my parents have purchased a big bucket of this ceramic additive that you put in paint, that the company claims will insulate your house. i think my parents got suckered into something, but i haven't found any good proof yet. it just doesn't sit right with me. anyway, has anybody ever heard of this crap? there is an explanation of how it works, and i don't remember enough from physics classes to know if it all checks out. i'm thinking if it actually worked well, then why isn't it all over the home improvement market?
http://www.hytechsales.com/insulating_paint_additives.html

they advertise that they are a NASA spinoff company of 2003 (whatever that is), and when you click on the NASA Scientific & Technical Information link at the top of the home page, the link doesn't work (at least not for me). link: http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/spinoff2003/er_4.html

12/4/2007 9:36:57 AM

sounds like BS to me - the sti.nasa link works for me and looks like a legitimate part of nasa, so I guess the paint additive has some utility for the space program. however, I highly doubt that you'd see any benefit when used on a home. i'm not saying this is true, but i bet it requires some sort of highly sophisticated application such that if you miss one centimeter, you lose all benefit for the entire installation - or some other such necessity making it impractical for normal people

12/4/2007 9:41:02 AM

where do they live?

12/4/2007 9:42:56 AM

^^i thought that nasa link might actually work...we have weird internet problems at work (not being able to access specific websites although we have no filters or blocking stuff, some examples are http://www.adobe.com and http://www.hp.com). i can get to http://www.nasa.gov just fine though.

i just don't see how this would really be effective. dad's attitude is "so what if it works, i've already paid for it and they're spraying it on the house now. if it works it works, if not oh well." i'd still like to find out more about it though.

^they live just outside of rocky mount.

[Edited on December 4, 2007 at 9:45 AM. Reason : ]

12/4/2007 9:44:09 AM

your house has a better chance of surviving atmospheric reentry now probably

12/4/2007 9:53:38 AM

hahahaha that's what i told him

12/4/2007 9:53:58 AM

thats not worth it

some chalking would be a better use of that money

[Edited on December 4, 2007 at 10:02 AM. Reason : 

12/4/2007 9:59:05 AM

only thing i've heard of or seen similar to that is the outside paint, it's a ceramic/paint combo that is supposed to last (guaranteed etc by the manufacturer and the installer/painter) for some ungodly length of time. it would have some sort of R value but I can't imagine it being very much.

and if you use it indoors where the paint is even thinner i think the effect would be even less...

12/4/2007 11:35:34 AM