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Solar High Reflective coating materials (paints with high sunlight reflectivity)

Function and benefits of MIRACOOL

MIRACOOL, a high-performance heat-reflective coating material for construction, reflects about 90% of sunlight, leading to energy savings of about 40%. In addition, the coating materials are highly durable and offered in various colors.
[Decreasing room temperatures]
The heat emitted from a heated roof is conducted to the attic, where convection and radiation of the conducted heat increase the room temperature. In other words, if the increase of temperature on the roof is controlled, the increase of temperature in the room is also controlled. For example, we measured temperatures in a school. The maximum temperature difference before and after the coating of MIRACOOL was 16.6ºC around the ceiling and 7.3ºC in the room. These results demonstrated that the heat-reflective coating material is highly effective. There is data showing that the highest effect was obtained in a building where the room temperature was reduced by 12ºC after MIRACOOL was applied. However, the effects of MIRACOOL vary depending on building structures and weather data. Little effect was achieved in buildings equipped with adequate amounts of insulating materials. Therefore, we ask that you consult us beforehand. 

[Energy-saving effects]  
In one case, we applied our heat-reflective coating material to the roof of a cottage and a commercially available paint to the roof of another cottage. The color of the coating material and the paint was the same. We measured temperatures in the cottages. The measurement results showed that electricity consumption in the cottage whose roof was coated with our coating material was reduced by an amazing 32%. Energy consumption reduction rates vary depending on various factors. Therefore, a 32% reduction is not always expected. However, in many cases, applying MIRACOOL leads to an energy consumption reduction of 5% to 40%. We can simulate how well energy consumption will be reduced, so please feel free to contact us.

[Reducing basic electricity rates]   
Electric companies offer various rate structures. They determine basic electricity rates for high-voltage power, which are mainly applied to factories, by multiplying a certain unit price by the electricity rate consumed in the month in which the electricity consumption was the highest in the past 12 months. Then, they apply the calculated basic electricity rate to the other 11 months. Accordingly, if your company consumes a lot of electricity in summer, we recommend that our heat-reflective coating material be applied before the month in which the electricity consumption will be highest. This method should reduce the basic electricity rate for the coming 12 months.

Durability of MIRACOOL

[Excellent thermal insulation effects] 
If the durability of a coating material is insufficient, needless to say, its thermal function will soon be lost. However, in certain cases, although the resistivity of the coating material is sufficient, its thermal function is decreased. The biggest factor behind this is dirt on the surface to be coated. The dirt is dust from the natural world or soot emitted from factories and vehicles. Carbon contained in soot absorbs sunlight very well. Therefore, even though the thermal performance of a freshly coated coating material is high, the thermal performance of paint film to which carbon had adhered greatly deteriorates. Oily dirt such as carbon is less likely to adhere to the surface of the coating film if it is hydrophilic (the opposite effect to hydrophobia).
The catalogs of many coating material manufacturers show the initial values of thermal effects. However, please note that the durability of the thermal effect is the most important. JIS K 5675 specifies that a sunlight reflection rate (in the infrared region) of at least 80% must be retained after the coating material is exposed to the open air for two years.
(Retention rate = sunlight reflection rate after two years/initial sunlight reflection rate)
We have data which shows that for certain buildings which were coated with MIRACOOL 10 years ago, a sunlight reflection rate of more than 80% was retained.

Solar Heat-blockong Pavement

Function and Benefits of MIRACOOL ROAD

[Thermal Blocking performance]
White lines are drawn on roads, so if the roads are a whitish color, the white lines cannot be clearly recognized, and the glare will impair the safety of road users. Accordingly, roads need to be painted in a dark color. For these reasons, solar heat-reflective coating materials used for roadways are dark gray. However, since they reflect near-infrared radiation which humans cannot see, the temperature on the roadways does not increase excessively during summer. 
The point is that the solar heat-reflective coating materials effectively reflect near-infrared radiation that amounts to about half of the energy radiated from the sun. 

