Category: 21st Century Homesteading

I've known of this product for about a year now and have been seriously considering using it in my home. If any of you have used it or know more about it's performance I would appreciate hearing about it.

Thanks.

Radiance 100% acrylic latex Low-E Interior Wall and Ceiling Paint
Radiance is a breakthrough in paints for homes and buildings — the first-ever line of latex low-e paints.

Radiance paint's unique, patented low-e formula provides important benefits. Like low-E windows, Radiance improves a structure’s thermal performance. That means lower heating and cooling bills — 5 to 15% lower in a typical home. Conserving energy also helps protect the environment.

Radiance is of greatest benefit in less well-insulated homes rather than in homes built to be extremely air-tight and energy-efficient. It is most beneficial in hot and cold climate regions, not in areas where heating and/or cooling are seldom necessary.

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2001

Answers

Jim, my son did a science fair project with this product. Tieing in with the idea that NASA used this, though it does say this on the label we could never verify this. If you want the exact name of the product he used I will get it for you. It was a white poweder that looked alot like cornstarch. He made 3 boxes with windows to look through, used normal insulation, no insulation and this product painted on with white paint, you are only supposed to use light colored paint. Thermometers were placed in each mini room, light bulbs were placed above the roofs with their insulation to mimic sunlight and heat. By far the insulation worked the best (just your plain ordinary pink panther kind, the paint worked no better or worse than just the plain wood. All three boxes were identical. Since we had previously sold this idea to several of our customers we were actually very surprised it didn't work. We also have used the add to paint, insecticide, it didn't work either! Vicki

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2001

Thanks Vicki,

Maybe I'll stick with putting more insulation in the attic, new insulated doors, and new windows in my house for the time being. I haven't found much data on this type of paint and your son's science experiment does make me wonder about all the claims from the manufacturer.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2001

Jim check it out more thoroughly.Insulation and the paint would be needed,not just paint.

The Mad Cow from KY wishes to respectfully disagree with the Esteemed Goatlady from Texas. Hey,I'm trying to be agreeably disagreeable here. My new approach.Perhaps I won't get hacked again if I argue nicely???

Anyway,there is something abt Vicki's experiment that doesn't seem right,but I can not put my finger on it.The way the ceramic additive to the paint works is to hold the heat allowing it to deflect heat back into the room,I think. Check out James Dulleys website. Also here's another product along the same lines. www.insuladd.com Let me know what you think.I'm very interested in the product too.

Homepower mag website prob has something about it.Have no time to research it right now,so you do the leg work for me ,Okie dokie?

JOJ,any ideas on this?

BTW,I'm using this invalid email address here, for reasons known.Is this causing any problem for you?

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2001

sharon:

Jim check it out more thoroughly.Insulation and the paint would be needed,not just paint.

Yep, I'm going to go with the extra insulation, new weather-proof doors, and new energy-efficient windows first as they are *proven* techniques to reduce energy consumption. I'm not giving up on the paint yet but want to find more info on it before commiting.

Anyway,there is something abt Vicki's experiment that doesn't seem right,but I can not put my finger on it.The way the ceramic additive to the paint works is to hold the heat allowing it to deflect heat back into the room,I think. Check out James Dulleys website. Also here's another product along the same lines. www.insuladd.com Let me know what you think.I'm very interested in the product too.

Yes, it could be that the paint doesn't keep the actual air temp warmer or cooler, it may just "feel" warmer or cooler to the person using the low-e paint. I wish Consumer Reports would do some research on this. Thanks for the links, I'll check them out.

Homepower mag website prob has something about it.Have no time to research it right now,so you do the leg work for me ,Okie dokie?

I'll check that out, too. Thanks.

BTW,I'm using this invalid email address here, for reasons known.Is this causing any problem for you?

No problems for me, sharon. :-)

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2001

To anyone that cares: I just applied this radiance paint to the inside of my attic decking and the roof decking of my garage. I can tell you empirically that the attic went from OHMYGOD hot on a sunny day to just a bracing sort of heat that takes your breath away. I would guess that the temp reduction is 15 - 20 degrees, I'll be taking measurements over the next several days with my house and another house similarily situated. The one drawback on the paint is that it cost 45/gallon. It took 10 gallons to do the roof for a 2800 two story house, or about 450.00.

-- Anonymous, May 28, 2001

Thanks for the input! If you have the time please keep us informed on how it works for you.

And yes, I do remember the interior house paint as being expensive, too. That's one of the major reasons I've held off on buying this stuff. It's hard to justify this kind of expense when you don't know if the product will perform as advertised.

But it sounds like it might be working for you. Good!

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

Jim

The Insuladd is an additive and is $13.oo/gal on top of your paint cost.Larger quantities are available (5,10,20 and 50? gal.) at lower cost.Don't know on shipping.The Dulley site discussed these types of products,and he was impressed with them.Painted his hand then held it over a flame to see if it radiated the heat back.It did.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

Thanks sharon.

I *finally* got around to checking out Dulley's website. Looks like a pretty cool site. And yes, I did find his mention of the low-e paints.

Not sure which way I'll go regarding low-e paint brands. I want to do more research on the companies to see if they really are legit.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001