There’s nothing like a dash of colour. Take the giant mural in Rome, for example.
White, in particular, can be refreshing. Literally. On Santorini, the houses help cool the inside of buildings. White walls reflect the sunlight.
And the latest addition to the market is the whitest ever paint. It sends 98% of light back towards its source, including infrared heat from the sun.
The secret is using barium sulphate as a pigment. It doesn’t absorb UV light and is used, in various sizes, at a high concentration of 60%.
In tests, even in strong sunlight it cooled surfaces by up to 4.5°C. Painting a roof of 93 sq m could render a traditional air conditioning device obsolete.
Pretty cool.
