So if cockpit electronics are heat sensitive - why not white cases?

[comanchepilot]

Ignoring the ipads for a moment, since they come in white, and most of time they are generally not full on in hot sun, if electronics like Stratus or GDL-39 or the XGPS and the Garmin Aera and x96 series are heat sensitive, why don't the manufacturers use either a white or very light gray plastic?

Is it simply the industrial designers convince them that the units look better in black? For a system that is generally designed to sit on a glareshield the lack of thought given to the heat reflectivity of the unit itself seems interesting - especially given the design to this point in the process where there is ample evidence that they units need to be kept under 160F . . .

Thoughts from the peanut gallery?

 

[Pilawt]

Just thinking out loud ...

Black seems optimal for items on the glareshield to minimize reflections in the windscreen, but makes heat problems worse.

I cut a piece of white foam-core posterboard to fit the top of the Stratus, and velcroed it to the top of the unit. So far it seems ok, but I haven't yet flown it that way in the kind of mid-summer temperatures that caused the "naked" Stratus to overheat.

 

[LDJones]

Ditto on the reflection. When I get my Stratus I was thinking if doing a thin piece of insulating material on top then putting everything in a black fabric pouch. The fabric would absorb somewhat less energy than the Stratus case and the insulation would provide protection from whatever it did absorb....all with no reflection issues.

 

[Henning]

Glare and reflection, although Cessna radios did come with a buff/tan face as well.

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

Black radiates heat better than white.

So, unless your radios are out in the sun, they will stay cooler if they are black.

In theory.

I doubt you could measure the difference.

 

[Henning]

Black radiates heat better than white.

So, unless your radios are out in the sun, they will stay cooler if they are black.

In theory.

I doubt you could measure the difference.

It's enough of an effect that all radiators are painted black.

 

[Geico266]

Black radiates heat better than white.

So, unless your radios are out in the sun, they will stay cooler if they are black.

In theory.

I doubt you could measure the difference.

Black absorbs heat better, but it has minimal if any effect on getting rid of heat.

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

Black absorbs heat better, but it has minimal if any effect on getting rid of heat.

The effect of the surface properties on thermal radiation do not depend on the direction of the heat flow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_radiation

 

[Jaybird180]

Aluminum Foil Baby

 

[Sac Arrow]

As a practical matter, black iPads stand out less on the car floor or in an unoccupied cockpit.