Radiative cooling and thermoregulation in the earth's glow

Jyotirmoy Mandal, Jyothis Anand, Sagar Mandal, John Brewer, Arvind Ramachandran, Aaswath P. Raman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Efficient passive radiative cooling of buildings requires an unimpeded view of the sky. However, vertical facades of buildings mostly see terrestrial features that become broadband-radiative heat sources in the summer and heat sinks in the winter. The resulting summertime terrestrial heat gain by buildings negates or overwhelms their narrowband longwave infrared (LWIR) radiative cooling to space, while the wintertime terrestrial heat loss causes overcooling. We show that selective LWIR emitters on vertical building facades can exploit the differential transmittance of the atmosphere toward the sky and between terrestrial objects to achieve higher summertime cooling and wintertime heating than conventionally used broadband emitters. The impact of this novel and passive thermoregulation is comparable to that of painting dark roofs white and is achievable with both novel and commonplace materials. Our findings represent new and remarkable opportunities for materials design and untapped thermoregulation of entities ranging from buildings to human bodies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number102065
JournalCell Reports Physical Science
Volume5
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 17 2024
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Chemistry
  • General Materials Science
  • General Engineering
  • General Energy
  • General Physics and Astronomy

Keywords

  • broadband emitters
  • building energy efficiency
  • differential atmospheric transmission
  • passive radiative thermoregulation
  • radiative cooling
  • selective longwave infrared emitters
  • textiles
  • thermal photonics
  • walls
  • windows

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