Ceramic Powder in Paint Slashes Energy Costs?
Today’s Parade Magazine mentioned that putting ceramic powder in paint can help save on energy costs. Since I’m going through a home office re-design project and the painters are coming next week, of course I’m interested.
The problem is — my painter never heard of such a thing! He asked if the Parade Magazine article gave any info on where to get the stuff. Or how much it costs.
They didn’t. Wouldn’t that have been helpful?
Also not mentioned in the article: How much time it would take to re-coup savings. And how it might impact the cooling effects of A/C in the summer.
Since Parade Magazine is silent on these important issues — and my local Home Depot pro desk person never heard of ceramic powder additives for paint — I went trolling on the internet. I found a site that sells ceramic powder for paint– for roughly $12 for a one-gallon application. Another competitive product goes for about $15. And yes, the manufacturers say the stuff helps keep the house cooler in the summer, as well.
My problem: to get my hands on the stuff, I have to order it through the internet. It doesn’t appear that Sears, Home Depot, and Lowe’s carry ceramic powder for paint. And the painters begin tomorrow, so I guess I won’t be as energy efficient as I tried to be.
Frustrating. If the stuff really works, why don’t the big box stores carry it? With all the hub-bub about going green, you’d think that painters would know about ceramic additives. The lady at the pro desk at my local Home Depot was nice, but I could tell that she was getting swamped with calls about something she’d never heard of, either.
Thanks a lot, Parade Magazine. Next time, try publishing more useful winterization tips.
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Comments
Rita: just about everything I am hearing from my painters and construction pros is that the ceramic additives in paint is a scam — it doesn’t really do much of anything.
I suspect that Parade Mag did not thoroughly researc this — otherwise they would have included more helpful information.
I thought it was suspicious that Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Sears never heard of it!
Does anyone know if this product increases the sealing i.e. waterproofing capacity for paint. We have a large cedar shingle house with an historic background. I’d like to not put siding on it, but the shingles need to be sealed every few years.
Totally! The Parade article was an exercise in “hey, every magazine is printing winterization tips, so we need to do that, too!”
“…But every tip is the same as the next, so let’s pop in some “scoop” — but not really research it or provide relevant info.”
Maddening!
No retraction this week, either — in spite of numerous complaints at their website. That’s why blogs are so important — give somebody at the magazine the opportunity to respond immediately to the negative comments, for gosh sake!
Remaining silent in today’s wired world is just nuts!
From what I can tell, both Hy-Tech Thermal Solutions’ products -
http://www.hytechsales.com/index.html -and Insuladd’s - http://www.insuladd.com/ - are real products.
Both claim to be NASA spinoff companies. They Hy-tech product line is quite extensive, including clear coatings and pre-m ixed paint as well as simply additives.
From what I can tell in several days worth of queries — the painting industry is incredibly “NIH” not-invented here; extremely proprietary product oriented. Every painter I spoke with knows all about the paint they can get at a discount from their local supplier — and nothing else. Ask for a Fineneran and Haley color from Home Depot or Serwin Williams and “they will match it if you give them a sample.” DUH!
And from personal experience, I KNOW that the probability of getting accurate, if any, information from either Lowes or Home Deopt is slightly above nill!
It appears that these Ceramic Coating products are only 2 or 3 years old and as with all such things are covered by patents. This means that for the main-stream companies (MAB, SW, Velspar, etc) to provide a paint utilizing the technology requires that they negotiate a license for it, which directly impacts their bottom lines.
There is also a “local manufacturer/distributer in Minnesota and Wisconson - http://www.hirshfields.com/ceramic - although utilizing ceramic spheres from 3M, this product does not claim thermal properties, but stain resistance.
[…] Going green is all the rage. Maybe it’s the time of year — or maybe it’s just fashionable — but my post about using a ceramic powder paint additive in the office touched a nerve with my readers. People seem extremely interested in designing energy efficient home offices. You can also expect future posts on how to save energy costs in the home office in this blog. And finally, fashion. Except for a few unfortunate months where I worked out of a grim, grey office — I have been successfully working out of my comfy, colorful home office in Grand Rapids, Michigan since 1999. Grand Rapids, as you may know, is the home of office furniture. Office design is economically important to the West Michigan community. And our sense of style impacts the entire universe. […]
Ceramics do work and work well. The RV crowd has been using them since they came out to keep the interiors cooler, the bus conversion crowd has also found that 2 or 3 coats of ceramic paint on there roof produces huge temp drops in summer. Bottom line is few things work as well as advertised but there are measurable results with ceramic additives that could not only produce energy savings but soundproofing as well.
Its a scam
I bought the Hy-Tech one
I liked the idea of microspheres, but its not working
I did many tests, cheap ordinary Behr white paint works much better
The company would not address my concerns
Thanks to Behr now my flat root section is much cooler in the summer!
So who do I believe? Paul? or Eds?
I have a room that is very warm and would like to try this insulating paint if it works.
I contacted Behr tecnical rep. and he didn’t have a clue, but he also added that they don’t have any vendors that have presented them with ceramic powders for insulation purposes.
Greg, The Hy Tech thermal paint ( insuladd whatever name) has to be a scam, these NASA claims and testimonals look pretty fake to me (i feel sorry for NASA’s reputation) i tried to review evidence and actual data and all i found was that very outdated paper with missing crucial info
and parameters
Look, if it was so magic they would not need any advertising it would just go from mouth to ear, no need to run a dozen copy-paste websites with a dozen different colors and fonts and buzz-words like the space shuttle
Yes we want to be green and save KiloWattsHours but there is only two basic rules:
1-white is white, that’s what reflects heat
2-air or vacuum thermally isolates
Adding microsheres in paint is wierd and will never be as efficient as a layer of foam, wool or fiberglass which is MUCH thicker than a layer or paint. The real improvement is if a surface is white regarless of microspheres present or not, if your roof is grey or black then yes it will heat much more and your attic can and AC will need to work more
i asked some painting contractors and staff at local hardware stores nobody has heard about tyhis thing, they suggested i stay away from it
JohnP
Thankyou for your unbiased answer. It appears to me that without data to back up a claim these are Vodoo insulators.
Thank you.
I am also investigating the ceramic additive mentioned in the Parade article. Being in FL. it would be well worth it. Read it’s manufactured in Melbourne, Fl so if not at my Home Depot or Lowe’s will be making a trip. Too bad Parade wasn’t more informative.