[Home] [Product Overview] [Product Applications] [Product Data] [Testing and Feedback] [FAQ] [Purchase] [Retail and Trade Enquiries] [Contact]
© Distribuco International. All Trademarks and intellectual property remains the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. Legal
Distribuco International Ltd are the importing agents for Insuladd® Paint Additives into New Zealand.
Insuladd® are world leaders in heat reflecting and insulating paint additive technology.
Insuladd demonstrations and 'understanding' the results
There is over 13 years of applications and test data for Insuladd products from a variety of sources and countries.
The performance of Insuladd products is very solidly verified from the tests and from thousands of applications.
Many people desire to see demonstrations of Insuladd products working so here is a brief on some ways to do this and how to understand the results.
How it works:
Insuladd insulating additive for paint is the key to our paints and primers and is also a stand alone additive which can be added to any type of paint or coating.
Insuladd works by reflecting heat from radiant heat sources such as sunlight as well as heat generated by home heaters and fireplaces.
Fiberglass and foam insulation do not reflect heat hey simply slow down its passage. (Heat always travels from a warm are to a colder area.)
It is important to note that glossy white paints are reasonably good solar reflectors but have a very narrow reflectance range and do not reflect any low frequency radiation (heaters and fireplaces) nor are they good at reflecting infrared and ultraviolet radiation.
Insuladd insulating additive mixed into a glossy white paint is over 40% more energy efficient than glossy white paint alone when placed in direct sunlight and 100% more energy efficient on interior applications where paint color or paint reflectivity has no thermal value at all.
Performing & understanding Insuladd Demo’s:
There are quite a number of ways to demonstrate Insuladd working and probably and equal number of ways to get confused by what you see in the demo.
Example: A heat lamp (these are infrared high frequency heating devices which produce heat differently than something like an electric heater which is a low frequency heating device more commonly used in a home environment!) is used to heat two 12” x 12” pieces of cement board.
One board has been painted with Insuladd and house paint, the other board has been left plain.
Both boards have thermometers attached to the backside of the boards.
For this example we will say that the heat being generated by the heat lamp is 120 deg F thus it would follow that after a short period BOTH boards would get a surface temperature reading of 120 deg F since that is the amount of heat being applied to them.
At first glance you would think “Insuladd does not work” since you are seeing the same surface temperatures on both boards, however you have not yet seen what is actually going on with the demo!
The uncoated board is absorbing the 120 deg F heat very rapidly and quickly becomes saturated.
The Insuladd coated board is very slowly absorbing the 120 deg F heat and will take quite some time to reach saturation point.
How do we see this?
Simply turn off the heat lamps and see which board cools down the fastest!
The boards which as absorbed less heat (The Insuladd coated board) will obviously cool down much quicker thus demonstrating that Insuladd acts a radiant barrier and thermal reflector.
It is important to note that if the two boards are left exposed to the heat lamp for a long enough time it is possible for both boards to reach the saturation point, at which time, if the heat lamp was turned off, the Insuladd coated board would cool down more slowly than the uncoated board, since the Insuladd is retarding the heat flow outward in the same manner that it retards the heat flow inward, when the heat lamp was on.
A simplified summary:
Insuladd will retard the heat influx to an object when the object is cooler than the temperature being applied to it, and reflect a substantial % of the heat being radiated upon the object.
Insuladd will retard the heat out-flux from an object when the object is warmer than the surrounding temperature.
The comfortable temperature range for humans is quite narrow.
Most people find that 80 deg F is hot and 70 deg is cool.
If the median comfort zone in a home is 75 Deg F for example, then anything that can be done to keep the home within this temperature zone for a longer period of time, without requiring the use of heating or cooling devices, would obviously equate to a reduction in the operating time of the heating or cooling equipment, which = reduced expense for heating and cooling.
This is where Insuladd is so valuable - It reduces winter time heat loss and summer time heat gain into a home!
There is over 13 years of applications and test data for Insuladd products from a variety of sources and countries.
The performance of Insuladd products is very solidly verified from the tests and from thousands of applications.
Many people desire to see demonstrations of Insuladd products working so here is a brief on some ways to do this and how to understand the results.
How it works:
Insuladd insulating additive for paint is the key to our paints and primers and is also a stand alone additive which can be added to any type of paint or coating.
