Greek villages are famous for their glittering white walls and beautiful blue painted accents, which make them a dazzling sight whether you’re approaching the sea or looking out across them from the windows of your blessedly cool room — which stays cool even in the height of summer heat. If you look around, you might notice that there’s no air conditioning. The Greeks don’t need it, because their homes are specifically designed to control temperatures and keep people comfortable. Thick walls insulate rooms to keep temperatures stable, while those handsome white roofs and walls reflect heat.
Greek villages are famous for their glittering white walls and beautiful blue painted accents, which make them a dazzling sight whether you’re approaching the sea or looking out across them from the windows of your blessedly cool room — which stays cool even in the height of summer heat. If you look around, you might notice that there’s no air conditioning. The Greeks don’t need it, because their homes are specifically designed to control temperatures and keep people comfortable. Thick walls insulate rooms to keep temperatures stable, while those handsome white roofs and walls reflect heat.
Researchers inspired by this ancient and simple climate control technique just developed a high tech version that keeps buildings cool without the use of electricity. The technology is critical for a world in which many nations are struggling to reduce energy usage and make more environmentally friendly homes, offices and other buildings. With this modern update, an old-fashioned tactic already known and beloved will get a new lease on life.
Dubbed photonic radiative cooling, the technology, while relies on layers of materials, is really more like two technologies — bundled into one. The first is one many of us (including the Greeks) are familiar with: A reflective layer on the top bounces sunlight off a structure so it won’t heat up over the course of the day. This allows buildings to stay as cool as possible, even when they sit in direct sun. But there’s another problem: even if sunlight is reflected, buildings can still heat up. Ambient climate conditions as well as activities inside the building may drive internal temperatures up, possibly to an uncomfortable level, leaving people inside longing for additional relief.
That’s why the technology also includes layers of materials that radiate heat from the inside of the building outwards. However, there’s a small trick here. Such heat, known as infrared radiation, would just make the environment around the building warmer, creating a cyclical heat problem. Instead, it needs to be vented somewhere, preferably far, far away. The solution from the team of researchers is rather ingenious — the materials inside their technology increase the wavelengths of the infrared radiation, allowing it to escape to space instead of trapping it right next to the building. In essence, they’re using space as their heat sink.
Continue reading at ENN affiliate, Care2.
Greek coast image via Shutterstock.
