Painting Reflectix black on one side

Guest · Aug 9, 2013

Will Reflectix in the windows of the van still work if I paint the outside facing black.

Wild_E · Aug 9, 2013

I do believe it will work though maybe at a reduced rate? Why not get some black Coroplast (the plastic stuff that looks like cardboard) shape to fit the window and then put the reflectix to that surface. It might work better that way, as the reflectix somewhat breaths and uses the surface structure to be more efficient. The Coroplast will be a denser material thus allowing less light to penetrate either way and the airflow from the top to bottom should help with condensation issues. 

Guest · Aug 9, 2013

That's a great idea, thanks. I looked up Coroplast and it looks good, but it would be too difficult to store when not in use, in my situation, because my van is just for camping and I only want the windows blocked while I am parked and I can roll up the Reflectix and store it in the small area beside the bed.

Wild_E · Aug 9, 2013

No worries, glad to almost help .. <img src="/images/boards/smilies/smile.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle">

adi · Aug 10, 2013

I used a cheap black sheet and spray adhesive. Worked well for a while, but the material is starting to fade after one AZ summer. The reflectix also does not hold its shape as well anymore.

I considered paint, but i assumed that reflecix would flex too much and the paint would flake off, YMMV.

dfunkt · Aug 10, 2013

Why does everyone choose black?  Why not cover the windows with an opaque white material?  It seems that would have far less issues with heat. maybe white coroplast painted black on the inside to block light.

kranky · Aug 11, 2013

The purpose of Reflectix is to reflect sun away from your vehicle, keeping it cooler.  You can paint it black but know that black will absorb heat and make the inside of your vehicle hotter.

Guest · Aug 11, 2013

Why does everyone choose black?  Why not cover the windows with an opaque white material?  It seems that would have far less issues with heat. maybe white coroplast painted black on the inside to block light.

I want black on the outside because it blends in with the rest of vehicles on the road that have dark window tint. I live in the city, If I lived in the desert or any low populated area and didn't care about stealth I might go with white.

adi · Aug 14, 2013

For me, I chose black for the stealth factor. Unless you look closely, it just looks like dark tint. I didn't want to tint my cargo windows so I wouldn't have issues at night trying to maneuver a larger vehicle.

As for diminishing the effectiveness of reflectix, you kill most of its value at reflecting outside radiant heat when you put it right up to the window. In order for it to be effective, it needs a 1 inch air gap the direction you want it to be effective in. Here in the southwest, blocking the sun is the most important factor, which any color reflectix does, and in the winter, you are mostly trying to reflect whatever heat you have inside to stay inside, and even in it's most useless state, reflectix is equal to R1, which is better than nothing, and you keep the cold glass somewhat isolated from the living area.

So the color you choose for reflectix isn't too important because 90% of its use in RV's has already compromised its maximum usefulness.

wrcsixeight · Aug 18, 2013

One should also be aware of Emissivity. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emissivity" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emissivity</a>  Black surfaces will absorb more heat, and in the winter will radiate more heat.  Things painted black will radiate the heat within faster than silver.  Opposite ends of the spectrum. My tinted windows heat up and radiate huge amounts of heat to the interior.  I used to have reflectix in them, but under certain sun angles this was too obvious and screamed van dweller. I now have cardboard cut outs about 1/2 inch thick which fit tightly into the window frames I had adhered black construction paper to the exterior, and my previous curtains to the interior. After 3 months the paper had faded to light gray.  I just recently spray painted them black again with flat black high heat paint. These cardboard cutouts reduce the heat radiating inside a significant amount when in direct sunlight.  I'd say by at least 75%.  The back windows cut outs are in 3 pieces, the side window is 4 pieces.  Removing the panels is simple, and I do remove the smaller 'locking' piece daily to let in some light and reduce the 'cave' factor.  Can't see into the interior from the exterior in the daytime unless one were to put their eyeball to the window, and it is hard to notice the windows are blacked out.  I doubt non van dwellers or those looking for them would ever notice.

Around here nobody notices anything unless their phone battery dies.  Freakin Zombies

cygvan · Aug 18, 2013

wrc...i dont understand why your windows radiate so much heat with the tint. i certainly understand that dark objects do that but doesnt the fact that tint cuts down uv lower temps? or is it possible that your tint reduces visible light only? i only ask because the tint i used on my side windows really cut down on the heat. its dramatic. of course it was even a little better with a piece of EPS and reflectix but not enough for me to stick with that. i eventually just made shades. even in direct sun on these side windows i just dont feel it radiating that much. what do you think?

