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Comment by nunodonato | Hacker News Reader

Got me wondering, how viable would it be to paint your house white in the summer and with a darker color in the winter? From a cost perspective (paint cost+work vs heat/cooling savings). And how much does it matter if you have good insulation in the walls? is the paint still relevant?

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The "normal" way this is done is with trees. During the summer, they have lots of leaves and shade the house (especially if you have them in the right place for the summer sun) and in the winter the leaves fall off and the winter sun can shine through.

But insulation matters much more in the winter; the color/shade only reduces the energy load, it doesn't dissipate it.

yes, its ridiculous how in my country people can't plant trees to close to houses due to the summer fires

Those firebreak rules make sense, but they should be more along the line of "within X feet of the building there must be a firebreak of Y feet width" or similar - so you can have shade trees and still have a break.

Painting is labor intensive

e-ink roofs :)

press a button to turn the walls from black to white :)

"Down the road, Ruan said, he’s also interested in creating reflective paint in different colors, as well as paints that could switch from reflective to absorptive, depending on the season—like a building-size version of drinkware that changes color when you pour hot or cold water into it."

From the TFA

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