Darker exterior color cause higher temps inside?

Well, I've never seen a dark 30A coach with one AC. I can tell you ours struggles to keep up on a hot day and it's white, can't imagine if it were black.

My last coach had a lot of black, gold and champagne and wasn't any hotter than my present coach with light colors beige, silver and champagne. My first class A was white and seemed cooler in direct sun but I think all painted coaches get equally hot in direct sun light.

golfknut wrote:
With many rigs these days having dark colors (especially black) on the upper 1/3 to 1/2 of the rig I was wondering if people with such a color scheme are noticing increased temperatures inside their rigs on hot sunny days?

The dark color scheme on my "House" was my wife's choice...

And yes it sure soaks up the sun on a sunny day

Also lets more heat out at night.

I had to "Upgrade" my two 13,500 BTU roof mounted air conditioners to 15,000

If you wonder about that, take a look at newer schoolbuses they may be yellow on the sides, but the tops are all white.

Obviously dark colors absorb heat and light colors reflect. Everything depends on insulation.

When we were building our current coach I didn't want black so we have dark brown on the upper color and lighter colors below (earthy golds, beige and cranberry). We are well insulated and have four 13,500 btu roof airs.

I usually never need all four. Three units are plenty. Our manufacturer designed the venting on their CAD system as not to have any hard bends in the ducting that would restrict air flow. So, 13,500 btu units will freeze you out and they are lower profile too.

With any coach, you have to watch electrical usage as 50 amp is 50 amp.

Safe travels,
MM.

Black is the absence of color therefore it absorbs all wavelengths of light. White is a combination of seven colors of the light spectrum therefore reflecting those wavelengths which leaves it less light energy to convert to heat.

Dark colors will be hotter than light ones. It is physics. Take the temperature of each color on the side of your coach and you will find that the dark colors are considerably hotter than the light ones. How much the extra heat on the outside of your coach will affect the inside temperature is based on how well your coach is insulated. However, there will always be heat transfer from the skin of the coach to the inside, so a dark coach will be hotter and will require more AC to keep it cool. How much more is a question that cannot be answered without knowing the coach.

When we got our coach repainted, we chose much lighter colors so the coach stays cooler and so the paint lasts longer.

Although if you do a lot of fall or cold weather camping, black may be
the way to go! We chose black shingles on our house in Minnesota. More heating here than cooling.
Brian

Back in the '90s, an employee at the Nissan dealer in Augusta, GA, tried an experiment on a nice, hot, sunny southern summer day. He took some test thermometers from the HVAC tech. He placed them in otherwise identical trucks - but one was white and one was black. There was a 40 degree difference in the interior temps between the two trucks.

Rob

Using an infrared thermometer it is amazing how hot the dark colors get on my rv. They will burn your hands in the Summer. It makes a huge difference when we put the awnings out. The frames of the windows are metal and transmit a lot of heat inside too. We have dual pane windows which really helps with the heat and noise.