A group of researchers from Columbia University managed to reduce the average daily temperature of buildings by 2-3°C using “wavy” exterior walls covered with various radiant cooling materials.
We are now aware that around 40% of the world’s energy is consumed by our buildings and rising temperatures will only make the problem worse as they will require more and more energy for air conditioning. The solution to the problem could come from Columbia University where a team of researchers developed a new typology of “zig zag” walls that utilizes the radiative cooling properties of k reduce internal heat in buildings.
Two to 3 degrees less thanks to asymmetric radiant cooling
The use of radiant cooling is not new, however this solution is usually applied to roofs or flat surfaces.
PUSH research published in the journal Nexus instead, it shows that the asymmetric zigzag design implemented by the team has the potential to lower the average daily temperature 2.3°C compared to more conventional walls covered with materials radiation cooling or radiation cooling. During the hottest hours of the day, the recorded temperature drop also reached a reduction 3.1 °C.
How zigzag corrugated walls work
The results demonstrated by Columbia University, without additional electrical power, owe their success to the shape of the outer walls. The zigzag design allows you to do this they point half of the outer surface of the buildings towards the sky or rather towards space, thus increasing the possibilities offered by radiative cooling, which must deal not only with the heat coming from the sun, but also with the heat radiated by the earth.
As the researcher pointed out Yuan Yang from Columbia University, by corrugating vertical surfaces by covering them with different materials depending on the layout, performance is optimized. In the zigzag design, the ground-facing surfaces use a more reflective coating, while the space-facing surfaces use more emissive materials.
The goal of the researchers now will be make the solution “marketable” it is based on the assumption that the design of zigzag corrugated outer walls already exists. However, some obstacles to the spread of radiation cooling solutions will need to be overcome, such as the scalability of the solution from small laboratory models to real scale. Another issue that should not be underestimated will be the cost of this solution, which at the moment is still unaffordable compared to more conventional passive solutions. Finally, the real durability of materials cannot be ignored and must retain their properties unchanged over time.