The house paints that promise much more than colour

The door of the Juan Potiro apartment in Houston, Texas is made of wood-with the completion of the nut.

However, for Halloween, plans to change a striking. “I will draw my door orange,” said Mr. Potiro, founder and CEO of Colombia -based Glases, to the BBC last month. He kept his promise.

However, this step is not as radical. Mr Botero, a “innovation company”, designed the paint to be removable – as soon as it dries, you can peel it like the plastic cover. If he works as intended, he should not leave any signs or residue behind it.

Mr. Potiro had the idea of ​​the product, which was called unarmed, about five years ago, and at first, his investors were not keen. “They said I am crazy,” he remembered. However, he insisted: “People are looking for allocation in their lives.”

Glasst is just one of many companies that claim that home paint can do more than look nice. Many products are now on the market, their promise from their makers, will save you money, keep you comfortable during heat waves, or transfer your relationship with your home walls. But is it very good to be true?

It is scheduled to be launched in the United States in the United States in November, and Mr. Potiro is convinced that there is a market for things. He argues that he will appeal to people who live in rented places of residence, who cannot make permanent changes to their decor.

Not surprisingly, Glasst refuses to share details on how to make paint, but Mr. Botero says he is a resin from a renewed source. Ask if it means trees and confirm.

There is already exfoliation of the car structure, but getting such a product works reliably in the most softened home interiors is more difficult.

There is a risk of destroying the current and latent paint when it eventually explodes from your walls, but if the paint below is in good condition, this should not happen, says Mr. Potiro.

“It contains a strange tissue:” a little rubber. “

Bringing the product to the market was not easy. Glasst posted a video about the paint to YouTube two years ago, but the launch was delayed this year “compatibility with the necessary financing and resources,” says Mr. Potiro.

It is noteworthy that Glasst works on other unusual characteristics – including “Thermglass”, which is the isolation resin due to its launch next year. Mr. Potiro claims that less than a millimeter of this paint will provide the same insulating effect as 40 millimeters of foam.

There is no independent verification of this claim yet, but there is already a set of insulating paints on the market that reducing your heating bills, and it is fair to note, not always performed in scientific assessments.

In 2019, Richard Viton of Salford University and his colleagues She published a paper They investigated the effectiveness of the six thermal paints available in the UK market at that time. In short, they found that allegations that such paints could reduce heating bills by up to 20 % or 25 % were impossible to verify health.

First, the paintings of researchers enveloped with paints, allowing them to measure the thermal resistance of the paint, or insulating values. After that, the team calculated the low heating costs that you expect after applying each of these paints to the model Victorian stands.

The largest cost saving was only 2.9 %, and given the price of the relevant paints, the owners of the home are likely to wait centuries to low heating costs.

“If someone brings me a coating that can provide me 25 % of my power bill, it will be on the wall by weekend,” says Professor Viton. He adds that he is currently working on a 2019 study paper, and will also be open to the Thermglass Test, or any other insulation coating, in the future.

Paints that help keep your home to be more effective. For years, the researchers have followed the idea of ​​improving the reflection of paint on the outer walls or surfaces, as this can help keep the buildings of the buildings on the hot sunny days. This weather has become more common due to climate change.

The principle is ancient hills – looking at the white houses painted in the Mediterranean. But the paints designed to be more reflected than standard white paint can increase the effect. I2Cool in Hong Kong is one of many companies marketing such a product at the present time.

In their case, the paint contains small nanoparticles inspired by the very reflective body Silver Ant Silver – Which should deal naturally with the sun’s rays.

Martin Zhou, CEO and co-founder, says the I2Cool paint was tested on the roof of a commercial center in Hong Kong-but only in a building, in order to know if there is a noticeable effect on the conditions for reducing air conditioning costs in this building (AC ).

“We used the power scale to measure energy consumption in the frequency current,” says Dr. Chu. He adds that the cost of operating the frequency current decreased as due to the studio building, by 40 %.

Dr. Zhu started working on the paint at a time when a doctoral student was, and it is reported that the early publications made in 2017 contain silver, which made it very expensive – more than $ 100,000 to cover a small area. Years of development at a later time, now cost about $ 10 per square meter of coverage. It also comes in a variety of light colors, including gray, yellow and green.

The researchers noted that the very reflective coatings of negative cooling applications should be resistant to dirt and pollution, for example, to avoid low effectiveness. The glow is a very reflective surface that risk heating nearby dark structures, a 2020 sheets suggested.

Dr. Zhou says that the paint of i2cool does not have heavy metals and uses a water -based emulsion, and although it is not analyzed, it can be recycled.

The company’s latest project is the Dubai Center. The roof of this sprawling complex – The largest commercial center in the world in terms of total area – You will be completely coated with paint. The section of 1000 square meters has been completed so far.

Dr. Zhu says: Although it is not yet available in Europe, this may change, “says Dr. Zhu. “We are discussing with some distributors in the United Kingdom,” he says.