Xiangyu Li, a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who worked on this project believes the cooling paint can be used against global warming.
What if the paint you use could cool off your home just as effectively as air conditioning?
We all know that on a hot summer day, white clothing can keep us cooler than dark colors, but researchers from Purdue University have created white paint that can keep surfaces up to 18°F (7.7°C) cooler than their ambient surroundings.
And unlike your AC unit, paint consumes no energy.
According to a video by Purdue University Mechanical Engineering, the new cooling paint could replace air conditioning by absorbing almost no solar energy.
While normal paint absorbs the sunlight as heat, the cooling paint “sends” the heat away from the building.
Developing the cooling paint wasn’t easy — it took the researchers six years and over 100 different material combinations. Finally, they settled on a formula made of calcium-carbonate which is found abundantly in limestone rocks and seashells.
Xiangyu Li, a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who worked on this project believes the cooling paint can have a much greater potential than just cooling our homes — we could use it against global warming.
If we applied the cooling paint to surfaces like roads, rooftops, and cars all over the world, Earth’s surface could actually get cooler than Don Draper in a client meeting.
Watch the video from Purdue University Mechanical Engineering below:
As global summer temperatures rise, more buildings are installing energy-hungry air conditioners – a major contributor to climate change. But are there ways to cool buildings down without turning the AC on?