Roof Paint Cuts Indoor Temps 3‑4 °C, Improves Sleep
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- Habvia painted roofs in 30 homes in Khayelitsha and used a control group of 30 unpainted houses for comparison over three summers.
- Data from 240 African houses showed that roofs with the reflective paint were on average 3–4 °C cooler during the hottest time of day.
- Lara Dugas (epidemiologist) linked the cooler indoor environment to better sleep, citing research that poor sleep worsens mental health, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
- Rhinoluxe Heat Reflect was the locally manufactured infra‑red reflective roof paint selected for the pilot, originally designed for commercial and agricultural structures.
- Researchers collected health measurements (blood glucose, urinalysis, blood pressure) and equipped participants with sleep and activity monitors three times each summer to quantify health outcomes.
- Vuyisile Moyo highlighted that wall material, ceiling presence, and household occupancy complicate indoor temperature comparisons, underscoring the need for context‑specific data.
Why it matters: Low‑income households in heat‑prone African townships gain cooler homes and better sleep, which can reduce the risk of hypertension and other heat‑related illnesses, while policymakers obtain concrete evidence that a cheap, locally sourced roof‑paint intervention can be scaled to schools and clinics.
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