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Most conversations about solar heat start with brightness.
White roofs. Reflective paint. Glare reduction.
That is surface thinking.
As outlined by the U.S. Department of Energy:
“About half of the sun’s energy is in the form of visible light, and about half is in the form of infrared radiation.”
Infrared is not what you see. It is what heats the surface.
The NASA Earth Observatory explains:
“Infrared radiation is commonly known as heat because it causes molecules to vibrate, which increases temperature.”
Once infrared is absorbed into a roof or wall, surface temperature rises. Once surface temperature rises, conductive heat transfer begins.
That is the real load.
Solar energy distribution is not even.
Approximately:
More than half of the energy striking a building is infrared.
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Cool Roof program states:
“The solar reflectance of a surface is the fraction of solar energy that is reflected… the rest is absorbed and contributes to heating of the surface.”
Absorption equals heat loading.
If infrared is absorbed, the substrate becomes a heat battery.
The International Energy Agency makes this clear:
“Reducing heat gains through the building envelope is one of the most effective ways to lower cooling energy demand.”
Not offsetting. Not compensating.
Reducing the gain itself.
If 99% of infrared is blocked before it loads the substrate:
This is upstream heat management.
The industry leans heavily on reflectance metrics.
But reflectance without infrared control is incomplete.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory notes:
“Even highly reflective surfaces can become hot if they absorb infrared radiation.”
That is the blind spot.
A bright roof can still store heat.
If infrared loads into the material, density and thermal diffusivity take over. The energy spreads. The surface becomes a storage mass.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has reported:
“Urban heat island effects can be reduced by increasing surface reflectivity and limiting heat storage in building materials.”
Limiting heat storage.
That is the shift.
If infrared is blocked before it enters the material system, there is less stored heat to re-radiate at night and less energy to conduct inward.
The World Health Organization warns:
“Heatwaves are among the most dangerous natural hazards, with rising frequency and intensity due to climate change.”
Urban surfaces amplify that heat.
Metal, concrete and dense roofing materials absorb infrared during the day and release it slowly after sunset.
If you do not control infrared at the surface, you are building a heat reservoir.
If you block it at 99%, you reduce the energy available to be stored in the first place.
Stop it before it loads the substrate.
Not inside the wall.
Not with bigger air conditioners.
Not with thicker bulk insulation alone.
At the surface.
More than half of solar energy is near infrared. If the surface absorbs it, temperature rises immediately.
The solution is a coating system engineered to:
This is not about brightness. It is about spectral control.
Even if some energy reaches the surface, how it behaves next matters.
A high-diffusivity material spreads heat quickly. A dense surface stores it.
The solution is a low-thermal-diffusivity surface layer that slows energy movement and limits internal penetration.
When heat cannot diffuse into mass, the structure does not become a heat battery.
Urban materials fail because they store heat during the day and re-radiate it at night.
The solution is reducing:
If energy never enters the mass, there is nothing to re-emit later.
That stabilises internal temperatures and reduces peak load demand.
Most buildings are designed to resist conductive heat flow using R-values.
That is defensive thinking.
Infrared control is upstream thinking.
You reduce the available energy before it becomes conductive heat.
When you block the majority of infrared energy at the envelope:
The building stops fighting the sun and starts managing it.
Blocking 99% of infrared at the surface changes the heat equation.
Instead of slowing heat movement, you reduce the total heat input.
That difference is structural.
It lowers peak surface temperature.
It lowers energy demand.
It reduces mechanical dependency.
It improves resilience in extreme heat.
If you stop most of the infrared, you stop most of the problem.
Infrared is the dominant component of solar heat. Everything else becomes easier.
Controlling it changes:
Blocking 99% of infrared is not incremental.
It reduces the primary energy input before it becomes stored heat.
And once you reduce the input, everything downstream becomes easier to manage.
That is the solution.
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