Reflective Surfaces to Reduce Fuel Consumption

Observation:

Almost all vehicles manufactured these days come with a built in Air Conditioner and a Heater. This is quite essential, given the excessive heat/cold outside, especially during certain times of the year.

However, as soon as the Air conditioner is switched on, the load on fuel consumption increases drastically. The main reason being: the car shell itself becomes quite hot when it absorbs the radiations from the sun. The AC goes into an overdrive, not only trying to cool the air inside, but also the metallic shell. Also, since darker colours absorb more heat, the fuel consumption for them is much higher as well. Hence, a Black BMW, though may look sleeker than a White BMW, consumes much more fuel than its white counterpart.

Suggestion:

By law, all the vehicles should be made to have their rooftops as a "Reflective Surface" that would reflect the Sun's radiations instead of absorbing them. Also, the colours permitted for the external shell of these vehicles should only be light colours. People might argue that few cars are hardly going to make much of a difference in the level of fuel consumption. However, we are not talking of few cars, but of millions. A simple reflective paint on these vehicles can do wonders!!

Extrapolating this very idea, even office buildings, institutions for education, health care etc, where Air conditioning is extensively used, should go for Reflective Rooftops, so that the load on the AC can be brought down. Roofs should include high reflective surfaces which reduce the cooling load on the buildings and therefore reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

This would esspecially be of great economic importance in countries that are generally warm throughout the year and require lot of Air conditioning due to the weather conditions there. Also some form of economic incentives can be provided to people such as lower taxation, import duties etc. to get them to follow such energy saving methods.

After all, fuel such as Petrol/Diesel is a Non-Renewable form of energy. We have limited resources, and it is the duty of each one of us to use it judiciously. However, to expect each individual in the world to be concerned about the environment, is probably being too optimistic. Thus, in my opinion, it is imperative that laws must be passed that ensure use of such reflective surfaces.