Would aluminum reflective metal tape help keep enclosure cooler?

[keenerb]

My Allsky camera in a custom 4" PVC tube chassis has been running flawlessly for over a year now. I took it down before the Perseids peak for a cleaning, raspberry PI upgrade and fresh SD card installation, and the thought occured to me that perhaps wrapping the PVC tube enclosure with some of that aluminum tape would help reflect a lot of the sun's heat and lower internal temperatures.

I'd think someone has considered this previously, so any input you might have would be very helpful. I will pull it down this coming weekend and try it myself if nobody has any opinion.

The PVC tube itself is white and probably reflects plenty of heat on its own...

[EricClaeys]

@keenerb, you may want to ask on the Allsky Facebook page since a lot more people use it.
It's a great idea - let us know how it works.
The only downside I can think of is that you may not want a reflective object on a pole.

[stevedee]

This reminds me of the great tee-shirt debate; on a sunny day, should I wear a black or a white tee shirt to keep cool?

Although white reflects sunlight, so you might think it would be cooler than black, white reflects the heat from the inside as well as the outside.

However, its not difficult to test project enclosures and experiment to find the best combination of colours and materials; build a replica enclosure, but with only an electrical load and a thermometer probe inside, with a power supply outside the enclosure. The load could be a power resistor or a filament light bulb to generate a similar level of heat (power) to your Allsky system.

Run the test system at a reasonably constant ambient temperature (maybe easier said than done during the summer months) and check the internal temperature rise over a suitable time period (say, 4 hours).

Then modify enclosure and repeat.

[32BOBO32]

I use it on mine one and it helps a lot for sure. Bad face: it will shield for sure your wifi module (that's the main reason I switched to a wired connection)