I'm looking for a camper at the moment. Probably a VW California but not fully decided. Given it will be doing trips to the Med in summer is there any real advantage in a white or silver vehicle in terms of keeping the heat down inside, particularly when it's parked up? It's restricting the choice quite a lot.
When I lived in Florida I owned, by coincidence, a silver car and it was always bloomin' hot inside when we got back to it despite its colour.
https://www.autotrader.com/car-video...-sun-vi-242940
'Based on our test, it's safe to assume the color of your car can indeed have an impact on your comfort in the summer heat, with black cars heating up quicker -- and cooling down slower -- than white ones.'
Yes, which is why in very hot places like Dubai you see far more white cars than here, especially before it became a fashionable option.
Yes..................................next
Yes, Yes they are.
Slightly flippantly, but both anecdotal experience & the Science agree with this 100%.Originally Posted by paulpsz008
Yes. It's why cruise ships are painted white - it cuts down on the energy required to run the aircon.
Also why most houses are painted white in Hot places.
But all the old ladies wear black! Maybe they need to absorb more heat??
That's because their husbands and have died and they stay in mourning wearing black. I like your idea better though.
Without doubt, solar load climatic tests on black cars can be as much as 25 deg C higher than white cars. Panno roofs make this significantly worse - 20-30 degC or so.
In the middle east interior temps can hit 125 degC regularly.
Solar load is significantly more important than ambient temp to interior temperature.
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The main reason white has become fashionable is that for many makes and models white is the only free colour, all other colours being an optional extra
To some extent on cheaper cars maybe, it was known as recession white back in about 2008/2009 but it also went through a phase of being fashionable to have a white car, the manufactures were partly to blame as they'd done silver to death in their advertising/marketing campaigns so decided to start using white which influences peoples choices, do you think people driving round in £70k X5's and £100K Range Rovers got them in White because they didn't want to add another £800 to the £8k of options they'd already put on the car to have it in the colour they really wanted? Besides a lot of the whites you see on German cars are actually metallic/pearlescent whites which cost the same as any other colour upgrade. Mineral White on BMW's and Diamond White on Mercedes for example, if you put them next to the free white option you can see the difference.
It's the APPLE effect as it's know in marketing circles. Black and Red are usually free as well....
Does it matter? Looking at the research, dark cars get 10 degrees hotter that light cars. If the temperature inside them is 130 degrees, it’s still hot!
A lot of the time now white is an extra charge, with RED being the sole free choice.
I guess white being popular explains the first bit, but why only red free and not plain blue or green I have no idea!
Tinted windows will make more of a difference in my experience of driving many different colour cars in Oz in very hot temperatures - sticking a heat pick up sensor on the roof or the bonnet does not fully simulate the effect of heat in the car - it's just the surface area of the paint - which may have some effect, but not as huge an effect as the temp difference.
I definitely wouldn't let the results dictate what colour car I was going to buy - unless I really wanted a white car and then I am sure I was use the positive bias as part of my overall rationale ;)
Last edited by Omegamanic; 21st May 2019 at 15:29.
It's just a matter of time...
Seems they change the free colours from time to time, it's been a while since I bought a new car, or in fact driven at all. I'm finding I can't justify owning a car for the low mileage im doing these days.
Back in the 80's my mum owned a Ford Escort with dark brown vinyl roof and matching dark brown vinyl seats. Car windows were bigger back then, un-tinted, and we had proper summers. Cassette boxes melted on the dashboard and if you sat on the seats wearing shorts (when shorts were short), you'd suffer third degree burns on the back of your legs. The interior of that car was hotter than a pizza oven.
Yes... and a f**ker to keep clean.
It is a paradox however that Bedouins have however black robes. This why:
Researchers have studied the heavy black robes worn by Bedouins in the desert. They say the key there is thickness. The outer layer of fabric does get hotter because the black color absorbs more heat. And that heat doesn't get transmitted to the skin because of the thick fabric.
But thin black clothing transmits that heat to the skin, making a person hotter.
^To be honest, I’ve owned both and black is just as bad to keep clean.
Worst colour has to be red. That’s the colour you often see peeling away on ageing cars.
