A paint that promises to reduce or even eliminate the need for air conditioning has now earned itself the Guinness World Records designation of the whitest paint ever made.

Researchers at Purdue University originally set out to develop a paint capable of reflecting sunlight away from structures. Consequently, the Purdue researchers developed a really white paint that reportedly reflects 98.1% of solar radiation while simultaneously emitting infrared heat.

Source: Purdue University/John Underwood

As such, surfaces coated with the paint are cooled to temperatures lower than those in its surroundings without consuming power. This is due to the paint absorbing less heat from the sun than what it emits.

Proving the effectiveness of their ultra-white paint, the researchers painted a roughly 1,000 sq ft portion of rooftop, which reportedly resulted in a cooling power of 10 kW — what researchers suggest is more powerful than that produced by common household air conditioners.

To earn its designation as the “whitest paint,” the Purdue team used both high concentrations of a chemical compound called barium sulfate along with different particle sizes of the barium sulfate. According to the wavelength of sunlight each particle scatters, which is dependent upon particle size, a larger range of particle sizes enabled the paint to scatter more of the light spectrum from the sun, the researchers noted.

The Purdue team has partnered with a company to bring the ultra-white paint to market.