In an article published June 27 in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science, they report that by restricting radiant heat flows between buildings and their environment to specific wavelengths, coatings engineered from common materials can achieve energy savings and thermal comfort that goes beyond what traditional building envelopes can achieve.
In an article published June 27 in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science, they report that by restricting radiant heat flows between buildings and their environment to specific wavelengths, coatings engineered from common materials can achieve energy savings and thermal comfort that goes beyond what traditional building envelopes can achieve.
“With the increase in global temperatures, maintaining habitable buildings has become a global challenge,” said researcher Jyotirmoy Mandal, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton. “Buildings exchange a majority of heat with their environment as radiation, and by tailoring the optical properties of their envelopes to exploit how radiation behaves in our environment, we can control heat in buildings in new and impactful ways.”
Radiant heat, carried by electromagnetic waves, is ubiquitous – we feel it when sunlight warms our skin, or when an electric coil heats up a room. Regulating building temperature by controlling radiant heat is a common practice. Most buildings use window shades to block sunlight, and many owners paint roofs and walls white to reflect the sun.
Read more at: Princeton University
Photo credit: Mandal et al/Princeton University
