What's a good aluminum roof coating?
Preferably under $100 per gallon. We bought a 1972 16' travel trailer and would like to get a protective coating on the roof.
Forum Discussion
yankee camper wrote:Your results follow the laws, no physics agents will be interrogating you, lol.
I have a 1992 Coachman 5th wheel with an aluminum roof. It was not painted for the 1st 2 years I owned it. I too figured that "this thing is like a mirror" and would reflect most if not all the heat off the roof. Well the 3rd year I painted it white with elastomeric roof paint and the indoor temps in the summer went down a good 10 degrees. Not going to get into a physics debate or try to convince anyone of anything,just posting MY results for anyone interested.
I'll expand on emissivity: the radiant reflection is not the only factor in the thermal equation. The bare metal has good reflection but poor emissivity, it doesn't give up the collected heat fast. White paint has close to the same reflection but has excellent emissivity, it transfers heat back out fast, hence less heat build up. I noticed a 10f reduction in heat inside the cabin, too.
Now, will anyone explain to me why a black electronic heat sink transfers heat better than a brushed aluminum one?
