T&T: Air conditioning upgrade

[Keith]

Actually, the aluminum paint will get just as hot as your gray, much hotter 
than white. It's aluminum powder pigment, but it doesn't really reflect, 
just absorbs. I did lots of testing on this with white vs. "silver" plastic 
tarps when I was in that industry. White is the standard for reflectance at 
100%. Any other color is less.

As far as aluminum foil, it has a high reflectance, but also a high 
transmittance for heat. As most of you have seen me post before, I cut up 
that Styrofoam/foil insulation to put in my PH windows from the inside. The 
mounted foil does a great job of reflecting the heat/light, and the 
insulation does a great job of keeping the heat out and the cool in. That 
was the single best thing I did to keep my trawler cool. Putting aluminum 
foil on a surface is probably impractical, but if you building, a layer in 
between the building materials can reflect IR (infrared).


Keith
_____
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <LRZeitlin at aol.com>
 With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight I realize that
> I could have made my boat much more comfortable in the summer by painting 
> the
> decks white. If I used aluminum paint, or put on a layer of aluminum foil 
> on
> the horizontal surfaces, it would have been even cooler.