Characterisation and assessment of near infrared reflective paintings for building facade applications

Climate changes and urban sprawl dramatically increase the urban temperatures and the thermal quality in the built environment. Among several proposed mitigation techniques, cool roofs have now reached a broad audience, while the cool materials potentialities for facade applications are still little investigated. A novel masonry paint, produced with the inclusion of cool pigments, is investigated in this paper. A palette of colour is developed with the objective of covering a wide range of architectural integration solutions. Reflectance and emissivity are measured and calculated. The results strongly depend on the base colour used to prepare the sample; solar reflectance increase up to 0.16 is achieved for dark colours. A numerical analysis is carried out to evaluate the impact of the cool paint on the thermal response of a typical Italian residential building. Energy uses are calculated for different insulation levels and climatic conditions. Cooling energy uses are reduced in the 10-20% range; total energy uses are affected by several parameters with 5% maximum savings. Peak operative temperature reductions range from 0.5 to 1.6 degrees C for the building in free floating conditions, according to climate and insulation level. External surface temperatures are reduced above 6 degrees C during the peak irradiation hours. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.