Insuladd works by reflecting heat from radiant heat sources such as sunlight as well as heat generated by home heaters and fireplaces.
Fiberglass and foam insulation do not reflect heat hey simply slow down its passage. (Heat always travels from a warm are to a colder area.)
It is important to note that glossy white paints are reasonably good solar reflectors but have a very narrow reflectance range and do not reflect any low frequency radiation (heaters and fireplaces) nor are they good at reflecting infrared and ultraviolet radiation.
Insuladd insulating additive mixed into a glossy white paint is over 40% more energy efficient than glossy white paint alone when placed in direct sunlight and 100% more energy efficient on interior applications where paint color or paint reflectivity has no thermal value at all.
Performing & understanding Insuladd Demo’s:
There are quite a number of ways to demonstrate Insuladd working and probably and equal number of ways to get confused by what you see in the demo.
Example: A heat lamp (these are infrared high frequency heating devices which produce heat differently than something like an electric heater which is a low frequency heating device more commonly used in a home environment!) is used to heat two 12” x 12” pieces of cement board.
One board has been painted with Insuladd and house paint, the other board has been left plain.
Both boards have thermometers attached to the backside of the boards.
For this example we will say that the heat being generated by the heat lamp is 120 deg F thus it would follow that after a short period BOTH boards would get a surface temperature reading of 120 deg F since that is the amount of heat being applied to them.
At first glance you would think “Insuladd does not work” since you are seeing the same surface temperatures on both boards, however you have not yet seen what is actually going on with the demo!
The uncoated board is absorbing the 120 deg F heat very rapidly and quickly becomes saturated.
The Insuladd coated board is very slowly absorbing the 120 deg F heat and will take quite some time to reach saturation point.
How do we see this?
Simply turn off the heat lamps and see which board cools down the fastest!
The boards which as absorbed less heat (The Insuladd coated board) will obviously cool down much quicker thus demonstrating that Insuladd acts a radiant barrier and thermal reflector.
It is important to note that if the two boards are left exposed to the heat lamp for a long enough time it is possible for both boards to reach the saturation point, at which time, if the heat lamp was turned off, the Insuladd coated board would cool down more slowly than the uncoated board, since the Insuladd is retarding the heat flow outward in the same manner that it retards the heat flow inward, when the heat lamp was on.
A simplified summary:
Insuladd will retard the heat influx to an object when the object is cooler than the temperature being applied to it, and reflect a substantial % of the heat being radiated upon the object.
Insuladd will retard the heat out-flux from an object when the object is warmer than the surrounding temperature.
The comfortable temperature range for humans is quite narrow.
Most people find that 80 deg F is hot and 70 deg is cool.
If the median comfort zone in a home is 75 Deg F for example, then anything that can be done to keep the home within this temperature zone for a longer period of time, without requiring the use of heating or cooling devices, would obviously equate to a reduction in the operating time of the heating or cooling equipment, which = reduced expense for heating and cooling.
This is where Insuladd is so valuable - It reduces winter time heat loss and summer time heat gain into a home!
Some simple Demo’s to test 'effectiveness'
1) Soup can demo:
Paint a soup can on the outside with Insuladd and leave the other can uncoated.
Fill cans with hot water and feel the difference in the radiated heat.
2) Paint can demo:
Install two 40 watt light bulbs onto a board.
Place an plain empty one gallon paint can upside down over one bulb and an one gallon paint can that has been painted on the interior with Insuladd over the other bulb.
You can really feel the difference in radiated heat.
You can also attach an inexpensive indoor/outdoor thermometer (Lowes, Home Depot, and Radio Shack) to the outside of the cans to see the temperature difference.
This is a good trade show demo!
3) Painted box demo:
Get 2 cardboard boxes and paint the interior of one with Insuladd.
Place both boxes over 40 watt light bulbs and insert indoor/outdoor thermometer remote probe into each box to measure the rise in interior temperature.
The box painted with Insuladd will heat up more quickly due to its greater thermal efficiency. (A grade school student did this demo for a science project and her report is on our website under “testimonials”)
4) Panel demo’s :
More sophisticated demo’s can be done using thin wood, foam, or metal panels and measuring the heat flux through the Insuladd coated and uncoated panels.
