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Energy Savings

On a hot day, the sun can beat down on the walls of your home, and your home can absorb as much as 90% of the radiant energy (or heat)! Even white walls can absorb significant solar radiation. All that heat makes the inside of your home hot and uncomfortable. Running air conditioning to cool your home can be extremely expensive.

In fact, a central air conditioning system uses about 3500 watts, or 3.5 kWh every hour. In some areas of the country, cooling even a moderate size house requires over 1500 hours of air conditioning operation a year. Now, COOLWALL® – an advanced exterior coating system – tested by the Department of Energy to lower surface temperatures* – can make your home more comfortable while reducing your use of air conditioning.

USDOE Green Mark
Energy Saving Benefits

Comparing Cooling Costs &
Surface Temperature Reductions

COOLWALL® cooling cost savings, surface temperature reductions, and comparing bills for these savings. Cooling cost energy savings will vary based on:

Comparing energy use on colors that are different than the color previously applied to a homeowner's home will give inaccurate results. Even though COOLWALL® is typically over 200% more reflective in dark colors compared to traditional paint in the same color, darker colors will inherently absorb more infrared radiation leading to increased heat build-up and lighter colors will reflect more (IR) infrared radiation leading to decreased heat build-up. The color chosen for the DOE study was "Underseas", which is a medium color. Comparing the same color in a traditional paint to COOLWALL® for this color, we are over 100% more reflective. This is what DOE used in coming up with their cooling cost savings chart. When comparing dark colors to the same or similar color in COOLWALL®, these darker colors will yield higher savings. (The increase in reflectivity with COOLWALL® for dark colors is more substantial than the increase in reflectivity for lighter colors.)

Comparing the same color of traditional paint to COOLWALL® in lighter colors, the percentage of increase in reflectivity, while still substantial, is lower and therefore will yield lower cooling cost savings. In order to obtain accurate comparisons, from light-colored traditional paint to COOLWALL® in a darker color, the percentage of savings may not be as high as those obtained in the DOE study. If a customer goes from an extremely light color to a dark color in COOLWALL®, 

Department of Energy
Savings Chart
DOE-ORNL Savings Chart
Commercial Big Box Retail Energy Savings
Commercial Big Box Retail Energy Savings Chart

Analysis done for 150' x 300' single story retail store.

here may not be any surface temperature reduction and in fact, be an increase in cooling costs. Consequently, in order to make a proper comparison and analysis of surface temperate reductions and cooling cost savings, the color chosen by the homeowner needs to remain in the same family of color. (Colors are typically classified as light, medium, or dark.) Any comparison in surface temperature reduction and cooling cost savings needs to be done with the same or similar color. If the color chosen goes from light to dark there may actually be an increase in surface temperatures and cooling costs. The proper analysis should always be to compare the original color to the same or similiar color of COOLWALL®.

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