WHAT IS EMISSIVITY?
Emissivity is the ability of a surface to radiate or emit energy in the form of long wave electromagnetic radiation. It is represented by a value from 0 to 1. The closer the value is to 1, the less effective the surface is at impeding radiant heat transfer. Wood has an emissivity of 0.90. Thus, when wood is heated above the temperature of surrounding surfaces, it will tend to transfer 90% of its heat energy by radiation. HeatBloc-75, when applied to most non-porous surfaces, will decrease the surface emissivity to 0.25 or lower, allowing only 25% of the heat energy to be transferred by radiation.
Emissivity is a term used to describe how efficient a material is at emitting infrared energy as compared to a perfect emitter of infrared energy. Emissivity is an efficiency factor and is dependent on the material properties, the objects surface characteristics, and the temperature of the object. Determining the emissivity is critical when measuring temperature on the infrared camera.
