Apartment Buildings
Protect Apartment Buildings from Solar Heat
Manage the heat at the surface – before it enters the building
Apartment buildings are increasingly exposed to extreme summer temperatures, intense solar radiation and longer periods of heat.
Roofs, upper floors and sun-exposed façades can absorb significant amounts of solar energy throughout the day. Once absorbed, that energy becomes heat and begins propagating through the building envelope – increasing internal temperatures and adding to the load placed on insulation and air-conditioning systems.
Super Therm® Heat Block Insulation Coating provides another approach: manage solar energy at the external surface before it becomes a thermal load.
The roof is your first line of defence
On a hot sunny day, the outside air temperature is only part of the problem.
Solar radiation striking a roof can drive the surface temperature substantially above ambient conditions. That heated surface then transfers energy into the roof structure and towards the occupied space below.
This is particularly important for top-floor apartments and western walls in Australia, where the roof can represent one of the building’s largest directly exposed solar surfaces.
Reducing the solar energy absorbed at this surface reduces the amount of heat available to propagate through the building.
Surface Thermal Management
Traditional insulation primarily manages heat transfer after a temperature difference has developed.
Super Therm® works further upstream.
Applied as a thin external ceramic coating to roofs and suitable wall surfaces, Super Therm® is engineered to manage the UV, visible and near-infrared components of incoming solar radiation.
Independent testing has measured 96.1% total solar heat blocking performance, including 99.5% of near-infrared radiation under the referenced JIS test conditions.
The objective is simple:
Reduce the solar energy absorbed by the building surface and there is less heat available to move through the structure.
Having an ENERGY STAR™ rating validates there are some benefits on energy efficiency. Heat reflective paints are not the same as thermal insulation coatings, it’s like comparing a Camry to a Tesla, they are cars but not the same in performance. Essentially it works on SRI (Solar Reflectance Index) which is about heat reflecting, not blocking. Our coatings are designed to stop the heat load and heat transfer and all our testing with the Department of Energy, NASA, USDA, ASTM, UL Approval and more. Furthermore, Super Therm® has been tested to block 99.5% of all infrared heat making it much better than white paint.
Why this matters for apartments
Apartment buildings present particular heat-management challenges.
Large roof areas can receive intense solar exposure throughout the day. Upper-level apartments can experience increased heat loads from the roof, while west-facing walls receive strong afternoon solar radiation when external temperatures are often already high.
That can contribute to:
- hotter external building surfaces
- increased heat propagation through roofs and walls
- higher internal cooling loads
- greater dependence on mechanical air-conditioning
- increased peak electricity demand
- reduced thermal comfort during extreme heat.
Managing the external surface provides another layer of protection before conventional insulation and HVAC systems are required to manage the remaining load.
Super Therm® complements insulation – it doesn’t replace it
This distinction is important.
Super Therm® is not positioned as a replacement for conventional bulk insulation or an air-conditioning system.
Each performs a different job.
Super Therm® manages solar energy at the exposed surface.
Shane Strudwick: NEOtech Coatiings
Bulk insulation resists heat transfer through the building assembly.
HVAC removes heat that ultimately reaches the occupied environment.
Used together, they create a more complete approach to managing heat.
Retrofitting existing apartment buildings
Surface thermal management can be particularly valuable for existing apartment buildings where upgrading the entire thermal envelope may be difficult, disruptive or expensive.
Super Therm® can be applied to suitable existing roof and external wall substrates as part of a building maintenance or thermal-management strategy.
This provides building owners, strata managers and facility managers with an opportunity to address solar heat at the building surface without rebuilding the entire roof or wall assembly.
Designing apartments for a hotter future
As Australian cities become hotter, building resilience will increasingly depend on more than simply installing larger air-conditioning systems. We need to reduce the heat load itself.
If you are planning energy efficiency improvements without addressing heat infiltration and escape, you are probably missing a big piece of the pie. Heat management and prevention for the building is a great opportunity.
The specialty weather-resistant protective coating of Super Therm® are designed for the toughest industrial environments. The totally inert ceramic top coat cures fully into a seam-free membrane that strongly bonds to any surface, defending against UV, visual and infrared heat and intense weather within hours. The excellent repellency, ability to breathe moisture makes an ideal for all roof types as well as walls.
The building envelope is a key component but often overlooked because it’s seen as something too big and pricey to address. We can cut the retrofit budget, improve building performance and make it a maintenance expense rather than a CapEx project.
That means looking at the building envelope as a complete thermal system – beginning with the surfaces directly exposed to the sun.
Control the solar energy load before it becomes a thermal load.
Surface first. Insulation second. HVAC last.
Super Therm® Heat Block Insulation Coating
Engineered surface thermal management for apartment roofs and sun-exposed building façades.
Reduces energy and maintenance costs while increasing comfort in buildings
- Reduces energy costs and increases comfort by coating roofing and interior/exterior walls to keep heat in during winter or heat out during the summer.
- Protects concrete swimming pool decks to provide a cool surface.
- Reduces fuel consumption and improves performance and comfort of motor homes.
- Reduces risk of condensation on cold water pipes and of resulting mold and mildew.
- Protects air conditioning unit outer casings to prevent reductions in efficiency from heat build up inside the housing.
- Provides a fire-resistant coating for substrates. Super Therm® has a “0” fire and smoke spread and will not contribute to flame spread.
Going Green with Super Therm in Las Vegas
Imagine an exterior paint that saves you money. It’s true. It’s called Super Therm® and this ceramic coating has the consistency of a thicker paint, which blocks 95% of heat by deflecting three radiation sources from the sun–ultraviolet, visual light and infra red rays.
Super Therm® creates an envelope of heat protection on the outside of a home, translating to a cooler house. Read article – pdf | Read More >
Super Therm Cools Las Vegas
Mack Barnhardt – Technical Consultant at Air Filtration Systems, Corp. – from LinkedIn
Joseph, I have Super Therm® on my 3 HVAC units, 2 Swamp Coolers, 2 pressure well tanks, my 2 story barn and even on my RV and outdoor restroom, yes it has a shower.
I live in Las Vegas and I can vouch for you that if you need to reduce heat load from the sun Super Therm® is your best bet!
Thank you for a very special and wonderful thermal coating!
Solutions for:
- Cabling: Super Therm®
- Concrete: SP Interlock
- Fire: Omega Fire, Super Therm®
- Heat Transmission: Super Therm®, HSC®
- Plumbing: Super Therm®, HSC®
- Roofing: Super Therm®, Rust Grip®
- Masonry repairs: SP Interlock
- Moisture / Condensation: Airflow needed: Super Therm®