Ken in Anaheim · Aug 18, 2013

Don't confuse UV (ultra-violet) with IR (infra-red), It's the IR that creates heat. KinA

wrcsixeight · Aug 18, 2013

My van is painted white. I have under 1/4" of insulation on the walls. 1/8" carpet underlayment with 3/32 white plastic sheeting on top Right now at 5:17 pm at 32' north the sun is beating on the side of my Van. Ambient temp 82f My IR thermometer says: The window glass is not covered by cardboard is 114f The window glass  interior that is covered by the cardboard is 139.5f The  slightly insulated white colored interior right next to the window is 96. The interior surface of my cardboard cut out is 100.5  My light blue bed sheet in the sun reads 91.5 The light blue bed sheet in the shade reads 83.5 My cargo door window is open, but has a dual layered reflectix on top of quality cardboard, reflectix facing out at the sun.  Interior surface temp 93. The window is tinted charcoal gray by me, 6 years ago and needs to be redone. Just closed the window so no air leaking around to cool it.. I have some magazine photos taped to the interior cardboard. The cardboard surface temp is now 96f with window closed On a black section of the photo, the surface temp is 95.5 On a white section of the photo, surface temp is 91.5. So covering the window with anything, allows the window  itself to get hotter and more likely to radiate that heat to the interior.  Infra red, not visible. Layers of insulation block the hot window from radiating heat to the interior.  In my case it is black exterior facing dual layered cardboard 5/8 inches thick, with my former curtain adhered to the interior cardboard face. As effective as my cardboard panels are in heat reduction, I still have hookless bungee cords across my windows to hold my pillows up to them.  When the sun is low and directly beating on the black windows, the pillows with 3 to 5 inches of dead air space, along with the cardboard stop 98% of all radiated heat, and 100% of all light.  The cardboard blocks 100% visible light on its own. White/light colored interior surfaces will radiate less heat to the interior from the exterior.  Polished silver would radiate the least from the exterior to interior, black would radiate the most.  Get too close to polished silvery surfaces and you will feel your own radiated body heat reflected back at you. On one of my windows I have a layer of 99 cent store  imitation reflectix( from the front window shades,  About 1/8 thick, in between the two layers of cardboard. Surprisingly the surface temp of the cardboard with the 3rd layer only stays 1 to 1.5 degrees than the other window that faces the exact same sun angle, but only has 2 layers of cardboard . Black construction paper(now painted black, it turned light grey in a few months), and my curtain fabric adhered to the interior cardboard with double sided  carpet tape across its whole surface Formerly my curtains were dual layered.  The pattern you see in my photo above, and the side facing out was dark black.  They also fit very tightly against the window , but would get incredibly hot, radiating huge amounts of heat to the interior and I started layering reflectix along the window face, which helped, but was still intolerable trying to sleep in on an east facing window in summertime, and the reflectix from outside was obvious when the sun could hit the window. Now my interior panels are pretty much invisible, and much less heat makes it inside.  they are also easy to remove for when the fish bowl effect is desirable, such as when parked next to the ocean.

My conversion van window tint could certainly be darker, and the sunlight which did make it through would then have less energy to heat up the objects inside which it strikes.  It is still hard to see inside from outside as long as the windows on the other side are closed. Oh one more temp reading.  The lower portion of my conversion van window has 1 layer of Flexfix tape adhered to the interior of the glass blocking about 95% of all visible light  The window section without the  silver tape is Now, at 6:01pm, 110f The window section WITH the silver tape adhered to the interior is 92.5. I can put my hand inches away from both windows and easily feel the difference in heat from black to silver.

cygvan · Aug 18, 2013

@ken ya i think i may be making that mistake.  possible that my tint filters both?

cygvan · Aug 18, 2013

so putting something in the window makes the window hotter which heats up the interior due to it radiating. and the color/reflectivity of that something determines to what extent.  this makes sense to me and its why i chose such a powerful tint. because i figured if i block the sun it wouldnt let anything on the interior to heat up. even shades. it seems to work for me. but you have me thinking if i can improve it by even just a few more degrees it would be worth it. i can easily get white vinyl. id like to get one of those ir thermometers too. ive seen them in use by hvac guys and it would be nice to put numbers to the actual conditions i have. but thus far, my rear windows with no tint and just reflectix are so much hotter than my side windows with tint and nothing else. putting the vinyl shades i made on the side windows seems to reduce the heat even more to almost irrelevant levels. i dont think it gets hotter when i add them than with the tint alone. is it possible that the tint i chose is cutting down the uv and ir so much that its not heating up the black vinyl behind it too much? so, if i hadnt gotten lucky and the tint wasnt so good i would see what you see? like i mentioned earlier, i really get blasted by the sun for a good portion of the day due to parking alignment but im convinced i have it licked so far. ps....hell of a view ya got there. i got 12' arbovitae on one side(no windows on that side anyway) and two story house on the other side....amazingly, neither give the van shade where it needs it lol...go figure.

cygvan · Aug 18, 2013

oh that ir thermo would be really neat to see the temp of the cab. even with the windows cracked with vent shades its dang hot in there.

