Darker exterior color cause higher temps inside?

[golfknut]

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?

[Peralko]

Bill.Satellite wrote:


Unless things have changed over the years, the roof of the Prevost is bright white!

Actually our roof is silver-colored.

[Peralko]

Another issue with dark paint is thee checking that have plagued many coaches. While Country Coach probably had the most exposure on the issue, I have seen heat-related checking on just about every brand of coach, including Prevost. We chose a light-colored coach, since we spend much time in the southwest.

[crasster]

Second Chance wrote:
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

Totally believe it. Solar ovens are black. Black metal gets very hot outside on a sunny day. With glass, a black RV with insulation is essentially a poorly designed solar oven. Of course after driving it with A/C it gets much better, but still, I totally believe they are hotter. But let's talk about winter time now. 🙂

[fortytwo]

Several years ago at the Tampa RV show I stopped at a vendor booth that specialized in replacing the sides of dark painted motorhomes. He said that in some coaches the fiberglass under the dark paint was "toast" in as few as 5 years. Take the handy IR thermometer you use to check your tires (you do use one don't you) and measure the sunny side of dark, beige, and white. It will vary by more than 40 degrees. Something has to handle that extra heat; insulation, air conditioners, or a combination. The laws of thermodynamics have not been repealed.

It's probable that fiberglass manufacturers have manged to change their formulation to survive the extra heat else we would see numerous threads on fiberglass replacement. I would carefully inspect a dark coach over a half dozen years old.

I was lucky to find a pristine unpainted 2014 a couple of years ago. Rare find. It's worth noting however, that white is not a guarantee of trouble free fiberglass as seen in the now defunct Alpha line.

[the_silverback]

Yes, it does. How many black cars do see in Arizona???

[Effy]

Technically and from a physics perspective I am sure it makes a difference. But if you buy a decent RV with enough AC's and power as well as decent insulation, I doubt it matters much. I don't see many complaints about darker coaches with 2 or more AC's keeping cool. I am sure if you took the time to measure KW/hour vs a lighter coach you would show an higher KW usage. But let's face it, RV's, especially motorhomes, are a great example of inefficiency to start with. So, it's kind of a moot point.

[dewey02]

Cobra21 wrote:
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

We're in northern Minnesota and also have black roof shingles. It usually doesn't do us much good however, as the roof is white during the cold weather as it is covered with snow from December through March, and often into April. 😞

[10forty2]

Park in the shade....:B

[rgatijnet1]

msmith1199 wrote:
The Mythbusters did it, but with cars and not motorhomes, but I bet the results would be similar. They confirmed the myth and determined that it got almost 10 degrees hotter in the black car versus the white car.

How many automobiles have 2" of so of sytrofoam or fiberglass insulation?

[Mr_Mark1]

I did an unscientific test at a new car dealership a few years ago (BMW's I think). There happened to be a white and a black car next to each other on a hot summer day.

I could not keep my hand on the black car but could on the white.

Safe travels,
MM.

[msmith1199]

The Mythbusters did it, but with cars and not motorhomes, but I bet the results would be similar. They confirmed the myth and determined that it got almost 10 degrees hotter in the black car versus the white car.

[down_home]

Dark colors do heat up quicker.
A real bright white or chrome would reflect more of the heat range emissions in sun light rays .

[John_Joey]

rgatijnet1 wrote:

John&Joey wrote:
The biggest complaint I hear is the dark colors starts to fad after only a few years. A good friend of mine says he will only buy white from now on.

I guess that depends on the quality of the original paint job and the materials used. There are plenty of dark automobiles that have nice paint even after a few decades. I know that my Monaco coach has experienced no paint fading after more than a decade sitting out in the Florida sun between trips. I don't doubt that using cheap materials by some RV manufacturers will fade sooner, but that certainly does not apply to all manufacturers.

FWIW, I was going to say this in the original post, but didn't. Those that are complaining about fading are 5'ver not MH's. That may be part of it or not. The one in particular is a Jayco and is only 3 years old.

[2gypsies1]

If you're not going to be staying in extreme high temperatures I really don't think you should buy a MH based on color. Make sure the RV has suitable air conditioners for the size. Insulation is important as are double pane windows.

There are many, many dark color RVs out there and you don't really hear complaints about keeping cool - unless in extreme temperatures. I wouldn't peg Michigan as an extreme state. 🙂 We lived there. If you're planning the summer in Florida or Arizona, Utah, deserts then that's extreme.