Energy & Buildings 215 (2020) 109920

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Energy & Buildings

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Energy saving performance of thermochromic coatings with different

colors for buildings
Zhang Yuxuan a, Zhu Yunyun b, Yang Jianrong c, Zhai Xiaoqiang a,∗
a
Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
b
Department of Architecture and Technology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim 7491, Norway
c
Shanghai Research Institute of Building Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Thermochromic coatings are promising in lowering air conditioning energy consumption of buildings. In
Received 19 November 2019 this paper, thermochromic coatings with five different colors are prepared and their optical properties are
Revised 30 January 2020
measured. A two-story office building model is established and simulation is conducted to evaluate the
Accepted 3 March 2020
energy performance of thermochromic coatings by using a three-step control method based on their dy-
Available online 5 March 2020
namic color-changing properties. A comparative analysis is carried out for thermochromic coatings, cool
Keywords: coating and common coating. It is observed that when the building is located in Shanghai, average daily
Thermochromic coatings surface temperature of thermochromic coatings is lower than the common coating during cooling period
Commercial buildings and higher than the cool coating during heating period. Annual energy consumption results indicate that
Cooling and heating loads thermochromic coatings can avoid the penalty of increasing heating load for cool coatings. In particu-
Energy saving lar, the annual energy consumption of the office building using thermochromic coatings can be reduced
by 4.28–5.02 kWh/m2 compared to the common coating, and 0.73–1.47 kWh/ m2 compared to the cool
coating. Simulation of other cities in different climate zones in China reveals that thermochromic coat-
ings have better energy saving effects especially for the areas with hot summers and cold winters, and
relatively uniform distribution of cooling and heating demands.
© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Nowadays, building energy consumption is increasing continu-
ously due to the wide application of HVAC systems. It is estimated
that about 40% of total energy consumption and 30% of CO2 emis-
sions all over the world are generated by buildings [22]. What’s
more, large amounts of air conditioning energy consumption have
negatively affected the urban thermal environment and some phe-
nomenon such as urban heat island has arisen which can aggravate
climate change [4].
The heating and cooling loads of buildings are closely related to
their absorption and reflection of solar radiation, therefore building
envelope materials can greatly affect building energy consumption
[2,17]. Many researches have been conducted to reduce building air
conditioning energy consumption by using new kinds of materi-
als to regulate building absorption of solar radiation. For example,
in the areas with high cooling demand, cool materials character-
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: xqzhai@sjtu.edu.cn (Z. Xiaoqiang).
ized by high solar reflectance and emittance are applied to reduce
building cooling loads and prevent urban overheating [15]. Simu-
lations of residential buildings in different climate conditions find
that cool materials can contribute to 11%–27% reduction in peak
cooling demand [20]. Cool materials have also been considered as
a promising strategy to mitigate urban heat island [16]. As an im-
portant application of cool materials, cool roofs have received great
attention and a wide range of use [1,6,10], and it is found that by
applying cool roofs in Andalusia, the potential annual energy con-
sumption of residential buildings can be saved by 295,0 0 0 kWh
and CO2 emissions can be reduced by 136,0 0 0 metric tons per
year [3].
However, cool materials are not preferable during heating peri-
ods. In the areas which have high heating demands, cool materi-
als may actually increase energy consumption of buildings due to
the reduction of solar heat gains [20]. An investigation in Nether-
lands found that by applying cool coatings on an industrial build-
ing, there is a 5% increase in heating energy consumption [12].
What’s more, as most of cool materials are white or light colored,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.109920
0378-7788/© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
2 Z. Yuxuan, Z. Yunyun and Y. Jianrong et al. / Energy & Buildings 215 (2020) 109920
they may not satisfy the various aesthetical appeals for buildings
in some cases.
To compensate for the heating penalty of using cool materi-
als, thermochromic materials (TCM) have been investigated and are
considered to have great potential in reducing cooling and heating
energy consumption simultaneously if they are applied on build-
ings [8]. Thermochromic coatings can change their absorption of
solar radiation dynamically according to their temperature. When
it is higher than the color transition temperature, they can ap-
pear light tones and reflect more solar radiation, while lower than
color transition temperature, they appear deep tones and absorb
more solar radiation, therefore contribute to lowering both cooling
and heating loads of the buildings [18]. The basic thermochromic
mechanism of TCM is based on the electron transfer reactions of
leuco dye systems. At a specific temperature, the molecular struc-
ture of the organic compounds changes due to electron transfer,
thereby achieving a color transition effect. The leuco dye mixtures
usually contain an electron-donating compound such as cyclic es-
ter, an electron-acceptor such as phenols, and a solvent like an es-
ter or acid [7].
Several studies have been addressed on the preparation and
test of thermochromic coatings. Karlessi et al. developed dye based
thermochromic coatings in different colors and measured their
optical properties. They found solar reflectance increased 4%–43%
from colored to colorless states for different colors. Measurements
