Purchases in Indonesia are usually made via WhatsApp, and the company also receives requests to distribute the product overseas and is looking into it.Īlthough the BeCool coating has been well received, Beta has had some less positive feedback from journalists who said indoor temperatures have not dropped as much as desired. Since the Money Mind video appeared on YouTube, more people have visited BeCool’s website and contacted the manufacturer, which is a company registered under UPI, she said. AIR CIRCULATION, BUILDING DESIGN ALSO MATTER With the US$750,000 prize money to be disbursed in five tranches over three years, the plan is also to set up a national laboratory to study the properties of building materials, such as how much heat they reflect and absorb, she said. “We just want the product (to be widely adopted) in Indonesia and … at an affordable price.”Ī set of 20 kg of primer and 20 kg of coating costs 2.73 million rupiah (S$247), which can cover 120 to 160 sq m in area, depending on the absorbency of the roof material.Ī low-cost housing unit in Indonesia - at an average of 36 sq m - with a clay roof would need 13 kg of primer and coating each, estimated Beta. The product is free for public buildings like schools, orphanages and religious institutions, she said.įor commercial customers, the product, marketed under the BeCool brand, is still cheaper than other brands on the market, she added. The project will set aside 10 per cent of production for corporate social responsibility purposes, which would cover about 14,400 sq m annually, she shared. “My director (at UPI) gave me the land I never thought it’d be a factory,” she said. They kept in touch, and his past experience working on a US Department of Energy project on cool paints in South Africa was useful when they worked on proposals for the Million Cool Roofs Challenge.Īlthough not a competition requirement, the primer and coating have been manufactured locally since 2019 - at a factory set up at Beta’s university. The product is a version of a similar paint patented in the United States by the University of Florida and two companies called Milenium Solutions USA and WinBuild Inc, said Srinivasan, who met Beta in 2018 when he was in Bandung giving a speech on net-zero energy buildings. It consists of a primer, or undercoat, that dries in 30 minutes and a coating that reflects 84 per cent of solar energy and radiates 90 per cent of absorbed heat.Īfter it is weathered, the levels drop to 77 per cent and 88 per cent respectively. THE AMERICAN LINKĬool Roofs Indonesia’s water-based product is simple to apply, said Beta. While Aaksen did not calculate the drop in its electricity bill, she said there are also savings from running the fans less often: During “midday” hours only, instead of “almost all the time” previously.
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