Solar load is an increasingly important part of envelope design in many areas.
Solar load can be moderated by judicious choice of external coatings. Poor choice of coatings can raise the temperature of a roofing barrier by tens of degrees, needlessly adding to the solar load on the building.
As studies have shown, metal roofing gives good thermal control in hot climates providing it is painted, and providing the paint is optimised for solar reflection.
When this was first realized a few years ago, white paint was seen as the answer although glare and dirt pick-up are problems. More recently, it was found that, like white titanium dioxide, some of the new coloured inorganic "ceramic" pigments also reflected well in the near infrared and had some thermal control properties. Several coil coatings companies (including Beckers) offer these coatings in PVdF formulations, and they do help.
Beckers' assessment of existing "Cool Roof" systems showed that improvements could be made to:
- reduce coating cost
- Improve thermal control across the whole spectrum for greater energy savings
- widen the colour palette, in particular to provide darker, more traditional roofing colours
- Provide thermal control in both hot and cold environments for further savings in operating costs.
As a result, Beckers has thoroughly researched how coil coatings can do more to improve thermal comfort, reduce environmental impacts and, most importantly, save construction and operating costs.
The result is BeckryTherm.