in Athens during the cooling periods demonstrated that ther-
mochromic samples could stay cooler than the common and cool
coatings of the same color [9]. Zhang et al. analyzed the effects
of rutile TiO2 particle size on the reflection spectrum of ther-
mochromic coatings. It is found that larger TiO2 particle size leads
to higher reflectivity in near infrared bands while lower reflectivity
in ultraviolet and visible light bands, and the maximum change in
solar reflectance can reach 0.22 [23].
Several simulation works have been conducted to evaluate the
energy saving potential by applying thermochromic coatings to the
building envelopes. Zheng et al. constructed a simple room model
and simulated the energy performance by using thermochromic
yellow coatings with the color transition temperature of 25 ◦ C in
some cities of China. The results show that for the cities with large
seasonal climate differences, thermochromic coatings perform bet-
ter in reducing building energy consumption [24]. Park et al. evalu-
ated the cost-effectiveness of variable reflectivity coatings on office
buildings in the US. They figured out that when variable reflectiv-
ity coatings were applied to roofs and walls, the combined annual
heating and cooling energy costs could be saved by 11% compared
to static cool coatings for an office building in Chicago, IL. The
energy saving performance is more obvious when the building is
poorly insulated [13].
In this paper, thermochromic coating samples with the color
of red, yellow, blue, green and black are prepared and simulation
analysis is performed to identify the potential energy saving per-
formance for the samples. The simulation uses an office building
located in Shanghai as an example and the annual cooling and
heating loads of the building are analyzed. First thermochromic
coatings are developed and their optical properties such as so-
lar reflectivity and dynamic color-changing process are measured.
Then a two-story office building model is established and simu-
lation is carried out for thermochromic coatings using a three-
step control method when they are applied to the building exte-
rior surfaces. Common coating and cool coating with static solar
reflectance are considered as references. Finally the results of the
simulation are discussed to evaluate the potential energy saving
performance of thermochromic coatings for buildings that have air
conditioning demands in Shanghai as well as other cities in differ-
ent climate zones of China.
2. Preparation and properties of thermochromic coatings
2.1. Samples preparation
Firstly thermochromic coatings with five different colors (red,
yellow, blue, green and black) were developed by mixing TCM
powder with acrylic emulsion as well as other additives in order
to meet basic requirements of coatings. The TCM powder were mi-
croencapsulated with an average particle size of 5 μm. The ad-
ditives mainly include ethylene glycol, film coalescing aid, level-
ing agent and defoaming agent, and the mass fraction for them
is approximately 1%, 3%, 1%, 1%, respectively. The mass fraction
for emulsion is about 50%. After the emulsion and other additives
were evenly stirred, TiO2 was added into the coatings to increase
the reflectance in the colorless phase as well as enhance the me-
chanical strength and adhesion of the coating film. Finally TCM
was added into the mixture. The content of TCM and TiO2 is 5 wt%
and 10 wt% respectively, as solar reflectance of the thermochromic
coating samples have the most obvious variation between colored
and colorless phase in this formula [23]. The color transition tem-
perature of the samples is 31 ◦ C, which means the coatings are in
colored phase below 31 ◦ C and when the temperature is higher
than 31 ◦ C, their colors begin to fade. After the components have
been evenly mixed, an applicator was used to apply the coatings
on 6 cm × 6 cm aluminum plates to form a coating film thick
enough to cover the plate. After the coatings were fully spread,
they were dried for 48 h at room temperature. The thickness of
the dry film is about 2 mm.
The samples before and after color transition are shown in
Table 1. The colored phases are measured at room temperature
and colorless phases are measured when the samples are heated
until the colors fade completely. The color change is obvious for
the samples after the color transition process.
2.2. Solar reflectance of thermochromic coatings
The spectral reflectivity of thermochromic coatings was investi-
gated by UV/Vis/NIR spectrophotometer (Lambda 950 PerkinElmer,
wavelength accuracy: ±0.08 nm). The samples were placed in the
temperature and humidity chamber during the experiment and
thermocouples were attached to their surfaces to measure the sur-
face temperature. The reflectivity of the samples in both colored
and colorless phase were measured in the wavelength range of
250–2500 nm, and the results are shown in Figs. 1 and 2. In col-
ored phase, the characteristics of the visible spectrum for different
samples correspond to their colors. While in colorless phase, the
reflectivity of the samples all has an obvious increase in the visi-
ble range, indicating that their colors fade and reflective ability is
improved.
According to the spectral data, weight averaging method is used
to calculate the solar reflectance of the samples based on standard
proposed by ASTM (G159-98) [5], and Table 2 shows the results
for both colored and colorless phases. It can be seen that all the
samples have solar reflectance variation and the maximum varia-
tion happens at the thermochromic green sample with the amount
of 0.3. The change in solar reflectance is more than 0.2 for all the
samples except the thermo-yellow sample, as the yellow sample
has high reflectivity in colored phase.
2.3. Dynamic color-changing process of thermochromic coatings
To analyze the dynamic color-changing characteristics of ther-
mochromic coatings, a colorimeter was used to measure the color
coordinates of the samples during the color-changing process. The
measurement was based on the CIEL∗ A∗ B∗ color space, in which
 Z. Yuxuan, Z. Yunyun and Y. Jianrong et al. / Energy & Buildings 215 (2020) 109920 3

