Interior paint part I (seriously)

The painters have begun painting the interior walls. The folks on the construction team have been joking about this paint all along. In traditional construction, interior paint colors are usually selected ....oh, about now in the process. We selected our interior paint colors at one of the first meetings as they need to have a certain reflectiveness and play a role in the daylight modeling and energy modeling.

By picking paint that reflects rather than absorbs light, we are able to use more of the sunlight in our workspaces. In fact, through careful design, the team has created a situation where on a cloudless day, about 80% of the light in our workspaces will be natural daylight. That means that we'll need to use fewer interior lights on those days, which saves electricity.

But wait...(as the infomercials say).....there's more. The days with the brightest sunlight--particularly in the summer--tend to be those that would require the most air conditioning. The use of fewer electric lights on those days means less heat generated by the lights themselves and therefore, a lower demand on the air conditioning units saving.....you guessed it.....more electricity.

If I'm learning this all right from the experts, this is what's known as "integrated design" and why interior paint colors can actually play a role in saving money.