Power4Patriots Offers Usage Suggestions for Solar Paint

So far, the best way to heat a home with solar energy is through the installation of solar panels on the roof. Today, scientists are working on something even simpler to get the job done – solar paint.

Nashville, Tenn. (PRWEB) January 02, 2013

While the University of Notre Dame football team was winning game after game in 2012 to earn a berth in the BCS Championship Game to be played on Jan. 7, 2013, researchers and scientists at the school were working on a groundbreaking project that would enable homeowners to help heat their houses with paint.

Of course, viewers of the big game won't see this same kind of paint on the faces of college football fans demonstrating their school spirit. This particular paint, made from titanium dioxide (also found in sunscreen), would generate electricity. The paint can be tinted to make any color and applied to any surface on which paint can effectively be applied. Efficiency is about 1 percent right now, which is well below the 15 to 20 percent efficiency of mass production solar panels. But improvement is expected as the research continues.

Power4Patriots, best known for teaching people how to build their own environmentally-friendly sources of energy such as solar panels and wind turbines so that they can slash their power bills and be safe when power outages occur, applauds this solar research and offers the following suggestions regarding potential usage:

    Flat roof surfaces could be painted with this material to simultaneously reflect heat and generate power.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2013/1/prweb10283909.htm

    The sides of buildings could be painted to produce electricity.

    Roadways and bridges could now generate power.

    Stadium roofs seem perfect for this application.

    Every sunny side of homes could be painted with this material.

Of course, there are some questions about how solar paint would work. Generally, solar wattage varies on surface area, so the larger the area, the more wattage. How would the power that came off a wall be regulated? What voltage would it produce? Answers to these questions would be important for system design purposes.

Check out this Power4Patriots blog to learn about one of the company's favorite solar tools.