Posted on 04/16/2013 7:41:37 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Scientists have found a way to cool houses without air conditioning and without using any power at all.
Shanhui Fan, professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University, and graduate students, Aaswath Raman, and Eden Rephaeli, are working on a cooling panel that could possibly replace your air conditioner.
How? By radiating the vast majority of incoming sunlight into the outside world.
The structure basically does two things: It radiates the heat out in the atmosphere into outer space, and the device reflects sunlight to ensure that the sunlight does not heat up the device itself, explained professor Fan, a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The device is a metal-dielectric photonic structure capable of radiative cooling in daytime outdoor conditions. The structure behaves as a broadband mirror for solar light, while simultaneously emitting strongly in the mid-infrared within the atmospheric transparency window. What that means: It reflects visible light, and also radiates heat back out with a frequency that allows the infrared waves to pass unimpeded through the atmosphere, back out into space. As a result, it achieves a net cooling power in excess of 100 watts per square meter at ambient temperature.
Furthermore, were told by the team that the panel will require no electrical input. Essentially, it will sit on the top of the roof of your house and keep you cool, even on the hottest of days, without drawing any power....
(Excerpt) Read more at venturebeat.com ...
Regards,
GtG
Cthulhu will become angry and seek vengeance.
I’m as dumb as a box of rocks, obviously. I don’t get it: if the ambient temperature is 95 degrees (Florida summer), how is reflecting sunlight off the roof supposed to “cool” a house enough to do away with the A/C?
Global Galactic Warming!
We need to tax it!!
Let’s not celebrate just yet. It’s completely OBVIOUS that this will cause Universal Warming.
Romulans first. They are wealthy I hear.
It is time for some good old ass kicking of the rulers of the world.
Sounds like it might be a good way to bring on a glaciation cycle.
I don’t think we want to do that, no matter how much putting Chicago under a mile of ice appeals at first glance.
See my previous. We’re on the same page.
What happens when it is hot and overcast?
Basically, you are using space as a heat sink.
If, and that is a big if, it really is 100W/M, then that is actually quite good.
My math might be off, but for example my house has about a 1400 square foot roof (Larger actually, but from a top view, its about 1400 sq ft). That translates roughly into about 130 square meters. That would mean that a roof of this material could radiate away about 13,000 watts. According to this site (http://www.simetric.co.uk/si_tz.htm), that works out to about 3.7 tons of refrigeration. My house only needs 2.5.
For that reason, and others of practicality, actual system inefficiencies, and so on, I will file this, for now, in the "Too Good To Be True" file.
This contrary to what I have been led to believe. That is, the alpha, beta, gamma rays are short waves and when they strike earth, they elongate when they bounce back - that's why you're more apt to get sunburned on a cloudy day because they wont penetrate the clouds and therefore they resonate between the clouds and earth, kind of like a microwave.
Actually, that's about 9w/sf or 31 btu/sf, or 390 sf/ton, which is a pretty typical AC load. Course that in turn makes me think the 100w/m^2 is bunk.
Course we'll need to send him on a fact finding mission. And the guy who's supposed to gas up the rocket, might put in x liters instead of x gallons.....mistakes do happen....
I like it. Moroned on the other side of Mars. Marooned too.
Yeah, let the Martians deal with the idiot for a while. They’ll probably sit in their SUV’s and roll their squinty little alien eyes, just like back home.
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