Table 1
Thermochromic coating samples in colored and colorless phase.

Table 2
Solar reflectance of thermochromic coating samples.

Solar reflectance (SR)

Samples SR
Colored phase Colorless phase

Thermo-red 0.55 0.77 0.22

Thermo-yellow 0.7 0.77 0.07
Thermo-blue 0.44 0.72 0.28
Thermo-green 0.42 0.72 0.3
Thermo-black 0.41 0.7 0.29

Fig. 1. Reflection spectra of thermochromic coating samples in colored phase.

Fig. 3. Color-changing process of thermochromic coatings.

two states can be calculated according to the following formula:

 2  2  2
E ∗ = L∗2 − L∗1 + a∗2 − a∗1 + b∗2 − b∗1 (1)

The L∗ a∗ b∗ values are measured by the colorimeter NR200 pro-

Fig. 2. Reflection spectra of thermochromic coating samples in colorless phase.
colors are expressed as three numerical values L∗ , a∗ and b∗ .
L∗ represents the brightness, a∗ and b∗ represent the green–red
and blue–yellow color components respectively. L∗ ranges from
0 (black) to 100 (white), a∗ ranges from −128 (green) to +127
(red), and b∗ ranges from −128 (blue) to +127 (yellow). Once the
L∗ a∗ b∗ values have been acquired, color difference E∗ between
duced by Shenzhen Threenh Technology Co., Ltd. The colorimeter
uses D65 as illuminant, which is a commonly used standard illu-
minant defined by CIE [19].
During the experiment, thermocouples were attached to the
surface of the samples and the samples were kept in a tempera-
ture and humidity chamber. The measuring temperature was from
20 ◦ C to 50 ◦ C at an interval of 1 ◦ C, and L∗ a∗ b∗ values were mea-
sured repeatedly at each temperature. The E∗ value was calcu-
lated for each sample using the initial state as reference. The re-
sults are shown in Fig. 3. It shows that color change is a gradi-
ent process and E∗ has the most obvious variation between 31–
34 ◦ C. When the temperature is higher than 34 ◦ C, there is only
slight change in E∗ and the color transition process is almost
completed. The dynamic color-changing properties are useful for
further energy saving analysis of thermochromic coatings.
4 Z. Yuxuan, Z. Yunyun and Y. Jianrong et al. / Energy & Buildings 215 (2020) 109920

Fig. 4. Isometric view of the office building model.

Table 3
U-value of the envelop building construc-
tions.