[Heat island countermeasures]
The Ministry of the Environment has announced that in the past 100 years, the average temperature of Japan increased by 1.5ºC, but during the same period, the average temperature of Tokyo has increased by 3.3ºC. This means that the temperature increase in Tokyo has been about twice that of Japan as a whole. It is thought that the difference derives from the heat-island phenomenon. Similar tendencies are observed in some other major cities in Japan including not only Osaka and Nagoya which are hotter than Tokyo, but also Nagoya and Sendai. It seems that the heat-island phenomenon is a problem facing not only big cities, but also mid-sized ones. In 2017 in Japan, 52,984 people were taken to a hospital due to heatstroke. Incidentally, in 2017 in Japan, 34,940 serious injury traffic accidents occurred, including fatal ones. This means that patients taken to a hospital due to heatstroke outnumbered the casualties taken to a hospital due to traffic accidents. This is very surprising. 
If solar heat-blocking  pavement is performed on all roadways in the 23 Wards of Tokyo, the temperature on the paved surfaces will decrease, decreasing the air temperature in the center of Tokyo. It is expected that the temperature will decrease by 0.8ºC at noon and by at least 0.6ºC at 14:00.
(Source) Paper presented by Kiuchi et al. at the 25th Japan Road Association Meeting in 2004

[Improving comfort]
Does solar heat blocking paving have any effect on the people walking on paved roads or in the ambient environment? A new paper identifies the merits specified below.
-The heat-blocking paving with high retroreflection has the effect of reducing the direct horizontal solar radiation that is reflected from paved roads and then absorbed by pedestrians. 
-The temperature on the surface of the paved road affects the heat environment for each pedestrian. A reduction in the temperature on the surface of the paved road contributes to the improvement of the heat environment of each pedestrian.
(Source) Paper presented by Tanaka et al. at the 32nd Japan Road Association Meeting in 2017

In addition, many questionnaires about heat-blocking paving have been conducted. All of them mention improvements in comfort.

Due to temperature reduction on paved road surfaces which is derived from heat-blocking paving, the percentage of respondents who answer that they feel heat around themselves and their feet decreased. Especially, the respondents felt difference around their feet, rather than around themselves. 
(Source) Paper presented by Inoue, et al. at the 27th Japan Road Association Meeting in 2004  

Our company also conducted questionnaire surveys in Japan and Singapore without telling the respondents that heat-blocking paving had been performed on the road. In both countries, many respondents answered that they had felt less heat on the road with heat insulation paving than on normal paved roads.

[Reducing temperature on nights when the temperature does not fall below 25ºC]  
According to actual measurement data from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, from 22 to 5 o'clock on a tropical night, the temperature on heat insulated pavement is lower than that on general roadways by an average of 2.0ºC.
(Source) Article by Saito in the Journal "Pavement," No. 51-5, in 2016

Less rutting by MIRACOOL ROAD

[Reducing grooves]
When the temperature of asphalt exceeds 50ºC, its liquidity increases (becoming soft), easily forming grooves on tracks of roadways. Since the temperature of heat insulation pavement does not easily increase to 50ºC, the formation of grooves can be suppressed.

MIRACOOL (bake-on thermal barrier coating for industrial products)

[Bake-on thermal barrier coating for industrial products]
Most thermal barrier materials have so far been applied to buildings and roads. However, recently, they have been increasingly applied to the casings of switchboards. The electronic components embedded in switchboards emit heat but are weak to it. To make matters worse, sunlight during the summer heat heats switchboards strongly. Coating the switchboard casing with a thermal barrier coating is expected to control temperature increases on the switchboard and improve the intolerable conditions for electronic components. In some cases, the temperatures of large-sized switchboards are controlled by an air conditioner. As can be understood from this example, controlling temperature increases in switchboards is an important issue. A bake-on coating is applied to switchboard casings, and these factories are using our bake-on thermal barrier coatings.

[Powdered thermal barrier coatings]
Powder coating is known as a type of bake-on coating. As the word indicates, this is powdered paint which adheres to the object to be coated through static electricity, and which then undergoes baking. Powdered paint is held to be environmentally friendly. The reasons behind this are that it does not contain any of the organic solvents (VOC) that are usually contained in general bake-on paints. Also, paint which did not adhere to the object to be coated can be collected and reused, reducing material loss. Many people think that this is a relatively new coating technology, but this technique has been applied in Japan for about 50 years. Powder paint is produced through the following process, quite unlike liquid paint. Materials formed into pellets are shattered into grains of a certain size. Therefore, compared to general liquid paint, powder paint cannot easily be produced in small lots or in short delivery times. 
Aside from these drawbacks, its properties, such as the fact that no painting skill is required and the ease with which it forms thick films, are highly acclaimed

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This company is recommended by the following support organizations.

Tokyo SME Support Center

Kanto Head Office, SMRJ