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Cooling panel sends excess heat back into outer space (Eliminate A/C? Power companies won't like)
Venturebeat Green ^ | April 15, 2013 | Chitra Rakesh

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, we’re 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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Science
KEYWORDS: airconditioning; energy; engineering; solar
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Don't open the windows to catch a breeze!

Regards,
GtG

21 posted on 04/16/2013 8:03:31 PM PDT by Gandalf_The_Gray (I live in my own little world, I like it 'cuz they know me here.)
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To: taterjay

Cthulhu will become angry and seek vengeance.


22 posted on 04/16/2013 8:03:57 PM PDT by EEGator
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

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?


23 posted on 04/16/2013 8:04:17 PM PDT by jeffc (The U.S. media are our enemy)
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To: taterjay
What about the space warming that will take place and alter the universe? Could be bad.

Global Galactic Warming!

We need to tax it!!

24 posted on 04/16/2013 8:04:19 PM PDT by airborne (MY HEROES DON'T WEAR CAPES. MY HEROES WEAR DOG TAGS ! ! !)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Let’s not celebrate just yet. It’s completely OBVIOUS that this will cause Universal Warming.


25 posted on 04/16/2013 8:04:35 PM PDT by willgolfforfood
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To: Nateman
I suspect it’s a scam. A simple Mirror will reflect back sunlight but it won’t make the house any cooler than the temperature of the air.
++++++++++
I'm not sure. What isn't discussed much in the article is the mechanism for converting the heat from, for example, your house into energy in the particular infrared frequency band that will pass unattenuated through the atmosphere to the ultra cold of outer space. Thermodynamically this makes outer space a heat sink for your home. Not bad if they can actually do it.
26 posted on 04/16/2013 8:06:31 PM PDT by InterceptPoint
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To: airborne

Romulans first. They are wealthy I hear.


27 posted on 04/16/2013 8:10:25 PM PDT by taterjay
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It is time for some good old ass kicking of the rulers of the world.


28 posted on 04/16/2013 8:13:09 PM PDT by logitech (It is time.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

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.


29 posted on 04/16/2013 8:15:52 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: Cicero

See my previous. We’re on the same page.


30 posted on 04/16/2013 8:16:40 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What happens when it is hot and overcast?


31 posted on 04/16/2013 8:19:09 PM PDT by dangerdoc (see post #6)
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To: jeffc
The system does more than reflect all the sunlight. It is also transparent to the IR that your house is (always) emitting, and that IR energy is radiated into space.
32 posted on 04/16/2013 8:20:12 PM PDT by Cboldt
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To: InterceptPoint

Basically, you are using space as a heat sink.


33 posted on 04/16/2013 8:20:15 PM PDT by dangerdoc (see post #6)
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To: old-ager
It sounds great but at 100 watts per square meter it would require a great deal of area.

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.

34 posted on 04/16/2013 8:21:27 PM PDT by Paradox (Unexpected things coming for the next few years.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
xray specs photo: xray med_xray_specs.jpg

For an encore, he's making X-Ray specs that work.

35 posted on 04/16/2013 8:22:07 PM PDT by Snickering Hound
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Re: " 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."

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.

36 posted on 04/16/2013 8:30:19 PM PDT by Cribb (Home of Conservatism - America's middle class.)
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To: old-ager
It sounds great but at 100 watts per square meter it would require a great deal of area.

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.

37 posted on 04/16/2013 8:44:51 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Lurkina.n.Learnin
Now Al Gore will have to stop galactic warming.

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....

38 posted on 04/16/2013 8:50:47 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Still Thinking

I like it. Moroned on the other side of Mars. Marooned too.


39 posted on 04/16/2013 8:55:01 PM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin (Obama is the Chicken Little of politics)
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To: Lurkina.n.Learnin

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.


40 posted on 04/16/2013 8:58:12 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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