Researchers have invented a material that can draw heat out of buildings and send it, along with the sun’s radiating warmth, into the coldness of outer space.
The revolutionary product, which can cool buildings even on hot days, can be fashioned into ultrathin, multilayered sheets that could be installed on a roof like solar panels. But instead of turning sunlight into energy, the sheets turn heat into invisible light and beam it away as infrared radiation.
Stanford University electrical engineering professor Shanhui Fan said the panels — which include a layer of material similar to what is found in sand — act like a kind of high-tech mirror, both siphoning heat out of the buildings and reflecting the sun’s rays, sending both 100 kilometers up into the coldness of space.
No electricity needed
via High-Tech Material Cools Buildings by Sending Heat Into Space.
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