What if—instead of keeping our buildings cool from the inside—the heat just bounced off them back to where it came from?
There’s a big renewable energy resource we’ve yet to exploit: the cold of the universe.
That’s according to Aaswath Raman, a researcher with the Ginzton Laboratory, at Stanford University. What he means is the capacity of space to be a “thermodynamic resource,” helping us Earthlings to be more energy-efficient. Raman is working on a building material that’s ultra-reflective to the sun’s rays, and able to bounce significant amounts of heat so far away from buildings that it goes beyond the atmosphere.
The technology—passive cooling that works during the daytime—could help reduce the need for wasteful air conditioning. Currently, A/C accounts for 15% of all primary U.S. electricity demand, an enormous amount considering all the other things we use electricity for.
The material exploits the way that all objects throw off heat as infrared radiation. Some of this unseeable light is trapped within the atmosphere, all the more so because of greenhouse gas emissions. But some heat also goes into the upper atmosphere, where it’s dispersed into an enormous heat sink: the freezing cold vacuum of space. Raman’s coating—made up of seven layers of silicon dioxide and hafnium oxide and a layer of silver—does two things. First, it’s able to send the infrared at a particular frequency so that it leaves our atmosphere. And second, it reflects 97% of sunlight, stopping buildings from heating up in the first place.
“The challenge was to continue to send out this heat as infrared light, or radiation, but at the same time not be heated up by the sun,” says Raman.
Read more: This Incredible Building Material Shoots Heat Into Space (So Buildings Need Less AC)
The Latest on: Passive cooling
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Passive cooling” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Passive cooling
- 6 Myths About Passive House Constructionon May 14, 2024 at 8:02 am
Skender Construction's Brian Skender debunks common misconceptions about a rapidly growing specialty. Passive House design is booming in multifamily development. However myths about this sustainable ...
- Air cooling vs. liquid cooling: Which is best for your PC in 2024?on May 13, 2024 at 5:00 pm
If you’re happy to miss out on the very top end performance, you can always run your CPUs in lower power modes or run a passive cooler for completely silent air cooling with zero points of ...
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Dimensity 9300 benchmarked: There can only be one winneron May 11, 2024 at 5:00 pm
The REDMAGIC phone packs an array of passive cooling features as well as a cooling fan, but the latter was only activated when running tests in performance mode. Either way, the MediaTek ...
- Revolutionary cellulose aerogel film offers sustainable daytime radiative coolingon May 9, 2024 at 4:59 pm
A breakthrough in passive cooling technology, a cellulose aerogel film provides a sustainable solution for daytime radiative cooling, promising energy savings and environmental benefits.
- Towngas backs TERA-Award winner i2Cool in Series A to drive global green energy expansionon May 9, 2024 at 8:12 am
The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited (Towngas) is pleased to announce its participation in the Series A funding round ...
- Best CPU Cooler 2024on May 2, 2024 at 1:30 am
Those aluminum fins can do some passive cooling, but Noctua has placed one outstanding 140mm PWM fan between them to keep plenty of air flowing through the cooler super quietly, thanks to a max ...
- 5 next-gen passive cooling techniques to chill buildings for freeon April 4, 2024 at 12:13 pm
Let us introduce you to the principle of passive cooling. Passive cooling is the principle of using certain design choices to help reduce heat gain (or promote heat loss) from a building.
- Passive cooling keeps your home comfortable without AC, which is good news for your wallet and the planeton December 20, 2023 at 12:41 pm
One possible way to reduce your costs — and avoid contributing further to the climate crisis — is investing in passive-cooling strategies. "Passive cooling is using natural methods, rather than ...
- Communities fight to keep their coolon September 8, 2023 at 7:37 am
A summer of heat waves illuminates a growing global warming concern: Cooling is becoming a requirement, not a luxury. By Evan Bush Photography by Gaia Squarci Rising temperatures are sending ...
- Cooling Paint You Can Actually Makeon July 3, 2023 at 9:37 am
The result is a passive system that keeps materials a few ... This isn’t the first time he’s demonstrated infrared cooling, but the previous demonstration used Barium Sulfate microspheres.
via Bing News