Mauro Susca – LEONICE
The “Green Homes” Directive is current and aims to reduce energy consumption and polluting gas emissions from residential buildings. The bulk of consumption and emissions is linked to the heating and cooling systems of our homes.
From this assumption Leonice has developed the innovative Ecotint Cool Technology system to improve living comfort. Specifically, it is a formulation concept aimed at rationalizing the use of pigments with the best performance in terms of reflectance and resistance on the façade to increase the TSR.
This value indicates the ability of a color to reflect solar radiation for the entire spectrum from UV-visible to near IR where the radiant heat input is over 50%.
In colorimetry we have established a percentage value of the light reflected on an applied paint system called LRV (Light reflectance value), where 0=black and 100=white. This value applies only in wavelengths included in the visible range.
LRV AND TSR DIFFERENCE
An applied paint has a single LRV but at the same different TSR values based on the pigments selected to formulate the color.
As it is now well known among the paints and coatings manufacturers there are no reflective pigments and vice versa, all pigments are reflective but with different peculiarities. For professionals, we take for granted the advantages of using black pigments such as Pbk33 and Pbr29 to improve the TSR. It is less known that the other classic outdoor pigments that are ‘clear’ in the visible are also semi-transparent at infrared frequencies.
As it can be seen from Figure 3. On the left a standard paint, we note that in the IR it is almost transparent and translates into heart absorption of the substrate where it is applied.
On the right, a paint formulated with the Ecotint Cool Technology system. Furthermore, a paint with a high TSR, in addition to improving living comfort, improves the durability of a possible ETICS external insulation system.
Below a report of some numerical data in terms of temperature reduction in °C measured. With the Ecotint Cool Technology system, Leonice can bring Italian companies back to being leaders in innovation in the construction industry.
