After I'd explained my new yurt design (see older posts) at a conference a while back, a physicist friend of mine came up to me and said "I'll never understand why everyone goes with aluminum-coated panels -- it's such a bad idea".
He explained that aluminum is optically gray (not an especially high albedo, especially when dusty), but white in IR. Meaning, it absorbs visible light, heats up, and can't reradiate the heat effectively. So the heat is conducted into the panels. By contrast, observatories are painted with a white paint which, while it also absorbs some visible light, reradiates it all in IR very effectively. So, the dome doesn't heat up. I found this link which puts some hard numbers to this: http://umich.edu/~lowbrows/reflections/2001/tryan.5.html Has anyone tried painting their panels? I would hate to be the guy that mooped up the playa with paint flakes after a dust storm. So, any tips on paint selection or sealant would be appreciated. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hexayurt" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to hexayurt+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to hexayurt@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
