When shopping for insulation coatings, do not be fooled by a reflective coating that is being sold as insulation. Reflective coatings, do not insulate, they reflect sunlight. True insulation coatings trap air pockets and prevent heat from moving through the insulation to keep heat where it should be. Using the reflective coatings in these situations is truly just a waste of money.
Reflective coatings are often used on metal roofs. Many of these coatings are useful on mobile homes where they reflect the heat from the sun to keep the occupants of the home from cooking in a metal oven. In addition to the reflective coatings of the bright white coatings, they also serve to keep the roof sealed from leaks. These coatings are very thick but have very little insulation qualities. In truth, if you do not need to seal leaks, you can get the same reflective qualities by spray painting the roof a bright white.
With reflective coatings, they begin to lose their bright white color and the reflect less light. This allows more heat to enter into the mobile home and the coatings continue to be less effective over time.
A second problem is that reflective coatings do nothing to keep heat in your home during the winter. Since heat rises, you can lose a lot of heat out of a roof that is coated with reflective coating.
On the other hand, insulation coatings prevent heat transfer. In the summer, the heat from the sun penetrates through an insulation coating at a much slower rate than it would penetrate through plain metal. Since the insulation coating does not depend on reflection of the heat it can be placed either inside of the metal roof or outside of the metal roof. Most of the time the insulation coatings are sprayed on the inside of the metal of a building to protect it from UV deterioration.
In the winter, in a building with a metal roof that is being heated, the insulation coating will keep more of the heat inside the building. You can readily see the difference after a heavy frost or snowfall. If there is an area without the insulation coating, and the building is heated the frost or snow will melt off of that spot before any other spot on the roof.
In high heat settings, such as with steam pipes, a reflective coating is nothing more than painting the pipe. It adds no insulation value and will not protect workers from the possible burns from a steam pipe. Instead, you need an insulation coating. The insulation coating will keep the heat inside the pipe. When a steam pipe is covered in an insulation coating, you can touch the coating and not be burned. In addition, since the heat is kept inside the pipe, there is less heat waste.
Reflective coatings on high heat steam pipes will do what any other paint would do. They will start to blister and peel off of the pipe rapidly. The offer no insulation value and are simply a waste of money in this type of application.
Want to find out more about insulation coatings, then visit Noxudol on how to choose the best insulation coating for your needs.
Tags: home, Home and Family, Home Improvement, home repair, insulation coating
