THE IMPACT OF MODERN ARCHITECTURAL INSULATION PAINTS ON BUILDING ENERGY CONSUMPTION

Abstract

Architectural heat insulation paints have only recently been developed for commercial usage. Adopting technology developed from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), such heat insulation paint exhibits superior thermal insulation properties as compared to other architectural paints or coatings. These properties is made possible with the incorporation of ceramic borosilicate micro-spheres into the formulation. Building energy consumption is an important issue in today's highly urbanized environment. Energy in the form of electricity is used in buildings to operate a variety of equipment. In view of depleting natural resources and global warming, the trend towards energy efficient buildings has been a growing concern in many countries since the energy crisis of the 1970s. In Singapore, one measure to ensure adequately designed buildings in the control of building energy consumption is for building envelopes to be designed to comply with an Overall Thermal Transfer Value (OTTV). Through actual experiments and further confirmation through model simulations, architectural heat insulation paints have been shown to reduce the OTTV of a building envelope by approximately 12 per cent and achieve theoretical savings of 22 per cent in annual cooling loadings. Further, with the proposed enhancement of the OTTV from 45 W/m2 to 35 W/m2, existing buildings designed to comply with the old OTTV can now be improved to achieve a lower OTTV, upgrading the building's envelope performance closer in line with the enhanced standard. Being an architectural paint, such improvement is also made possible without extensive retrofitting or renovation to the building structure.