Helios Energy Products, a Sacramento firm that developed a unique energy-efficient coating (Enerchron^®) that can be used like a household paint, has managed to get the energy and environmental division of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory to test its product.

"The lab found in an initial study that the standard roof of a building coated with Helios' stuff reflects about 80 percent of the sun's energy", says Haider Taha, a scientist with the lab, located at University of California at Berkeley. "A standard roof will reflect only about 10 percent to 13 percent. The coating also lowered the surface temperature of the test roof in Berkeley by about 70 degrees, from 155 degrees down to about 85 degrees Fahrenheit", Taha says.

The lab is doing a second phase of tests to determine how well the coating will actually cool the inside of a building. Those tests are being done on structures in Sacramento in conjunction with Sacramento Municipal Utility District.

Rick Klimovich, president of Helios Energy, is hoping to use the tests to convince utilities to promote the product.