Recent Progress in Daytime Radiative Cooling: Is It the Air Conditioner of the Future?

• Published in: Buildings (Basel) Vol. 8; no. 12; p. 168
• Main Authors: Santamouris, Mattheos, Feng, Jie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 30.11.2018
• Subjects: Absorptivity; Air conditioners; Air conditioning; Ambient temperature; Atmospheric windows; Climate change; Composite materials; Cooling; Daytime; daytime radiative cooling; Electricity; Energy consumption; Environmental impact; Heat; Households; Indoor air quality; Low income groups; Metamaterials; Nanotechnology; photonic coolers; Photonics; plasmonic coolers; Radiation; Radiators; Surface temperature; Temperature; Thermal simulation; Thin films

Radiative cooling is a well-researched area. For many years, surfaces relying on radiative cooling failed to exhibit a sub-ambient surface temperature under the sun because of the limited reflectance in the solar spectrum and the reduced absorptivity in the atmospheric window. The recent impressive...