High Tech Paints

I love paint.  It’s an incredibly inexpensive way to change the entire mood of a space.  For the longest time paint used within a building has been used merely as an ornament, and within the last few decades it has been used as a means to evoke a certain type of emotion (the University of Iowa football stadium has painted the visitor’s locker room pink to help subdue their opponents).

I came across this very insightful article stating the revolutionary developments of paint.  I had actually heard of the titanium oxide coatings being used on the Jubilee Church in Rome, which were implemented so that air pollution and pigeon droppings wouldn’t ruin the aesthetics of the building.

Insulating paints are an essence a reflector of heat.  In this application of the paint people are trying to substitute rigid or batt insulation in order to keep the shipping container more usable on the interior while keeping the aesthetics of the container.  I would be inclined to use such a great product in a way to complement another means of insulation rather than as a substitute.  It’s a little hard to believe that a millimeter thick layer of paint could provide the same R-value as five and a half inches of batt insulation or a couple of inches of rigid insulation.

The other new use for paint is as a replacement for solar panels.  This article on Inhabitat has a little more information about the potential for this product, but the concept is that any structure with a metal surface could potentially be a generator of electricity.  This could be a huge benefit to any rural community, as well as even using this photovoltaic paint on vehicles as well.

I love that a material such as paint can be implemented with the goal of creating a solution to a problem rather than a more traditional use where it was used to hide a problem.

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