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Frame from How To Make Infrared Cooling Paint (Electricity Free Air Conditioning) Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

How To Make Infrared Cooling Paint (Electricity Free Air Conditioning)

3 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
4 HN users recommended this tutorial4 months2022–2025 score 4.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN points to it as a practical, well-researched DIY demonstration of passive radiative cooling.

NightHawkInLight shows how to make ultra-white radiative paint that cools surfaces below ambient temperature without electricity. He walks through the research papers and the household-materials process.

“This YouTuber[0] does an excellent job recreating chemistry research from papers and improving on the techniques to be accomplished with household materials.” (HN, 2023)

1 strong recommendations · 3 recommendations · 2 citations · Tutorials

6 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@teeray Jul 2023 Strongly recommends
on HN thread American universities have an incentive to seem extortionate
This YouTuber[0] does an excellent job recreating chemistry research from papers and improving on the techniques to be accomplished with household materials. He documents his failures and takes an empirical approach to arriving at his successes. I’m not sure of his background, but it’s certainly research that he’s doing. Watching his channel always reminds me that the scientific method does not have “first obtain an expensive degree” as one of its steps. [0] [this video]
Recreates chemistry research from papers using household materials
@slimsag Apr 2023 Recommends
on HN thread Energy-saving coating without pigment keeps the surface beneath cool
Two YouTube researchers[0][1] (they make science content that is very much not in the traditional form of YouTube) have been working on Infrared Cooling Paint for almost a year now and have been detailing how individuals can make it at home (although a fairly involved/lengthy process today.) There's definitely something here, hopefully someone sells it pre-made, I'd love to try some. [0] [this video] [1] [link]
Home-made infrared cooling paint process
@jcims Dec 2025 Recommends
on HN thread Mechanical power generation using Earth's ambient radiation
DIY radiative cooling paint from YouTuber NightHawkInLight - [this video] It has pretty impressive performance. Tech Ingredients did one or two vids as well - [link] Was thinking of whipping up a batch for my rv.
DIY radiative cooling paint with impressive performance

Citations, criticism and jokes

@spyder Jul 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Why rails buckle in Britain
And for a better effect they could use paint that can cool below the ambient temperature by radiating infrared to space (if they aren't already using that, but it's probably more expensive): [link] Here is a YouTuber trying to making such paint: [this video] Another article: [link]
YouTuber making paint that cools below ambient temperature
@jcims Mar 2023 Cites it
on HN thread Just How White Can White Paint Get?
>Only active cooling can cool anything below the ambient temperature. Not exactly: [link] Couple of videos explaining the effect [this video] [link]
Explains passive cooling below ambient temperature

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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