Invented paint that can heat homes

Chemists have developed a temperature-controlled paint forincrease the energy efficiency of old buildings, which accumulates heat from radiators during the day, and releases it at night, slowing down cooling and losses.

In cities for heating and coolingpremises account for half of the annual energy consumption. At the same time, most buildings are old and have poor thermal insulation, so they account for up to 40% of total energy consumption.

As part of the European project ENERPAINT, a paint additive was developed that contains materials with phasetransition (salt hydrates) packaged inpolymer capsules up to 10 nm in size, protecting them from contact with the environment and decomposition. Due to their physical characteristics, salt hydrates can accumulate a greater amount of energy per unit volume, and also respond to heat in a controlled manner.

When applied to a surface together with a helmet,During the day, nanocapsules absorb the heat generated by the walls and retain it, turning into a liquid state, and on cold nights they crystallize, releasing heat and heating the building.

The supplement is currently undergoing testing, but developers say that European, Chinese and Russian companies are already showing interest in their research.

In the future, the team also wants to createadditives for paints that will help cool buildings. However, SolCold previously reported that it was also developing a two-layer coating that, once applied to the surface, cools the object when exposed to sunlight.

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