{"id":165834,"date":"2024-11-01T02:38:45","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T02:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/01\/the-house-paints-that-promise-much-more-than-colour\/"},"modified":"2024-11-01T02:38:46","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T02:38:46","slug":"the-house-paints-that-promise-much-more-than-colour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/01\/the-house-paints-that-promise-much-more-than-colour\/","title":{"rendered":"The house paints that promise much more than colour"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/div>


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\"JuanJuan Botero<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Juan Botero and his Halloween front door<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The door of Juan Botero\u2019s apartment in Houston, Texas is made of wood \u2013 with a classy, walnut-like finish.<\/b><\/p>\n

But, for Halloween, he planned an eye-catching change. \u201cI\u2019m going to paint my door orange,\u201d Mr Botero, founder and chief executive of Colombia-based Glasst, told the BBC last month. And he has kept his promise.<\/p>\n

However, the move is not as drastic as it sounds. Mr Botero\u2019s firm, an \u201cinnovation company\u201d, has designed the paint to be removable \u2013 once dry, you can peel it off like plastic wrap. If it works as intended, it shouldn\u2019t leave behind any marks or residue.<\/p>\n

Mr Botero had the idea for the product, called Unpaint, about five years ago and, initially, his investors weren\u2019t keen. \u201cThey said I was crazy,\u201d he recalls. Nevertheless, he insisted: \u201cPeople are looking for customisation in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glasst is just one of many firms that claim house paint can do more than look nice. Various products now on the market, their makers promise, will save you money, keep you comfortable during heatwaves, or transform your relationship with the walls of your home. But is it all too good to be true?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Unpaint is due to launch in the US this November, and Mr Botero is convinced that there is a market for the stuff. He argues it will appeal to people living in rented accommodation, who can\u2019t make permanent changes to their decor.<\/p>\n

Glasst, unsurprisingly, declines to share details about how it makes the paint, but Mr Botero says it is a resin from a renewable source. I ask if he means trees and he confirms.<\/p>\n

Peelable paint already exists for car bodywork, but getting such a product to work reliably on softer home interiors is more challenging.<\/p>\n

There is a risk of damaging your existing, underlying paint when you eventually wrest Unpaint off your walls, but, if the permanent paint below is in good condition, this shouldn\u2019t happen, says Mr Botero.<\/p>\n

It does have an odd texture: \u201cA little bit rubbery,” says Mr Botero. Plus, it is easier to scratch than water-based emulsion.<\/p>\n

Bringing the product to market hasn\u2019t been easy. Glasst posted a video about the paint to YouTube two years ago, but the launch was delayed until this year \u201cto align with the correct funding and resources needed,\u201d says Mr Botero.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GlasstGlasst<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Peelable wallpaper is just one innovation in house paints<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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He mentions that Glasst is working on other coatings with unusual properties \u2013 including \u201cThermglasst\u201d, an insulating resin due to launch next year. Mr Botero claims that less than a millimetre of this coating will provide the same insulating effect as 40 millimetres of foam.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no independent validation of that claim just yet, but there are already a range of insulating paints on the market that promise to reduce your heating bills and, it is fair to note, they have not always performed well in scientific evaluations.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Richard Fitton of the University of Salford and colleagues published a paper<\/a> in which they investigated the efficacy of six thermal paints available on the UK market at the time. In short, they found that claims that such paints could reduce heating bills by up to 20% or 25% were impossible to validate.<\/p>\n

First, the researchers coated boards with the paints, which allowed them to measure the coatings\u2019 thermal resistance, or insulating values. Then, the team calculated the reduction in heating costs you would expect after applying each of these paints to the interior of a typical Victorian terraced house.<\/p>\n

The biggest cost saving measured was a mere 2.9%, and, given the price of the paints in question, homeowners would potentially have to wait centuries or even up to a millennium \u2013 at 2019 prices \u2013 before they would recoup the decorating fees in terms of reduced heating costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone brought me a paint that could save me 25% of my energy bill, it would be on my wall by the weekend,\u201d says Prof Fitton. He adds that he is currently working on a follow-up paper to the 2019 study, and would also be open to testing Thermglasst, or any other insulating paint, in the future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The reflective body of the Saharan silver ant has inspired reflective paints<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Paints that help to keep your house cool might be more effective. For years, researchers have pursued the idea of improving the reflectivity of paint on exterior walls or roofs, since this could help keep buildings cool on hot, sunny days. Such weather is becoming ever more common due to climate change.<\/p>\n

The principle is as old as the hills \u2013 consider the white painted houses of the Mediterranean. But paints designed to be significantly more reflective than standard white paint could heighten the effect. i2Cool in Hong Kong is one of several firms marketing such a product at present.<\/p>\n

In their case, the paint contains tiny nanoparticles inspired by the extremely reflective body of the Saharan silver ant<\/a> \u2013 which must naturally cope with baking sunshine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"i2Cooli2Cool<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Martin Zhu start-up has developed a highly-reflective paint for roofs<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Martin Zhu, chief executive and co-founder, says the paint made by i2Cool was tested on the roof of a shopping mall in Hong Kong \u2013 but only on one of its two buildings, in order to find out whether there was a noticeable effect in terms of reducing the costs of running that building\u2019s air conditioning (AC).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used a power meter to measure the energy consumption of the AC system,\u201d says Dr Zhu. The cost of running the AC duly fell in the painted building, by 40%, he adds.<\/p>\n

Dr Zhu first began working on the paint while a doctoral student, and he mentions that early versions made around 2017 contained silver, which made it very expensive \u2013 more than $100,000 just to cover a small area. Years of development later, it now costs around $10 per square metre of coverage. It also now comes in a variety of light colours, including grey, yellow and green.<\/p>\n

Researchers have noted that highly reflective coatings for passive cooling applications need to be resistant to dirt and soiling, for example, to avoid their efficacy dropping overt time. And glare from ultra-reflective roofs risks heating up nearby darker structures, a 2020 paper suggested<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The paint from i2Cool does not contain heavy metals and uses a water-based emulsion, and while it is not biodegradable, it can be recycled, says Dr Zhu.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s latest major project is the Dubai Mall. The roof of this sprawling complex \u2013 the largest mall in the world by total area<\/a> \u2013 will eventually be fully coated with the paint. A 1,000 sq m section has been completed to date.<\/p>\n

While not yet available in Europe, that could change, says Dr Zhu. \u201cWe are discussing with some distributors in the UK,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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More Technology of Business<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Juan Botero Juan Botero and his Halloween front door The door of Juan Botero\u2019s apartment in Houston, Texas is made of wood \u2013 with a classy, walnut-like finish. But, for Halloween, he planned an eye-catching change. \u201cI\u2019m going to paint my door orange,\u201d Mr Botero, founder and chief executive of Colombia-based Glasst, told the BBC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[604],"tags":[13770,79,23875,5316],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165836,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165834\/revisions\/165836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}