The invention belongs to the field of coatings and particularly relates to a heat insulation and preservation coating. The water-borne energy-saving heat insulation and preservation coating for a petrochemical engineering oil tank is prepared by, by weight, hollow ceramic or hollow glass beads 35-65 parts, modified polymer emulsion 40-80 parts, padding 15-35 parts, additive 3-9 parts and water 50-90 parts. The modified polymer emulsion is a compound of silica sol and a polymer emulsion. The water-borne energy-saving heat insulation and preservation coating adopts hollow glass beads or the hollow ceramic as aggregate, modified polymer resin serves as an adhesive, softened water serves as a medium, additives are added to produce the coating through physical and chemical mixed processing. The coating is white or grey white sticky cream in appearance and forms a smooth film after being dried. The coating has good adhesion strength when being used on clean and dry surfaces in most cases. The coating does not contain harmful organic volatile matter, is non-toxic and is water-borne. No harmless waste and gas is produced in production and usage.