No. 56: Cool down the building with the help of highly absorbent ceramics (August 2, 2010)

INAX, one of Japan’s leading sanitary ware and household equipment, will start the substantiative experiment to hold down the temperature rise using highly absorbent ceramics. The company will put ceramics on the rooftop of a building to control the temperature rise in alliance with Mori Building in Tokyo. It will pave conical water-retentive ceramics, each of which is 1 cm in height and 3-4 cm in diameter, on the rooftop to mitigate the heat island phenomenon. The water-retentive ceramic can absorb 60% of rainwater in volume percentage and discharge the moisture in about 10 days. The water cools down the temperature of the surrounding area while it evaporates, and thereby cools down the temperature of the rooftop. Installation cost is estimated at 20,000-40,000 yen per square meter. The technology is scheduled to be put into practical use in 2011. INAX plans to sell this technology to local governments and cites in foreign countries as a measure for the heat-island phenomenon.