If it’s a hot day your car will be hot. If it’s black it will be hotter.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Only Vauxhalls.....
Crikey, how does that work then? Surely stuff would distort and get damaged?
Get the car in the colour you want.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Indeed it is a very harsh environment, and one of the main things that need testing for in interior design and material selection.
Not only do they need to be stable, not melt/ bend etc you also need to ensure that they don't out gas excessive chemicals or degrade excessively over time.
There is a whole area of vehicle durability referred to as key life and CREST testing that uses cold to -20 or so, heat up to +55 combined with solar load and vibration inputs to the wheels. This also is used to assess for environmental effects including squeaks and rattles etc.Sent from my SM-G950F using TZ-UK mobile app
Emissivity says different to all the above....
Isnt this why caravans are usually white?
Emissivity is exactly why black cars are hotter than white - blacks have higher ratings than light colours.
Remember emissivity is a surfaces ability to RADIATE heat, not absorb it per say. When heat is input to a surface, high emissivity surfaces will radiate heat into the interior at a higher rate.Sent from my SM-G950F using TZ-UK mobile app
Get yourself some old space shuttle tiles and stick them all over it. Sorted.
SPF50+ sunblock works out much cheaper.
Fas est ab hoste doceri
Or live in the UK- problem solved
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Having had a few black cars I’m not convinced, maybe if I lived in Spain or somewhere hot it could be a consideration. Solar gain is a bigger factor; solar radiation through the glass, if you have a black leather interior it’ll feel hot on a sunny day for sure no matter what colour the car. I had a Silver car with titanium gear knob, it was often too hot to touch in the summer. In the U.K. I wouldn’t worry. The only issue I now have with black cars is how difficult to keep them looking clean, but when they are clean they look ace.
That I would love to see
Thanks for all the replies and thoughts. My basic instinct is probably this ^^^. I'm also thinking it could be quite advantageous in spring and autumn somewhere cooler.
"Get the one you want" also sounds great advice!
It does, often it melts the glue that holds the head lining up and you'll see cars with the lining hanging down
I can remember cassette tapes melting and going banana shaped in my black Mk1 Golf back in the day, in the UK - that car could get flippin' hot inside, and no air con of course.
A white vehicle will have about 7% more "thermal stability" than a darker colour. That means it will be cooler in the sun and warmer in the cold by that amount. Which is why most vans are white.
A big problem in a hot climates for me is leather seats
Go alcantara (probably speltvwrong)
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It is worth mentioning that their cooling test involved using the air conditioning...otherwise black cars "cooling down slower" is counter-intuitive:
Cyprus lunch time
Dark colour car or white makes little difference if car sat in
Excellent
Cyprus lunch time
Dark colour car or white makes little difference if car sat in
Can't add anything to the heat debate...but black cars and motorcycles are definitely faster than their coloured counterparts.
A hot Sydney day - around 40˚C - is probably not quite hot enough to boil a monkey's bum, as the Prime Minister used to say. But in my experience of 2 x VW Golfs, one back with a metal sunroof and the other bright metallic blue with a glass sunroof and internal roof blind, the blue one probably gets hotter than the black did, probably because of the extra glass area of the sunroof. It's like sitting in a conservatory and has made me question whether a sunroof is a good idea in a climate like this.
Quite a few people here used to use reflective metalised folding reflectors inside the windscreen. You don't see them so much now, probably because the a/c is more effective than it used to be. You still need to open a window on a hot day to equalise the inside and outside temps if the car's been sitting outside; then turn up the a/c,
Yes - they are hotter in the sun
But very similar temperatures in the garage ;)
It's just a matter of time...
Am I missing something here,surely if a black car gives off i.e. radiates more heat off than a white one the interior will be cooler not hotter ?
Black absorbs, White reflects
At the risk of stating the blooming obvious, it is the colour of the interior, not the exterior of the car that makes the most difference.
We have a silver car with a tan interior, and a white one with black. The latter is always roasting by comparison to the former in sunshine, because the heat that gets through the windows is more effectivey absorbed by the dark interior.
This is true even though the tan interior car has a sunroof and the other doesn't.
Dave
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