My van has a mostly dark green exterior which becomes extremely hot to the touch by the middle of the day. Inside the only thing that keeps it bearable is having air con at full and as soon as the engine is cut and hence air con its only minutes before the temperature rises again. I am toying with the idea of getting up on the roof with a can of white or silver spray paint. How effective could that be - would it be worth the hassle plus the loss of aesthetics (I'm traveling in it so I'll take function over form if it could drop the ambient temp by more than a few degrees)?
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2$\begingroup$ "MythBusters used two identical cars, one black the other white and left them both out in the summer heat with thermometers in both. By mid-afternoon the white car had a temperature of 126 °F (52.2 °C), while the black car had heated up to a temperature of 135 °F (57.2 °C), about 9 degrees hotter in the Fahrenheit scale. The explanation was that black paint absorbs heat while white paint reflects it." -en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… $\endgroup$– pentaneCommented Jan 13, 2016 at 16:41
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2$\begingroup$ Possible duplicate of Temperature behavior over time of black or white cars in hot, sunny regions $\endgroup$– pentaneCommented Jan 13, 2016 at 16:46
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Having lived in Arizona for 23 years, experience has taught me that black cars get hotter than white. I found this article where "The researchers had two cars in the sun for an hour, one black and the other silver, parked facing south, in Sacramento, California," which would be a much milder example than all day in the Phoenix sun, but in just one hour there was a difference. Also, note their conclusions about fuel economy and greenhouse and pollution emissions. http://phys.org/news/2011-10-silver-white-cars-cooler.html
