Tuesday 8 October 2013

The Necessity of Cool Coatings for Concrete

A discovery fundamental to the building construction issue is concrete. It is an ancient Roman creation that was a revolution to construction which when reinforced with steel enabled towers and expressways to come into being. Did you know that concrete stores hotness from the sun and it heats up our air significantly due to its universal use? Did you know that it deteriorates slowly to probable failure at some point in its life span? Unless it is coated, it will eventually fail and need reparation or replacement due to water deterioration to the strengthening rebar. As it is now, due to the scale and widespread nature of its use, concrete is a major contributor to the “Urban Heat Island Effect” since unpainted concrete acts as a thermal heat sink in all sun exposed locations and “re-radiates” the thermally accumulated sun’s radiation into the atmosphere after the sun goes down. The overheated air in cities and suburbs catalyzes more air pollution by chemical reactions which occur as the atmospheric temperatures increase. Massive carbon pollution further occurs from generation of the electricity at fuel-burning utility plants supplying the energy to run air conditioners inside millions of such buildings into the night.



Cool Coatings for Concrete

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