Is it possible to Minimize the Energy Consumption of Buildings in the Tropics under Climate Change Conditions , 2050?

Shamila Haddad , Adrian Barker , Junjing Yang , Devi Ilamathy Mohan Kumar , Samira Garshasbi , Riccardo Paolini , Mattheos Santamouris : On the Potential of Building Adaptation Measures to Counterbalance the Impact of Climatic Change in the Tropics, Energy and Buildings. Volume 229, 15 December 2020, 110494

 

Climate change is one of the most significant environmental issues facing communities, while poor construction and absence of effective air-conditioning (AC) predominantly cause indoor overheating. Although AC may help meeting indoor comfort, it increases the vulnerability of low-income residents, triggers large energy consumption, and generates anthropogenic heat, which worsens heat stress outdoor. The capacity of buildings to maintain comfortable thermal conditions without mechanical cooling is the key factor protecting occupants against the rising temperature. Residents of Darwin, Australia, will be largely affected by increasing temperature where the annual peak ambient temperature may increase by 7.4 °C in 2060, while the number of hours above 30 °C will rise by 70%. Based on regional climate modelling for the Australian area and using a building energy simulation platform, we computed that by 2060 the indoor air temperature in a typical residential building may exceed 30 °C for over 4000 h under free-floating condition, with a peak daytime and night-time temperatures of 39 °C and 36.5 °C, respectively.

On the combination of quantum dots with near-infrared reflective base coats to maximize their urban overheating mitigation potential

Samira Garshasbi , Shujuan Huang , Jan Valenta , Mat Santamouris : On the combination of quantum
dots with near-infrared reflective base coats to maximize their urban overheating mitigation potential,
Solar Energy ,Volume 211, 15 November 2020, Pages 111-116

Application of highly absorptive construction materials is proved to be one of leading causes of urban overheating in big cities. To avoid the excessive heat by the conventional construction materials, several advanced heat-rejecting coating technologies were developed during the last decades. The main idea behind heat-rejecting coatings is to have colder coatings with the same appearance and colour of conventional coatings. One of the existing technologies for heat-rejecting coatings are advanced coatings with high solar reflection in the infrared range or so-called cool coatings. Recently, re-emission of the visible-range light by nano-scale semiconductors, known as Quantum Dots (QDs), were introduced as another effective heat-rejecting technology. In this paper, we showed that QDs also demonstrate a very high solar transmission in the near-infrared range, and therefore, a highly near-infrared reflective base layer can significantly improve their cooling potential.

On the energy modulation of daytime radiative coolers: A review on infrared emissivity dynamic switch against overcooling

Giulia Ulpiani , Gianluca Ranzi, Kwok Wei Shah , Jie Feng, Mattheos Santamouris

Solar Energy Volume 209, October 2020, Pages 278-301

Abstract

Passive daytime radiative cooling represents one of the boldest answers to tackle the future cooling needs of the built environment and to mitigate urban heat island effects.