Description of impact
Singapore authorities eye reflective paint for buildings as NTU pilot shows it can cool urban areas by 2 deg CSINGAPORE – The use of a reflective paint coating to cool down the urban environment will be piloted by industrial developer JTC at buildings in Bukit Batok and Sin Ming.
The trial, targeted to begin in the third quarter of 2024, adds to ongoing efforts in recent years to bring down city heat by coating building facades with cool paint.
Bukit Batok Industrial Park A and Sin Ming Industrial Estate will be coated in cool paint to see if it is effective in alleviating the urban heat island effect, said JTC. The effect refers to how urban areas feel warmer than rural areas due to roads, buildings and vehicles absorbing and retaining heat.
This follows an earlier experiment at a western JTC industrial area by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) researchers that showed the painted environment was up to 2 deg C cooler during the hottest times of the day. Findings of the experiment, which was done in 2018 and 2019, were published in the journal Sustainable Cities and Society in March 2024.
Separately in 2020, NTU also tested the use of cool paint at two Housing Board blocks in Bukit Purmei, before HDB expanded its use to 130 blocks in Tampines in a study expected to wrap up in 2024.
In the NTU experiment done between 2018 and 2019, two industrial buildings under JTC and the road between them were coated with the cool paint, while another two buildings in the area served as controls. The paint contained titanium dioxide, a pigment that is good at reflecting sunlight and is commonly used in sunscreen.
The NTU team monitored conditions such as air movement, surface and air temperature, humidity and radiation at both sites over six months.
About 30 per cent less heat was released from the painted buildings and pavements, cooling the area’s temperature by up to 2 deg C during the hottest time of the day at around 4pm. Pedestrians would feel 1.5 deg C cooler in that outdoor environment, according to measurements using the Universal Thermal Climate Index.