Engineers invent energy-saving cooling system for structures

Fine summer weather [image credit: BBC]

A rooftop installation is needed, but low running costs are claimed.

Engineers from two American universities developed a kind of natural air conditioner with almost no consumption of electricity, reports Xinhuanet News.

The study published on Friday in the journal Joule described the innovative water-cooling system capable of providing continuous day-and-night radiative cooling for structures.

The low-cost hybrid organic-inorganic cooling material is scaled into a roughly 13-square-meter array, small enough to fit on most rooftops, according to the study.

The advance could increase the efficiency of power generation plants in summer and lead to more efficient, environmentally-friendly temperature control for homes, businesses, utilities and industries.

“You could place these panels on the roof of a single-family home and satisfy its cooling requirements,” said Zhao Dongliang, the paper’s lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in Colorado University Boulder’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.

“As Earth’s temperature warms due to the absorbed heat from the sunlight during the day, it continuously emits infrared light to the cold universe all the time,” said Professor Yang Ronggui at Colorado Boulder and lead author of the study. “During the night, Earth cools down due to the emission without the sunshine.”

The film-like material reflects almost all incoming sunlight while still allowing an object’s stored heat to escape as much as possible, keeping it cooler than ambient air even in the midday sun.

It can be produced at low cost using the current roll-to-roll manufacturing techniques, according to the researchers.

Continued here.