| Low-E Finish Hits U.S. Market Each plate was coated - one side with primer and coating, and the
other with a high-emissivity foil. The plates were then placed three feet from the heater
with the coating facing the heater and the foil side toward an AGA Thermovision 782 LWB
infrared camera, operating in the wavelength region 8 to 12µm. The results show a marked
difference in emissivity performance with the coating's lower e-value.
Thermal comfort tests have also been conducted with
thermal-imaging cameras and thermal-radiation thermometers to determine the importance of
a person's position in the test room in relation to the low-e walls. The results
show significant effects. The temperature of an exterior brick wall, one
half-painted with the product and the other with a standard wall paint, was measured using
a thermal-radiation thermometer by a person standing six feet from the wall. The
standard side was measured at 61 0F and the Radiance side at 64ºF.
The same measurement with the thermal sensor held close to the tester's body and only two
feet from the wall showed 610F for the standard side and 670F for
the low-e side.
In the United States,
the product has been tested by the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Lab,
Golden, Colo., and talks are currently underway with the National Association of Home
Builders to run a side-by-side comparison test, using one Radiance-coated home and one
standard-latex home.
More intensive examination of the product's influence on
thermal comfort is next on the agenda. To exactly evaluate its positive effect on
thermal comfort, the manufacturer is working on a new sensor. Built to recreate both
the generated heat of a human body and to mimic the way the human body experiences and
assesses temperature as either too hot or too cold, the new sensors will give the most
precise thermal comfort readings to date.
*The product tested at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany
was an earlier prototype product and not at that time known or marketed as Radiance.
|
