| WHAT IT IS: From the most extreme heat to the most
extreme cold, keeping comfortable at home or work can send your heating and cooling bills
through the roof. But now there's a breakthrough technology that will change the way you
think about energy efficiency.
IT'S CALLED RADIANCE™. |
Radiance low-e wall finish is the first interior wall and
ceiling finish that makes rooms feel warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, no
matter what Mother Nature throws your way. Radiance helps decrease your energy costs, and
increase the comfort level of your home or workplace at the same time.
The physics behind Radiance is similar to low-e glass
windows, which reduce the loss of radiant heat in the winter and the emission of heat into
a building in the summer. The "e" in low-e refers to emissivity, which is the
ability of a surface to emit or absorb radiative energy. The lower the "e"
value, the more efficient it is in the managing energy and the greater the energy savings.
You can see the dramatic difference with this infrared thermal imaging camera.
In warm Weather Radiance acts as a barrier to radiant
energy trying to enter a building. To simulate that effect, we coated the front of a steel
plate with Radiance on the left and a standard interior latex paint on the right, then
heated the plate to 120° F. The infrared photos below show the Radiance side as a cool
blue emitting very little radiant energy, while the paint side emits much more. Imagine
the plate as your interior wall, and you see how your rooms stay cooler in summer with
Radiance.
The left side of this wall is coated with Radiance, while
the right side is coated with conventional interior wall paint. On the Radiance
side, the wall reflects a lot more heat from the coffee cup back into the wall and
carried to the outside.
And radiant heat feels more comfortable to your body. Think
about it: which would you prefer? Getting warmed up by the intense heat of a hair dryer or
the warm glow of a fireplace? A Radiance-applied room can feel up to several degreses
warmer than a room heated by non-radiant methods. That means you can set your thermostal
at a lower temperature to save energy, and the room will feel warmer than it actually is.
While saving energy is important, the added comfort in homes, schools, hospitals, offices,
and other commercial buildings is a difference you can truly appreciate.
WHAT IT DOES:
Radiance low-e wall finish is applied
just like conventional paint, but it does a lot more than just make your walls look good.
It's a smart coating, that keeps your rooms feeling warmer in the winter and cooler in the
summer. In winter, it works by reflecting about 40 percent of the radiant energy that
normally would be absorbed by your walls, back into the room. In the summer it keeps about
40 percent of the radiant energy from the sun from entering the room. |
