Vimal Agro Case Study: Thermal Imaging, Surface Temperature Drop and Electricity Impact

Food manufacturing sheds are unforgiving, honestly. Product quality depends on temperature, workers stand under the roof for eight hours, and a metal sheet in peak summer behaves like a hot plate. This cool roof coating case study looks at a Panache Green project at Vimal Agro, where the shed roof was a Proflex metal sheet and summer indoor conditions were pushing past comfortable limits.

The Problem on the Ground

Before treatment, the Vimal Agro shed reached roughly 65 to 70°C in peak summer. Metal has almost no thermal mass, so it heats fast and passes that energy straight to the production floor. Ventilation helped a little. It could not keep up.

Three issues stood out:

• Radiant heat from the underside of the sheet, felt directly by workers.
• Higher cooling and ventilation load on the plant.
• Discomfort that affected productivity during the afternoon shift.

The Approach

For the Vimal Agro cool roof project, Panache Green applied its Cool Tops system, a high-SRI elastomeric coating engineered for metal. The product is built around a primer for adhesion, a reflective coat carrying most of the near-infrared performance, and a protective layer against dust and water. Cool Tops Premium is rated at SRI 109, reflectance of 87% and emissivity of 0.86.

Metal roofs suit this approach well. Reflection is the main control available, because there is no mass to add insulation to, and sheet temperatures respond quickly.

Measuring It Properly

Claims about temperature mean little without a method. Here is how the measurement was handled.

Thermal imaging for roofs

Infrared cameras captured surface and under-deck readings before and after application. Thermal imaging for roofs is useful because it shows the whole surface at once, not a single probe point, so hot spots and uneven coverage are visible.

Same-time comparison

Readings were taken in the afternoon window, roughly 2:30 to 3 pm, when solar load peaks. Comparing like for like matters. A cloudy morning will always flatter the after photo.

Indoor temperature

The average indoor temperature fell by about 8°C after the coating, and occupants reported thermal comfort improving by around 50%. The comfort figure comes from occupant feedback, so it is subjective, while the temperature figure is instrument-based.

What the Temperature Drop Means

A roof surface temperature reduction of this scale changes the heat balance of the shed. Cooler sheets radiate less downward, so the air near workers stays closer to the ambient level. Panache Green’s published range for metal roofs is a 20 to 25°C drop at the surface, and the Vimal Agro result is consistent with that band, though each building responds differently depending on sheet colour, profile and ventilation.

Electricity Impact: What We Can and Can’t Say

This is where honesty matters. Cooling energy saving depends on how the plant is conditioned, how much of the load is roof-driven, and how many hours the equipment runs. Panache Green has reported cooling energy savings up to around 30% across suitable projects, so that is a fair planning range for industrial energy savings. It is not a guarantee for Vimal Agro or any other site.

If you’re building your own case, track these before and after:

1. Monthly kWh for the cooling and ventilation circuits.
2. Operating hours of chillers, fans or coolers.
3. Production-floor temperature logs.
4. Number of heat-related stoppages or complaints.

Sub-metered data tells you far more than total plant consumption, which is swamped by process loads.

Lessons for Other Industrial Roofs

• Metal sheds see the largest surface drops, so they often justify treatment first.
• Cleaning schedules protect reflectance over time.
• Waterproofing and reflectance can be combined in one system, which reduces downtime.
• Pre-treatment measurements make the result credible to finance teams.

Panache Green has applied similar systems at other plants, including a Kimberly Clark site of about 118,000 sq ft, and the pattern holds: measure first, treat second, measure again.

Why This Case Study Matters

A good cool roof coating case study gives you numbers you can test against your own site: sheet type, measurement hour, before-and-after images and the limits of what was claimed. That is how Panache Green prefers to present results, and it is also how procurement teams and consultants can compare one project with another without relying on slogans.

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