{"id":9626,"date":"2017-04-05T10:57:38","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T00:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=9626"},"modified":"2025-12-19T12:48:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T03:18:10","slug":"solar-air-conditioning-vs-heat-reflective-paint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-air-conditioning-vs-heat-reflective-paint\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar Air Conditioning Vs. Heat Reflective Paint"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"heat

If your house is getting too hot should you invest in heat reflective paint or solar panels?<\/p><\/div>\n

It can get bloody hot in summer thanks to the sun blazing down on our roofs and making them hot enough to not only fry an egg<\/a>, but some bacon as well.<\/p>\n

This post\u00a0is about stopping\u00a0the summer sun heating your\u00a0roof, turning your home into a metaphorical oven.<\/p>\n

There are 2 ways\u00a0to stop your roof getting so hot:<\/p>\n

#1 Make your roof more reflective.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The simplest\u00a0way to increase the reflectivity of\u00a0a roof is to make it lighter coloured.\u00a0 A black roof will absorb almost all the sunlight’s energy while a white roof will reflect around two-thirds.\u00a0 There are also specialist heat reflective paints, but their effect is small\u00a0compared to going from a dark to a light colour.<\/p>\n

#2 Cover your roof with solar panels.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Solar panels cool your home in 3 ways:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They\u00a0shade the roof beneath them.\u00a0 While the panels may get hot, the air\u00a0gap underneath\u00a0prevents most of the heat from the being transferred to your roof.<\/li>\n
  2. Solar panels are dark and so absorb most of the sunlight energy that falls on them, but they turn a portion of that energy into electricity which stops them getting as hot as they otherwise would.<\/li>\n
  3. The solar electricity generated\u00a0can power air conditioners.\u00a0 While light coloured roofing material or heat reflective paint can reduce the need for air conditioning, it can’t power it, so this is a huge advantage.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I’m going to compare the economics of using heat reflective paint versus installing rooftop solar1<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n

    Rather than keep you in suspense, I’ll tell you right now that when the value of solar air conditioning is included, rooftop solar comes out way ahead.\u00a0 It doesn’t just win by a country mile, it wins by such a long way it must be like a mile on Jupiter.<\/p>\n

    A Roof By Any Other Name Would Feel As Cool…<\/h2>\n

    If you want to know what to call a roof that’s cooler because it’s lighter coloured, there are plenty of terms to choose from.\u00a0 In fact, there are too many terms.\u00a0 If you want, you can call it a cool roof<\/a>, a reflective roof<\/a>, a low solar absorptance<\/a> roof, or a white roof<\/a> – even sometimes if it’s not white.\u00a0 But me, what with my knowing so many fancy words and all, use the term high albedo<\/a> roof.<\/p>\n

    \"\"

    “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less. And in this case it means albedo.”<\/p><\/div>\n

    Albedo is simply how much light an object reflects.\u00a0 Something with high albedo reflects a lot and something with low albedo reflects very little.\u00a0 The white marble of the pallid bust of Pallas above my chamber door is high albedo, while the black feathered raven<\/a> perched upon it is low albedo2<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n

    Roofs vary a lot in albedo, mostly based upon their colour.\u00a0 Because I love me a good bit of Colorbond, I’m going to include this link <\/a>to a page showing how reflective their roofs are.\u00a0 Unfortunately, just to be difficult, they use “solar absorptance” which is the more or less the opposite of albedo.\u00a0 Their roofs include the very dark “Nightsky” which reflects only 4% of sunlight energy falling on it and is very popular among serial killers and other maniacs, while their very bright “Whitehaven” reflects 77% of sunlight energy and I understand it is Pauline Hanson’s favourite.<\/p>\n

    What A Light Coloured Roof Can Do For You<\/h2>\n

    Compared to a dull old dark coloured roof, a nice reflective, high albedo one can reduce the cost of air conditioning by up to 15% for a single story home.\u00a0 Or at least it can according to the United States government<\/a>, and when have they ever lied to us?<\/p>\n

    But a 15% reduction in air conditioning costs isn’t exactly fantastic.\u00a0 Also, a light coloured roof can increase the need for heating in winter because the roof doesn’t get so warm.\u00a0 But in Australia the vast\u00a0majority of homes will come out ahead by having a light coloured roof.<\/p>\n