Construction type U-value [W/m2 ·K]

Roof 1.43
Exterior floor 0.56
Exterior wall 1.00

3. Description of the building model

In order to analyze the energy saving effect of the ther-

mochromic coatings, an office building model was established in
SketchUp as shown in Fig. 4. The building is supposed to be lo-
cated in Shanghai, which has four distinct seasons with a hot sum-
mer and cold winter. The building consists of two floors, and the
height of each floor is 4.2 m. Each floor has a corridor, two of-
fice areas and a toilet, while the first floor has an additional tech-
nical room. The details of the building construction can be seen
in the exploded view in Fig. 5. The office and toilet areas are set
as air conditioning area, and the total conditioned floor area is
697.92 m2 . For the air conditioned zones, the heating setpoint is
20 ◦ C and the cooling setpoint is 25 ◦ C. The size of the windows
on the north and south walls is 2 m × 2.4 m. The U-value of the
envelop constructions are shown in Table 3 based on the public
building design standards in Shanghai.
The internal loads of the office building mainly include thermal
loads of occupants and lights. Fig. 6 shows the daily lighting and
occupancy schedules. The peak number of people is 36 in total and
the peak lighting level is 10 0 0 W in each office area.
The building is divided into different thermal zones depend-
ing on the air conditioning needs of different areas and then im-
ported into EnergyPlus for further simulation and analysis. To an-
alyze the potential energy saving performance of thermochromic
coatings, common coating with low solar reflectance and cool coat-
ing with high solar reflectance are considered as references. The
common coating has static solar reflectance of 0.3 and cool coat-
ing has static solar reflectance of 0.8 [11,13,14]. For thermochromic
coatings, the solar reflectance is set to the value in colored phase
when the surface temperature is lower than 31 ◦ C, and set to the Fig. 5. Exploded view of the office building model.
value in colorless phase when the surface temperature is higher
than 34 ◦ C. When the surface temperature is between 31 ◦ C and
 Z. Yuxuan, Z. Yunyun and Y. Jianrong et al. / Energy & Buildings 215 (2020) 109920 5

