Does Wall Color Affect Home’s Temperature?

Does Wall Color Affect Home’s Temperature? Most, if not all, homeowners consider aesthetics only when choosing colors for their walls. Visuals should always play a part, of course. However, bestowing a look upon your facade or insides is not the only effect that your choice of wall color has on your home.

Did you know that the wall color you pick can also affect the temperature and ambiance of your interior spaces?

Painters apply wall colors over the base material of your house. This means then that the layer of paint on your exterior or interior walls absorbs most of the heat and cold from the outside. Thus, your choice of dark or light colors for your exterior and interior walls can directly impact the temperature of your house together with the type of materials used to build it.

Does Wall Color Affect Home’s Temperature?
What Do the Experts Say?

According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a home with a dark exterior finish will end up absorbing up to 70-90% of sunlight during the day. After the roof and exterior walls absorb solar energy, the materials transfer much of that heat to the inside. Theoretically, then, houses painted with dark colors could enjoy warmer temperatures in their living spaces inside.

How about light colors? The NREL specifically states that these hues reflect solar energy rather than absorb it. In theory, then, houses painted in light colors are less warm than those coated with dark shades.

In reality, however, the color of your exterior and interior walls is only one of the many factors that affect the temperature of your house.

Construction Materials Also Absorb and Distribute Heat

Experts say that the materials that have been used in the construction and improvement of your abode have a direct impact on how heat is distributed in the interiors.

Houses made of brick or concrete, for instance, are more efficient at dissipating the heat from the outside to the inside. This means that the occupants could experience cooler or warmer temperatures comfortably than those with houses made of lightweight materials.

Other Factors That Can Determine How Much Heat Accumulates in your Interiors

The local climate also has an impact on how your house transfers heat from the outside to the inside. People in locales with high heat indexes, for example, could have more humid homes than those in areas with low heat indexes. Individuals living in the tropics, where the climate is warmer, also experience warmer temperatures during the day than those in the northern hemisphere.

Another factor that drives your interior temperature is the type of roofing you have installed. Next to your walls, your roof is the other part of your residence that absorbs heat and light directly from the Sun!

Last but not least, the materials that your windows are made of are also crucial to the temperatures you experience inside your house. The NREL attributes 40%, or nearly half, of heat distributed to your interiors to your windows.

How Do You Bring Down Your Interior Temperature?

The usual knee-jerk reaction is to turn up the air-conditioning when it is getting too hot. Air conditioning does its part in cooling us down, but it also has some side effects on your budget and the environment.

Turning up the air-conditioning forces the appliance to consume more energy to achieve cooler temperatures. As a result, your energy bills will also increase. You’ll have to get ready for higher bills. If you want to save every penny, however, you’ll need to think of long-term ways of cooling your interior temperatures. In other words, you’ll have to invest in a major home improvement project.

What Needs To Be Done?

As mentioned above, many parts of your home absorb and distribute heat from the outside to the inside. What you need to do then is to improve these components and their heat transfer capabilities. Here are a few suggestions:

• Install roofing and soffit vents.
  
• Add a reflective coating to your existing roofing. This lowers the interiors by deflecting much of the sun’s heat instead of being absorbed.
  
• If you have sliding windows, you can ask your trusted installer to add a tint to the glass. Tinting not only deflects heat but also reduces glare from direct sunlight.
  
• Add also reflective coatings to the metal housing of your window assembly. Take note, however, that they can darken your room a little bit.
  
• Install shades in windows that directly face the sun. You can use an awning outside the window, or retractable blinds.
  
• If you have an attic, insulate the space to block heat and keep much of it from seeping downstairs.

How About Wall Paint?

If you live in an area with a warm climate, you might want to consider painting your exterior walls with lighter shades. White is a common choice because it is also the color of paint primers.

However, some people may find white too flat or ordinary. If you are conscious of aesthetics, you can choose lighter hues of other colors. These include sky blue, mint green, soft pink, and light cream colors, among others.

Aside from lowering the overall temperature of your interiors, light or cool colors also have a distinct visual appeal. Light wall color makes the house exude positive energy when viewed from the outside. They are certainly more visually appealing than dull and dark colors.

Oil or Water Based Paint?

When purchasing paint, you will encounter two types of paint – water-based and oil-based paints. Some people stumble upon this step because they don’t know which type is suited for their projects.

In a nutshell, oil-based paints are advantageous if you don’t plan to paint over the existing layer for a long time. The walls also sport a bright sheen when you use this kind of paint. The downside to oil-based paints, however, is that the sheen tends to dull over time. The coats also take a far longer time to dry than water-based paints.

Water-based paint, on the other hand, has superior color retention than oil-based paints. If you’re looking for a fast turnaround time, you should choose these paints for your projects. Water-based paint also protects the walls more efficiently against moisture and the elements.

Does Wall Color Affect Home’s Temperature? – Conclusion

To conclude, your choice of wall color does have an impact on the temperature inside your home. However, other areas of your house also contribute to the environment of your interiors. By undertaking a major home improvement project, you can organically bring down the heat inside your house without incurring high electricity bills.