Juanse asked about the R-value of unpainted wood.  Most references put it between 0.7 and 1.4 per inch.  Since most US woodenware is 3/4", the effective R-value is between 0.5 and 1.1.  The difference will be mostly based on grain, density and moisture content.  (A coat of regular latex paint on the box will have a negligible effect.)

While insulative paints do exist, they generally do not work by increasing the R-value of the material (advertising hype notwithstanding).  Certain paints may have reflective heat properties which can be helpful but reflection is not considered when calculating R-value.  The only reputable estimate of an R-value for insulative paint that I could find cited 0.2 to 0.4 for two coats.  (I did find a number of claims of R-values of 19-20 for a "Paint Additive Developed In Conjunction With NASA" but also found a complaint filed with the FTC for false advertising on those same claims.)

For comparison, polystyrene has an R-value of 3.8 to 5.0 per inch. 
Given that the walls of the polystyrene hives are thicker than wood hives, I'd estimate
their R-value as up to 6.25 - less if you've got the older ones with
the thinner walls.



So even if this advertisement is true, it only gets a wood box into the same range that you can already get with polystyrene.  I've not heard that colonies in poly hives are any more resistant to CCD than colonies in plain wood.  If it were true, I'd have thought that something as clear as survivors in poly, deadouts in wood would be a fairly obvious and easy to spot differentiator.  The fact that no one is reporting such a pattern seems to undermine the claims of this advertiser.

As a side note:  From their website, the paint costs about $70 per gallon which, if I'm reading their coverage estimates right, would cover about 25 deeps.  Add in shipping, handling and some minimal value for labor and I'd guess the cost at $3 - 3.50 per deep.  The current price difference between an unassembled wood deep and a poly deep is $3.20.

Mike Rossander



      

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