About half of an average American building’s energy consumption is spent on heating and cooling.
About half of an average American building’s energy consumption is spent on heating and cooling. That’s a lot of money spent, fossil fuel burned and strain on an aging energy infrastructure during times of severe temperatures.
It’s also a problem UC Santa Barbara researchers Charlie Xiao, Elliot Hawkes and Bolin Liao are hoping to make a dent in. In a paper in the journal Device, the trio present an adaptive tile, which when deployed in arrays on roofs, can lower heating bills in winter and cooling bills in summer, without the need for electronics.
“It switches between a heating state and a cooling state, depending on the temperature of the tile,” said Xiao, the lead author of the study. “The target temperature is about 65° F — about 18° C.”
At about four inches square, this passive thermoregulating device is a blend of Liao’s expertise in thermal science, and Hawkes’ work in mechanism design — a movable surface that can change its thermal properties in response to a range of temperatures. The idea for this project came to them during long drives between Santa Barbara and northern California a few years ago.
Read More: University of California Santa Barbara
