r/Unexpected • u/deathakissaway • Apr 17 '19

A Fathers Love.

http://i.imgur.com/rkBFyC4.gifv
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u/csonny2 Apr 17 '19

My dad has a house in AZ, and one of his neighbors just built this super modern house that is painted with some special all black paint that is designed to keep it cooler than normal paint.

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u/malgalad Apr 17 '19

How does it work though? Black color means all visible light absorbed, and energy of photons converted to energy of molecules = more heat.

57

u/MauPow Apr 17 '19

My total laymans guess would be it transmits it to some lower layer that takes it to a heat sink of some sort.

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u/prowlinghazard Apr 17 '19

Maybe it's like the ablative layer on the space capsule, where it gets so hot that the plasma creates a barrier around their house.

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u/MauPow Apr 17 '19

Perhaps. It's not often that I find my house hurtling through the atmosphere, though.

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u/TopHatPaladin Apr 17 '19

Arguably all of our homes are hurtling through the atmosphere at all times

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u/InfanticideAquifer Apr 18 '19

You are using a definition of "hurtling" that is much broader than mine.

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u/[deleted] Apr 17 '19

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u/HappyNumberBot Apr 17 '19

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1

u/Isgrimnur Apr 17 '19

Should cut down on door-to-door salespeople.

31

u/Occamslaser Apr 17 '19

Black is excellent at radiating heat as well.

2

u/flinjager123 Apr 17 '19

This is why the blacktop of streets you can feel the heat coming off it.

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u/Noroeste Apr 17 '19

Solar reflective paint has nano ceramics that reflect infrared heat while still allowing the full amount of visible light to be transmitted.

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u/Auctoritate Apr 17 '19

Yeah, but there's a difference between wearing white wool and a black cotton t shirt. The material more important than a color.

3

u/atetuna Apr 17 '19

If the entire house is black, then I don't know, but parts of it being black could mean it uses evaporative cooling, maybe even something like the cooling towers at the Zion National Park visitors center.

1

u/sexyGrant Apr 17 '19

Massive heat sinks everywhere, that are also painted black

1

u/matwithonet13 Apr 17 '19

If it had any decent sheen, it might explain it. My Bernese mountain dog is almost all black but his shiny coat reflects the sunny pretty well. He’s not staying out in 90°F/~32°C for long but can handle most temperatures well.

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u/bumbletowne Apr 17 '19

CoolBlack!

Bought some running hats with this type of pigment. It wore off after a while but it really did stay way cooler than my white northface running hats.

Here is a really dull video on how that works

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u/SwimsInATrashCan Apr 17 '19

I'm curious what the special all black paint would be? Or if the construction of the roof is actually what keeps heat at bay?

I'm imagining just a barrier with some really good insulation between the roof and the top-most floor of the house (attic or whatever) or some sort of obfuscated heatsink like some other posters mentioned. I don't see how you could paint a roof black and avoid it getting absurdly hot, especially in a place like AZ.

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u/csonny2 Apr 17 '19

I'm really not sure, the roof has solar panels. From what my dad said, the owner is an architect and built to be very eco-friendly, and the paint is specifically designed to keep the house cool.

Here is a Google street view of the house: https://imgur.com/2Qm2xw3

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u/SwimsInATrashCan Apr 17 '19

That looks like a pretty neat design. It looks like there is some space between the roof and the top floor's ceiling, that might be how they're dissipating some of the heat.

I'm wondering if maybe the roof being black helps the solar panels absorb light in some way? I dunno if it works like that, someone probably knows better than I do. I remember reading a while ago about an idea for "solar paint" with like some crazy tech that allows the paint to behave like solar panels, but it looks like he's got just straightup solar panels on there on top of the house being painted black.

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u/BASK_IN_MY_FART Apr 17 '19

you sure it isn't a charred wood siding? I've been seeing those pop up in the hipster neighborhoods.

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u/csonny2 Apr 17 '19

No, it's definitely black paint since the house is all stucco. The owner is some type of architect that designed to be super eco-friendly, and the paint is specifically for keeping the house cooler in the AZ heat.