and 10, and the maximum and average temperature of the samples
in the summer and winter days are shown in Table 6.
On the summer day, Fig. 9 shows that surface temperature of
the common coating in the daytime is much higher than the other
coatings. The cool coating sample has the lowest surface temper-
ature and the temperature of thermochromic coatings distributes
between the common and cool coatings. To be specific, in Table 6 it
can be seen that the maximum temperature can be decreased by
15.5–18.4 ◦ C for the thermochromic samples and 19.9 ◦ C for the
cool coating sample, compared to the common coating sample. The
average daily temperature can be reduced by 5.9–7.8 ◦ C for ther-
mochromic samples and 8.7 ◦ C for the cool sample.
Similarly, the west wall surface temperature profiles of the sam-
ples on the winter day are shown in Fig. 10. It is found that com-
mon coating and thermochromic coatings have higher temperature
than the cool coating due to the absorption of more solar radiation.
The maximum and average surface temperature has increased 3.4–
11.7 ◦ C and 1.3–4.6 ◦ C respectively for the thermochromic coatings,
and increased 14.7 ◦ C and 5.8 ◦ C respectively for the common coat-
ing, compared to the cool coating.
For the building envelopes in other directions, the average sur-
Fig. 6. Lighting and occupancy schedules of the office building.
face temperature of the samples in daytime are shown in Table 7.
On the summer day, the temperature of thermochromic samples
Table 4
Solar reflectance of different coating samples. has different degrees of reduction compared to the common coat-
ing, and the exterior roof has the most obvious temperature reduc-
Solar reflectance
tion, with the value of 10–12.2 ◦ C. Temperature reduction is 3.4–
Samples
Tsurface <31 ◦ C Tsurface >34 ◦ C 31 ◦ C< Tsurface <34 ◦ C 4.4 ◦ C, 5.4–6.3 ◦ C, 2.3–3.5 ◦ C for the south, east and north wall, re-
Thermo-red 0.55 0.77 0.66 spectively. Combined with the temperature data of the west wall,
Thermo-yellow 0.7 0.77 0.74 it can be found that west wall has highest temperature reduction,
Thermo-blue 0.44 0.72 0.58 indicating that west wall is most strongly exposed to solar radia-
Thermo-green 0.42 0.72 0.57 tion in summer except the exterior roof. While on the winter day,
Thermo-black 0.41 0.7 0.56
common 0.3 0.3 0.3
the temperature of thermochromic samples has different degrees
cool 0.8 0.8 0.8 of increase compared to the cool coating. The temperature increase
is 2.5–8.9 ◦ C, 1.2–4.4 ◦ C, 0.7–2.4 ◦ C and 2–7 ◦ C for the south wall,
east wall, north wall and exterior roof, respectively, and the south
wall has the most obvious temperature increase. Therefore, it can
34 ◦ C, the coatings are in the color-changing process and for sim-
be inferred that for the whole year, applying thermochromic coat-
plification, the solar reflectance is set to the average value of col-
ing on the west wall and south wall, as well as the roof is most
ored and colorless phases. Solar reflectance is the only variable for
favorable for energy saving in Shanghai.
different samples, and the values of all the samples in the sim-
ulation are summarized in Table 4. In the simulation, the coat-
4.2. Energy consumption analysis
ings are applied on both exterior walls and the roof. The thick-
ness and thermal properties of the coatings are shown in Table 5.
The cooling loads of the office building with different coating
To control the solar reflectance as the only variable, the thermo-
samples on the summer day are shown in Fig. 11. The common
physical parameters of the cool and common coatings are set to
coating has the highest while the cool coating has the lowest cool-
the same value as thermochromic coatings. The simulation is per-
ing load. It can be concluded that lower exterior surface temper-
formed when the building is located in Shanghai and the simula-
ature leads to lower energy consumption in the cooling period.
tion period is set for one year.
Therefore, thermochromic coatings and cool coatings have the po-
It is worth mentioning that although the reflection spectra are
tential to reduce energy consumption of the buildings in cooling
measured using aluminum as substrate, the model doesn’t include
periods.
aluminum component since it’s not common for office buildings.
The heating loads of the building for different samples are il-
However, it has little effects on the simulation results because an
lustrated in Fig. 12. As it shows, cool coating has the highest en-
extra case adding an aluminum layer to the building model has
ergy consumption on the winter day and samples with higher sur-
been carried out and it is found the deviation of energy consump-
face temperature have better energy saving performance. Combin-
tion results is only about 0.4%, so the solar reflectance data can
ing the energy consumption on both the summer day and winter
represent the real condition for opaque building surfaces.
day, thermochromic coatings have great potential in building en-
ergy saving.
4. Results and discussion To analyze the effect of thermochromic coatings on the energy
consumption of the office building for a whole year, an annual sim-
4.1. Exterior surface temperature analysis ulation was carried out. Based on the weather conditions in Shang-
hai, 1 June to 30 September is selected as cooling period and 15
A typical sunny summer day and a sunny winter day are se- November to 15 March is selected as heating period. Fig. 13 shows
lected to compare the surface temperature of the west wall of the the cooling and heating loads of the building with different coat-
building for different coating samples. The hourly temperature and ings per square meter during the cooling and heating period.
global solar radiation data for the days are shown in Figs. 7 and As can be seen from the figure, cooling load is relatively low for
8. The temperature profiles of all the samples are shown in Figs. 9 the thermochromic and cool coating samples due to high solar re-
6 Z. Yuxuan, Z. Yunyun and Y. Jianrong et al. / Energy & Buildings 215 (2020) 109920

Table 5
Thickness and thermal properties of the coatings.

Thickness (m) Conductivity (W/m·K) Density (kg/m3 ) Specific Heat (J/kg·K)

0.002 0.21 1200 1050

Fig. 7. Hourly air temperature and global solar radiation for the summer day.