    In warm places, such as Brisbane<\/a> and Perth, light coloured roofs will\u00a0save on energy costs overall and as for Darwin – does it ever get cold there?\u00a0 I would expect Hell to freeze over before that place does.<\/p>\n

    Looking at aerial photos, I can see there are already plenty of light coloured roofs in Queensland and the Northern Territory.\u00a0 But in Perth, while commercial and industrial roofs are bright white, most house roofs are fairly dark.\u00a0 Clearly, the people of Perth are completely nuts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    The Cost Of A Reflective, Light Coloured Roof<\/h2>\n

    If your home is being built or you are replacing your roof, then using light coloured roofing material is essentially\u00a0free.\u00a0 If you like, you can pay more for heat reflective roofing material that can be extra cool, but for the most part light coloured roofs don’t cost more than dark ones.\u00a0 So unless you live somewhere real cold,or you know you’re not going to use much air conditioning, choosing dark roofing material is not very bright.<\/p>\n

    But if you have a dark coloured roof and you want to make it lighter, then you have to either pay for a new roof or you can take the less expensive but still pricey option of adding a coat of paint.\u00a0 This could either be regular,\u00a0light coloured roof paint, or it could be heat reflective paint.<\/p>\n

    Trust Dulux Paints?\u00a0 Sure Couldn’t!<\/h2>\n

    Dulux used to claim their heat reflective InfraCOOL paint would lower indoor temperatures by 10 degrees and their Weathershield Heat Reflect paint would lower temperatures by 15 degrees.\u00a0 Unfortunately, these claims were completely unsubstantiated and so Dulux was fined $400,000 for bullshitting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Dulux no longer sells Weathershield Heat Reflect paint and they are much more cautious with what they say about InfraCOOL<\/a> paint.<\/p>\n

    Heat Reflective Paints Need To Be Light Coloured<\/h2>\n

    Heat reflective paint will cause more sunlight energy to bounce off than normal paint of the same colour.\u00a0 But the effect is only moderate compared to painting a dark roof with non-heat reflective light coloured paint.\u00a0 For example, if painting a black roof with normal white roof paint would cut air conditioner energy use by 10% then using heat reflective white paint would only cut it by roughly 12%.\u00a0 Covering it with identically coloured heat reflective black paint would only reduce air conditioner energy use by roughly 3%.<\/p>\n

    \"roof

    Colour of the roof is more important than the type of paint used.<\/p><\/div>\n

    Heat Reflective Paint Is Not Cheap<\/h2>\n

    Neither normal roof paint or heat reflective roof paint is cheap.\u00a0 I have an estimate for the cost of coating a commercial galvanized iron roof with Dulux heat reflective paint.\u00a0 It comes to around $40,000 for a 3,000 square meter roof.\u00a0 That’s about $13 per square meter.\u00a0 Coating a normal house roof is likely to have an even higher cost per square meter.<\/p>\n

    The average Australia home has around 160 square meters of roof space.\u00a0 If it is assumed that heat reflective paint costs $15 per square meter then the cost of covering the roof will be $2,400.<\/p>\n

    \"cost

    Paint is expensive.<\/p><\/div>\n

    Financial Returns\u00a0From Heat Reflective Paint Are\u00a0Low<\/h2>\n

    In a hot location such as Townsville a household of 3 people will often use around 2,000 kilowatt-hours a year for air conditioning<\/a>.\u00a0 At their current cost of electricity of 27.1 cents a kilowatt-hour this comes to around $540 a year.\u00a0 So if a dark roof is covered with light coloured heat reflective paint and cuts air conditioning energy use by 15% it will save around $80 a year.\u00a0 If it is assumed that painting the roof costs $2,400 and it lasts forever that will give a return of around 3.3%.\u00a0 For households that use twice as much electricity for air conditioning, the return would be a more respectable 6.6%.\u00a0 But note it is possible to be charged a lot more than $2,400.<\/p>\n

    \"savings

    The financial return from heat reflective paint is modest.<\/p><\/div>\n

    Most roofs in Townsville are already fairly light coloured, but there are still quite a few dark roofs.\u00a0 It’s not nearly as bad as Perth where they apparently love heatstroke, but it is bad enough to make me think they’ve gone a bit troppo up there.<\/p>\n

