Ceramic Coating Test Results University of Nevada

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, under the direction of the Mechanical Engineering Department, has developed he Arid Regions Environmental Laboratory (AREL) to test new technologies that help in saving on energy demand. The facility consists of two identically constructed rooms. which are identically oriented with respect to the sun. The facility is equipped with a heating and cooling system, instantaneous heat flows. local wind speed and directions as well as the total intensity of sunlight received on horizontal surface. All these data are collected at regular time intervals using a computer data acquisition system. These data are stored in the system for long term data analysis of trends as well as for comparative purposes between it and computer model simulations.

The first technology that was tested was a ceramic base paint. The testing period was between the months of June - September 1994. Two identical chambers were constructed and coated, on one chamber the coating was fortified with ceramic insulating beads.

The results showed the chamber that was painted with the regular outdoor paint showed a significant increase in energy usage compared to the chamber painted with the ceramic paint.

MONTH	PAINT	Ceramic	% DIFFERENCE
JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER	167.99 101.81 175.72 63.16	117.21 69.68 109.72 39.55	43.32 46.11 60.15 59.69
TOTALS >	508.68  Watts	336.16  Watts	51.32