Table 6 For the thermochromic coatings, the annual cooling energy con-
Maximum and average temperature of the west wall for the samples
sumption is 6.16–10.33 kWh/m2 lower while the annual heating
in daytime (6:0 0–18:0 0).
energy consumption is 1.35–6.05 kWh/m2 higher than the com-
Tsurface (◦ C) mon coating. And compared to the cool coating, the annual cooling
Summer day Winter day energy consumption can be increased by 1.33–5.5 kWh/m2 while
Samples
the annual heating energy consumption can be decreased by 2.06–
maximum average maximum average
6.76 kWh/m2 for thermochromic coatings.
Thermo-red 40.3 33.2 20.4 9.8 Total energy consumption of the building with different coat-
Thermo-yellow 40.3 32.9 16.0 8.1
Thermo-blue 42.4 34.4 23.5 11.1
ings per square meter is shown in Fig. 14. It indicates that build-
Thermo-green 42.4 34.5 24.0 11.3 ing with thermochromic coating samples have the lowest annual
Thermo-black 43.2 34.8 24.3 11.4 energy consumption. Building energy consumption can be reduced
Common 58.7 40.7 27.3 12.6 by 4.28–5.02 kWh/m2 compared to the common coating, and 0.73–
Cool 38.8 32.0 12.6 6.8
1.47 kWh/m2 compared to the cool coating. For the thermochromic
coatings, the thermo-green sample has the lowest and the thermo-
yellow sample has the highest energy consumption, for the reason
flectance, and the heating load is relatively low for thermochromic that the change in solar reflectance between colored and colorless
and common coating samples because of low solar reflectance. phase for the thermo-green sample is largest while for the thermo-

Table 7
Average surface temperature of different samples in the daytime (6:0 0–18:0 0).

Tsurface (◦ C)

Summer day Winter day

Samples
South wall East wall North wall Exterior roof South wall East wall North wall Exterior roof

Thermo-red 31.6 32.6 31.5 34.8 15.4 10.3 7.2 10.5

Thermo-yellow 31.2 32.6 30.8 34.5 12.0 8.6 6.3 7.9
Thermo-blue 32.0 33.2 32.0 36.0 17.8 11.4 7.8 12.4
Thermo-green 32.1 33.2 31.9 36.1 18.2 11.7 7.9 12.7
Thermo-black 32.2 33.5 32.0 36.7 18.4 11.8 8.0 12.9
Common 35.6 38.9 34.3 46.7 20.5 12.8 8.5 14.4
Cool 30.5 31.7 30.1 33.4 9.5 7.4 5.6 5.9
 Z. Yuxuan, Z. Yunyun and Y. Jianrong et al. / Energy & Buildings 215 (2020) 109920 7

Fig. 8. Hourly air temperature and global solar radiation for the winter day.

Fig. 9. Surface temperature of the west wall for different samples on a typical summer day.

yellow sample is lowest. Generally, larger solar reflectance change
leads to better energy saving performance for thermochromic coat-
ings.
To evaluate the energy performance in other cities with differ-
ent climates, four other typical cities located in different climate
zones of China are selected and Table 8 provides the prevailing
weather conditions of these cities. The main climatic characteris-
tics of these cities are summarized in Table 9. The building energy
consumption of these cities in cooling and heating periods is sim-
ulated and the results are shown in Fig. 15. Although the insula-
tion level and building materials used in these cities may be dif-
ferent from Shanghai, by comparing the results from samples with
the cool and common coating, the change in energy consumption
caused by using different coatings can be isolated.
Fig. 15 shows the energy performance of thermochromic coat-
ings varies in cities of different climates. In the area with dis-
tinct seasons which have hot summers and cold winters (Bei-
jing), thermochromic coatings have better performance compared
to the common and cool coating. Specifically, the total energy con-
sumption of thermochromic coatings is 4.11–5.87 kWh/m2 lower
than the common coating, and 0.45–2.21 kWh/m2 lower than the
cool coating. In the area where cooling demand is much higher
8 Z. Yuxuan, Z. Yunyun and Y. Jianrong et al. / Energy & Buildings 215 (2020) 109920

Fig. 10. Surface temperature of the west wall for different samples on a typical winter day.

Fig. 11. Cooling load of different samples on the summer day.

Table 8
Weather conditions of typical cities of China in different climate zones.

Temperature(◦ C)

Spring Summer Fall Winter

City Latitude(°)
Max Min Max Min Max Min Max Min

Beijing 39.8 30.1 -3.3 34.7 9.9 35 -2.8 10.5 -12.7

Haikou 20 33.9 14.2 35 23.6 32.3 17.8 26.6 10.7
Lhasa 29.7 23.4 -7 27.1 7.2 21.5 -3.7 13.2 -13
Urumqi 43.8 27.3 -11.9 31.9 12.2 28.5 -5.2 3.5 -18.5
 Z. Yuxuan, Z. Yunyun and Y. Jianrong et al. / Energy & Buildings 215 (2020) 109920 9

Fig. 12. Heating load of different samples on the winter day.

