Cool products for building envelope – Part I: Development and lab scale testing

Abstract

The paper describes the methodology followed for the development of new cool products in order to widen the range of existing solutions both including coloured (even dark) materials and extending the application also to building vertical components. Cool coloured ceramic tiles and acrylic paints for façades and roof membranes have been developed and tested at lab scale. Spectral reflectance measurements have been performed demonstrating a significant improvement of reflectance in the Near InfraRed (NIR) range (up to+0.40) while keeping dark colour and high absorbance in the visible. The development of new products has been also oriented to the improvement of durability properties, being this aspect of relevance for high reflecting materials that have to keep their cooling properties over the time. While ceramic tiles naturally offer superior resistance to outdoor ageing, a significant increase of biological growth resistance has been achieved also for roof membranes by including ZnO nanoparticles. The approach followed by the authors aimed at delivering products, that besides having higher NIR reflectance, were capable of satisfying industrial and market requirements being compatible with standard manufacturing processes and offering additional functionalities. A complementary paper will be dedicated to the extensive experimental and numerical evaluation of new materials’ thermal performances.