How does Radiant Barrier foil compare to the paint products?
• The most important specification to look at when comparing different types radiant barrier is the emissivity value. This is a number ranging from 0 to 1, and the lower the better. The best radiant barrier paints have an emissivity value of around 0.25, while foil based radiant barriers typically have an emissivity from 0.03 to 0.05. In other words the best paint products can only stop about 75% of the radiant heat, while foil products can block up to 95 to 97% of the radiant heat. In fact, to be even be considered as a true “Radiant Barrier” a material is supposed to have an emissivity of 0.1 or less. The paint products fall sort of this mark.