Fig. 13. Cooling and heating load per square meter of the building with different coatings.

Table 9
Climate type and main climatic characteristics of the cities.

City Climate type Main climatic characteristics

Beijing Temperate monsoon climate Four distinct seasons; hot rainy summer and cold dry winter
Haikou Tropical marine climate Hot rainy summer and warm winter
Lhasa Highland temperate semi-arid monsoon climate Comfortable summer and cold dry winter
Urumqi Continental cold semi-arid climate Short hot summer and long cold winter

than heating demand (Haikou), cool coatings are more prefer-
able than thermochromic and common coatings. While in the
area where heating demand dominates (Lhasa and Urumqi), ther-
mochromic coatings also make no obvious difference. Therefore,
thermochromic coatings are not favorable for all climates. They
have better energy saving effects especially for the areas which
have hot summers and cold winters, and with relatively uniform
distribution of cooling load and heating load such as Beijing and
Shanghai.
Currently the cost of thermochromic materials is relatively high
because they are rarely used in the building filed yet [18]. How-
ever, considering the price can be greatly reduced by the large
scale production by construction industries as well as the great
potential in decreasing building energy consumption, it is econom-
10 Z. Yuxuan, Z. Yunyun and Y. Jianrong et al. / Energy & Buildings 215 (2020) 109920

Fig. 14. Total energy consumption per square meter of the building with different coatings.

Fig. 15. Energy consumption in the cooling and heating periods of (a) Beijing; (b) Haikou; (c) Lhasa; (d) Urumqi.
 Z. Yuxuan, Z. Yunyun and Y. Jianrong et al. / Energy & Buildings 215 (2020) 109920
ically beneficial to use thermochromic coatings. What’s more, ther-
mochromic coatings also have positive impact on the environment
since they can contribute to reducing CO2 emissions and fighting
against global warming. Taking Shanghai for an example, accord-
ing to the Urban Greenhouse Gas Accounting Tool released by the
World Resources Institute (WRI), the average CO2 emission factor
of the grid is 0.7934 kg CO2 /kWh [21]. Therefore, by using ther-
mochromic coatings, the CO2 emissions can be theoretically de-
creased by 3.40–3.98 kg/m2 , which represents 9.62%–11.28% reduc-
tion compared to the common coating, and decreased by 0.58–
1.17 kg/m2 , which represents 1.78%–3.59% reduction compared to
the cool coating.
5. Summary and conclusions
Thermochromic materials have the potential to decrease build-
ing energy consumption in both heating and cooling periods. This
paper aims to assess the energy saving performance by applying
thermochromic coatings to building exterior surfaces compared to
common coatings and cool coatings. Thermochromic coatings in
five different colors are developed by mixing thermochromic pow-
der with other additives. The temperature of the color transition
process is mainly concentrated at 31–34 ◦ C and the change in solar
reflectance before and after discoloration for the samples is more
than 0.2 except the thermochromic yellow sample.
The simulation conducted for a two-story office building lo-
cated in Shanghai shows that the daily average temperature of
building surfaces with thermochromic coatings is relatively low
on summer days and high on winter days, indicating buildings
can stay cooler in summer and warmer in winter by using ther-
mochromic coatings. The energy consumption results show that
both thermochromic and cool coatings have energy saving effect
compared to common coatings with low solar reflectance. How-
ever, thermochromic coatings can avoid the penalty of increasing
heating load for cool coatings. Energy consumption simulation for
typical cities in five different climate zones in China shows that
thermochromic coatings have more favorable energy performance
in the areas which have hot summers and cold winters, and with
relatively uniform distribution of cooling and heating demands.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Zhang Yuxuan: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software,
Writing - original draft. Zhu Yunyun: Software, Data curation, Vi-
sualization. Yang Jianrong: Supervision. Zhai Xiaoqiang: Supervi-
sion, Writing - review & editing.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by National Natural Science Founda-
tion of China under the contract No. 51776117.
11
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