    As most Australian homes use far less air conditioning than those in Townsville and because they will have to pay slightly more for heating costs in winter, the average return from painting a dark roof with light coloured heat reflective paint is likely to be under 2%.\u00a0 This is worse than a term deposit and so is not economically worthwhile.<\/p>\n

    The Cooling Benefits Of Rooftop Solar<\/h2>\n

    Because solar panels shade the roof beneath them and only transfer a limited amount of heat to the roof, they should result in less solar energy being transferred to the roof than any type of roofing material, whether it is specially designed to reflect heat or not.\u00a0 It won’t be 100% effective, but it is reasonable to assume it would prevent at least 90% of the energy in sunlight being transferred to the roof as heat.<\/p>\n

    But solar panels only cover a limited amount of roof space.\u00a0 A system with 5 kilowatts of solar panels will only cover around 30 square meters of roof or about 19% of a 160 square meter roof.\u00a0 It is likely to be located on a north facing section of roof which is the part that receives the most sunlight energy, but even so, solar panels that cover 19% of a dark roof may may only reduce air conditioner use by one quarter as much as covering the roof with white heat reflective paint.<\/p>\n

    Just like light coloured roofs, solar panels can slightly increase the need for heating in winter, but this will normally be far outweighed by the benefits of cooling.<\/p>\n

    So even on a dark roof in a hot location such as Townsville, a 5 kilowatt solar system may only save around $20 a year in air conditioning costs.\u00a0 While this is better than nothing, the amount is so small it can more or less be ignored.<\/p>\n

    What does make rooftop solar a far superior investment to heat reflective paint is the fact it generates electricity while paint just sits there looking pretty.<\/p>\n

    \"\"

    Almost insignificant.<\/p><\/div>\n

    The Economic Return From Rooftop Solar<\/h2>\n

    PVwatts<\/a>\u00a0says 5 kilowatts of north facing solar panels in Townsville can generate over 7,900 kilowatt-hours a year.\u00a0 If a family self consumed half that electricity and sent the rest into the grid, then at the current grid electricity price of 27.1 cents per kilowatt-hour and feed-in tariff<\/a> of 7.45 cents, it would reduce their electricity bills by around $1,360 a year.\u00a0 If the system cost $7,000 its payback time would be around 5 years and 2 months.\u00a0 If the system works perfectly for 15 years and then is scrapped the return will be about 13%.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    A quality rooftop solar system should not need to be scrapped after just 15 years, but even with my\u00a0conservative assumptions, rooftop solar is one of the\u00a0best investments that roof owning Australians can make.<\/p>\n

    Solar Air Conditioning Beats Heat Reflective Paint By Miles<\/h2>\n

    The time to decide on\u00a0a light coloured roof is before it is built or replaced.<\/p>\n

    While painting a dark roof with light coloured heat reflective paint can be worthwhile for buildings with very high air conditioning costs, your money will almost always\u00a0be better spent on solar panels<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Even where air conditioning costs are high, rooftop solar still gives a better return, as it will cool the roof and generate\u00a0electricity to power\u00a0air conditioning and anything else that uses electricity during the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It can get bloody hot in summer thanks to the sun blazing down on our roofs and making them hot enough to not only fry an egg, but some bacon as well. This post\u00a0is about stopping\u00a0the summer sun heating your\u00a0roof, turning your home into a metaphorical oven.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-9626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-energy-efficiency","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSolar Air Conditioning Vs. Heat Reflective Paint - SolarQuotes Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If your house is getting too hot, should you invest in heat reflective paint or solar panels? An interesting comparison of the options.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-air-conditioning-vs-heat-reflective-paint\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Solar Air Conditioning Vs. Heat Reflective Paint\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If your house is getting too hot, should you invest in heat reflective paint or solar panels? An interesting comparison of the options.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-air-conditioning-vs-heat-reflective-paint\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SolarQuotes Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SolarQuotes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-05T00:27:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-19T03:18:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Solar-VS-Paint.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ronald Brakels\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@BrakelsRonald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@solar_quotes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-air-conditioning-vs-heat-reflective-paint\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-air-conditioning-vs-heat-reflective-paint\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ronald Brakels\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d0ce1779b3f5cb67cb4f146732af2fc7\"},\"headline\":\"Solar Air Conditioning Vs. 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