wrcsixeight · Aug 18, 2013

IR temp guns are great.  I love using it at different spots around my fridge to see how different fan positions and content positioning affect temperature. The Ir thermometer can get thrown off by highly reflective surfaces. Like when I pull a beer from my 33 degree fridge, and take a reading on the dewed can and it says 52f. With the reflectix I put it right up to the surface and pull the trigger, otherwise it is reading the heat reflected off  some other surface.  Remember it is not the laser sight that is reading the heat.  The cone of IR radiation it senses and averages is much wider. <a href="http://www.harborfreight.com/infrared-thermometer-93984.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.harborfreight.com/infrared-thermometer-93984.html </a> Don't forget to look for and print up a HF 20% off coupon either I Imagine my black glass heating up in the sun is attempting to irradiate the interior just as much as an  uninsulated black painted steel( boths sides) would.  I think the light that gets through plays a smaller part in internal heating that the black glass itself radiating heat, not the visible light heating interior contents behind the black glass. My cardboard stops the glass from radiating as much heat to the interior, but since the glass is not releasing this stored heat to the interior, it gets hotter than it would otherwise with the sun beating on it. Dead air space between window and curtain can go a long way too. When I had dual layered black curtains facing out, I'd commonly read 170 f on the IR gun, and getting anywhere near them was just like being 4 feet away from an open oven.  Dark tint is a good thing.  No doubt it reduces heat transmission to the interior but the glass itself gets hotter than it would without tint.  Without sunlight striking objects inside and warming them up or just much reduced sunlight, this is where the cooling of dark tint occurs, but black glass gets hot, and the layer of tint is not going to reflect the heat back the other way.  The black color itself with its higher emissivity will radiate more heat.  But, More heat than what would pass through as visible light with No tint? no Keep in mind it is lower sun angles when the  nearly vertical black window glass will reach its hottest, not at full noon. I think my conversion van windows are smoked glass, not regular glass with a film of tint on the interior.  No doubt there is a difference in what heat makes it through. I Plan on retinting my door windows soon with a darker tint, one at a time, so I can take  comparable readings and will try to remember to report back as to glass and interior cardboard temps with the darker tint. I;d enjoy some brand recommendations if you got them.  I have not gotten more than 6 years before it loses all clarity through bubbles, scratches or just perhaps heat damage over time.

cygvan · Aug 18, 2013

i think the brand is Gila and is sold at advanced auto parts. i usually shop at autozone but for some reason i found myself at advanced when i got the tint for the side windows so i went back there to get the same brand for the rear windows. i was quoted $75 for a pro to do the rear windows but i decided against it. the sides were so easy and look professional so im good to go. i got Gila brand Limo Extreme Midnight Black 2.5% VLT.  $15.99 at advanced auto. its like 2' x 6' or something. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/we..._6160204-p?searchTerm=tint&zoneAssigned=1" target="_blank">http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/we..._6160204-p?searchTerm=tint&zoneAssigned=1</a> and i sprang for the install kit which has a spray bottle of "special" fluid, utility knife, smoothie, dust free cloth and and install cd.  $11.19 <a rel="nofollow" href="http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/we...-alpena_6420059-p?searchTerm=tint+install+kit" target="_blank">http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/we...-alpena_6420059-p?searchTerm=tint+install+kit</a> the windows need to be wicked clean of course. i used windex which they dont recommend so i used it for an initial cleaning, then went over the windows with a razor blade, then washed them with warm soapy water. i dried them with newspaper. no bubbles on my first try with the side windows. the rears are larger and have a funny shape, plus some residue from duct tape holding the current reflectix so it might be more of a challenge. it looks better than the factory window install job actually where i can see a few bubble streaks in the urethane that holds the windows on.

cygvan · Aug 18, 2013

oh and im close to getting a job at Harbor Freight in my area. theres one store with a few postions and a brand new one opening up too. talked to a regional manager in person during a trip there yesterday. he gave me his employee number and will look for my app. pretty stoked, although my previous employment was much further up the ladder, im so jaded about losing it that i refuse to work in upper anymore. manager is fine. i only need employ until april 2014 when i move onto homestead.  they are nationwide company so if i still need to retain the job i might have a chance to transfer to one near my homestead. plus, i really love tools so itll be fun. while their tools are not the best, they do serve a need. the few ive gotten there are ok but i take care of my tools anyway.

wrcsixeight · Aug 19, 2013

Pretty sure Gila was the brand I used both times.  The first time ('02) it got scratched easily and got cloudy, and this batch applied in '07 has just bubbled badly within the last 8 months. Harbor freight tools can be hit or miss, and when they miss, they miss badly.  However I have a good amount like chisels and don't mind resharpening them with my belt sander, putty knives I don't mind using behind a prybar to spread the load.  I've got their hydraulic crimper, besides the Dies being too small it is good. I need to hit one up soon for the thick black nitrile gloves and new saw blades for the oscillating tool.  And camouflage tarps.

Painting Reflectix black on one side

Help Support Van Living Forum:

Guest

Guest

Well-known member

Guest

Guest

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Active member

Guest

Guest

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Similar threads

Join the conversation!

Join today and get all the highlights of this community direct to your inbox. It's FREE!