A heat source such as small radiant electric heater is best since it simulates the type of heat generated by a residential heating system.
A heat lamp (infrared) or spotlight used as a heat source enables the inherent reflectivity of paint to come into play and thus skew the results toward basic narrow spectrum reflectivity.
Here is an actual example of a panel demo done with ½” foam R-3 insulation board:
Two panels 24” x 24” panels were cut from a sheet of ½” “blue board” R-3 foam insulation.
One panel was left plain and the other panel was painted on one side with 2 coats of latex house paint containing the recommended amount of Insuladd insulating additive.
Each panel was placed 18” from a 250 watt infrared heat lamp (space heater is better) and left for 10 minutes after which time a Raytek MiniTemp “point and shoot” thermometer was used to read the heat lamp side and back side temperatures.
Uncoated panel- front side 153 Deg F & back side 99 deg F
Insuladd coated panel-front side 134 deg F & back side 85 Deg F
The Insuladd coated panel was 14 deg F cooler!
>> See a video demo of a similar test
5) Burn strip:
This demo uses two ¾ inch x 4 inch (approx) strip of sheet metal.
One metal strip is left plain and the other strip has a one inch band of Insuladd painted around the middle of the strip.
Place the plain strip over a lighter or propane torch flame and see how long you can hold it until it gets hot.
You will find that the Insuladd painted strip can be held over the flame indefinitely!
1) Soup can demo:
Paint a soup can on the outside with Insuladd and leave the other can uncoated.
Fill cans with hot water and feel the difference in the radiated heat.
2) Paint can demo:
Install two 40 watt light bulbs onto a board.
Place an plain empty one gallon paint can upside down over one bulb and an one gallon paint can that has been painted on the interior with Insuladd over the other bulb.
You can really feel the difference in radiated heat.
You can also attach an inexpensive indoor/outdoor thermometer (Lowes, Home Depot, and Radio Shack) to the outside of the cans to see the temperature difference.
This is a good trade show demo!
3) Painted box demo:
Get 2 cardboard boxes and paint the interior of one with Insuladd.
Place both boxes over 40 watt light bulbs and insert indoor/outdoor thermometer remote probe into each box to measure the rise in interior temperature.
The box painted with Insuladd will heat up more quickly due to its greater thermal efficiency. (A grade school student did this demo for a science project and her report is on our website under “testimonials”)
4) Panel demo’s :
More sophisticated demo’s can be done using thin wood, foam, or metal panels and measuring the heat flux through the Insuladd coated and uncoated panels.
A heat source such as small radiant electric heater is best since it simulates the type of heat generated by a residential heating system.
A heat lamp (infrared) or spotlight used as a heat source enables the inherent reflectivity of paint to come into play and thus skew the results toward basic narrow spectrum reflectivity.
Here is an actual example of a panel demo done with ½” foam R-3 insulation board:
Two panels 24” x 24” panels were cut from a sheet of ½” “blue board” R-3 foam insulation.
One panel was left plain and the other panel was painted on one side with 2 coats of latex house paint containing the recommended amount of Insuladd insulating additive.
Each panel was placed 18” from a 250 watt infrared heat lamp (space heater is better) and left for 10 minutes after which time a Raytek MiniTemp “point and shoot” thermometer was used to read the heat lamp side and back side temperatures.
Uncoated panel- front side 153 Deg F & back side 99 deg F
Insuladd coated panel-front side 134 deg F & back side 85 Deg F
The Insuladd coated panel was 14 deg F cooler!
>> See a video demo of a similar test
5) Burn strip:
This demo uses two ¾ inch x 4 inch (approx) strip of sheet metal.
One metal strip is left plain and the other strip has a one inch band of Insuladd painted around the middle of the strip.
Place the plain strip over a lighter or propane torch flame and see how long you can hold it until it gets hot.
You will find that the Insuladd painted strip can be held over the flame indefinitely!
>> Purchase a small POUCH and do some of these tests for yourself.
If you are not sure about INSULADD®...
These are some basic tests provided by David Page, the developer of INSULADD®.
As he outlines during the introduction, it is understanding what the test results are actually showing you, that is of significant importance.
Please read the introduction so you know how to interpret your results.
Please read the introduction so you know how to interpret your results.
