"Insuladd" paint additive for insulation for roofs?

[ScouterMom]

http://www.insuladdstore.com/

I work in the paint Dept at Menards (a midwest home improvement store like Home Depot and Lowes) and we've recently started carrying Insuladd - which is a ceramic additive to paint that actually increases the insulation value of the paint.  

From the website:

How InsulAdd Works

The ceramic particles in INSULADD� create a thermal barrier. These particles refract, reflect, and dissipate heat.

The complex blend of microscopic hollow ceramic spheres that makes up INSULADD� have a vacuum inside like mini-thermos bottles. While the use of INSULADD� on interior walls is extremely beneficial, its use on exterior walls is even more dramatically effective since it blocks the extreme heat of the sun. INSULADD� ceramic-filled paint on interior walls looks like ordinary flat wall paint. We use it inside of our offices and on the exterior walls of our plant.
 
The ceramic materials have unique energy savings properties that reflect heat while dissipating it. The hollow ceramic microspheres reflective quality affects the warming phenomenon called "Mean Radiant Temperature" ,where heat waves from a source such as direct sunlight cause a person to feel warmer even though the actual air temperature is no different between a shady and sunny location. It is the molecular friction within the skin caused by the sun's radiant energy waves which makes the body feel warmer."

Seems to me this would be an ideal product for camper roofs and bodies being re-painted - it can be added to any exisiting paint or color, and is most effective as an exterior paint.  

I hope to be rebuilding my roof this spring/ summer - and if I re-use the existing 'skin' aluminum (which is very pockmarked and the paint is completely worn off) I will be trying this in re-painting it.

Has anyone tried this or looked into it? Opinions, anyone?

Laura

[WV Hillbilly]

Check the label on the paint can to see if it will work on aluminum.....some paint won't adhere to aluminum and you might have peeling or flaking of the painting in a year or two.  An aluminum primer might help but I would double check the label to be sure.

If it okay for aluminum I would give it a try.

[austinado16]

Sounds like an interesting concept.  It'd be fun to do a test and see if it really worked.

[flyfisherman]

The popup cabin roof itself is adequately insulated the way it is ... it's those bunk ends where the extreme temperature fluctuation occurs. To that end I use the Reflectix insulation material which has made a real big difference for the heat or the cold.



Fly