CryoPaint vs. Other Cooling Products: How to Pick the Right One

CryoPaint is not the only product on the market for reducing heat load on a building or piece of equipment. It is the right answer for many situations and the wrong answer for some. Here is an honest category-by-category comparison.

Category 1: Standard exterior white paint

What it is: Off-the-shelf white exterior paint with titanium dioxide pigment. Available at any hardware store.

Solar reflectance: Roughly 75 to 85%.

Thermal emissivity: Broadband, around 0.85 to 0.90 across the full infrared spectrum.

Best-case surface temperature in direct sun: Above air temperature.

Cost: $30 to $60 per gallon. Coverage roughly 250 to 400 sq ft per gallon.

Where it wins: General-purpose exteriors with no specific cooling goal. Vertical surfaces. Shaded surfaces. Indoor walls. Low-budget projects where any color change is the priority.

Where it loses to CryoPaint: Flat sky-facing roofs where surface temperature matters. Equipment enclosures in full sun. Anywhere "above air temperature" is a problem.

Category 2: Cool-roof white coatings (CRRC-certified)

What it is: Premium reflective white coatings (Cool Roof Rating Council certified). Sold for commercial flat-roof and metal-roof retrofits. Brands you see commonly include various elastomeric and acrylic systems.

Solar reflectance: Roughly 85 to 90%.

Thermal emissivity: Broadband, around 0.85 to 0.90.

Best-case surface temperature in direct sun: Near air temperature (not below).

Cost: $40 to $90 per gallon. Coverage varies by product, often 50 to 100 sq ft per gallon at recommended thickness.

Where it wins: Large commercial flat-roof projects where the goal is just to reduce peak surface temperature to ambient. Climate zones where the radiative window is heavily compromised by humidity (Gulf Coast, Florida) and PDRC cannot reach its full advantage anyway. Owners chasing Energy Star or LEED roof credits where standard reflectance metrics are what gets credited.

Where it loses to CryoPaint: Anywhere you want to go below air temperature, not just match it. Hot, dry climates where the radiative window is wide open and CryoPaint's extra physics actually delivers.

Category 3: Roof insulation

What it is: Rigid foam (polyiso, EPS, XPS), batt insulation, or spray foam installed above or below the roof deck.

Function: Blocks heat transfer. It is not a cooling product; it is a heat barrier.

Cost and payback: R-30 polyiso retrofit can run $4 to $8 per sq ft installed. Payback periods in commercial roof applications are commonly in the 15- to 25-year range, depending on climate and energy prices. A practical case study we ran on an 87,000 sq ft Phoenix data-center scenario found roughly a 21-year payback for R-30 polyiso, against roughly a 2.3-year payback for CryoPaint in the same building.

Where it wins: Buildings with heated as well as cooled loads (cold-climate buildings, anywhere you need a year-round R-value). New construction where insulation can be designed in at lower marginal cost. Buildings where indoor-to-outdoor temperature gradients are extreme in both directions.

Where it loses to CryoPaint: Cooling-dominated buildings in hot climates with simple roof structures. Retrofit projects where the goal is summer peak-load reduction. Anywhere fast payback matters.

Important: insulation and CryoPaint work against each other to some extent. Heavy insulation between CryoPaint and the conditioned space blocks the heat from reaching the paint, which prevents CryoPaint from doing its active cooling job. They are complementary in some applications but not stackable in the way that more-is-better thinking suggests.

Category 4: Reflective films and membranes

What it is: Reflective vinyl films (TPO, PVC single-ply white membranes, or peel-and-stick reflective films) installed on roofs or vehicles.

Solar reflectance: Up to 80 to 90% on premium products.

Thermal emissivity: Varies. Many are broadband; some PDRC-engineered films exist.

Cost: Material costs are competitive, but installation labor is the dominant expense. Membranes typically require professional installation. Films require careful surface prep and clean application.

Where it wins: Roofs where a full membrane replacement is needed anyway, and a white membrane is going on regardless. Vehicles where the goal is a removable, peelable cooling layer rather than a permanent paint job.

Where it loses to CryoPaint: Retrofit projects with existing intact roofing that just needs a cooling upgrade. Irregular surfaces (corrugated metal, vents, penetrations) where rolling out flat film is impractical. Cost-sensitive applications where a paint application is faster and cheaper than a film installation.

Category 5: Other PDRC products

PDRC is an active research and commercial field. Several other groups offer PDRC-related coatings, films, and materials, primarily targeting industrial and commercial customers in the US and Asia. Most are sold business-to-business in bulk industrial quantities.

CryoPaint is positioned differently. We are direct-to-consumer, available by the sample bottle, quart, gallon, and 5-gallon bucket. Our customers include independent fleet operators, RV owners, dairy farmers, shipping container modifiers, equipment-housing builders, and residential homeowners. The product is designed for application with off-the-shelf airless sprayers, not industrial process equipment.

What we can stand behind:

• Made in America at our toll manufacturer in Ohio.
• 94% solar reflectance and 90% 8–13 µm emissivity, meaning in the wavelengths that bypass the atmosphere, it radiates its own heat to space at 90% of the maximum rate possible.
• Up to 15°F below air temperature on a flat sky-facing surface under good conditions.
• Sold by the gallon at $250 (America 250 sale price, regular $275), with bulk and wholesaler pricing available.

How to pick

A short decision tree:

• Flat or low-pitch sky-facing surface, hot and dry climate, summer peak-load matters most → CryoPaint.
• Heavily insulated, large commercial flat roof, owner mainly wants CRRC credit → cool-roof white coating, or CryoPaint over the same roof if reducing membrane stress also matters.
• Cold-climate building, year-round R-value matters → roof insulation, not paint.
• New roof going on anyway, single-ply membrane installation already planned → white membrane (PDRC-engineered if available).
• Quick coverage on a vehicle, RV roof, container roof, equipment enclosure, or hard hat → CryoPaint.

If the goal is "the surface needs to be cooler than the air around it, not just less hot than a dark surface would be," CryoPaint is the only category here that delivers that on a flat sky-facing surface in clear-sky conditions.