask that this type of painting arrives soon, but it is nice to know that passive ways of refrigerating households are being investigated, such as the cement developed by the public university of Navarra.
Images | Ibrahim Guetar, Chromatograph
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