Re:Electricity-free air conditioning
by frownie on Tuesday December 02, 2014 @04:49AM
(#8686390)
what if there is water condensating on the panel ? what if the panel is not perfectly oriented towards the sun ?
(dunno, just asking)
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Electricity-free air conditioning
by icegreentea on Tuesday December 02, 2014 @07:03AM
(#8686698)
Don't know what happens if there's condensation. As for orientation, here's the paper.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v515/n7528/full/nature1...
You're looking for Extended Data Figure 1b). It shows relatively constant emissivitiy from 5 through 60 degrees of incident light.
Speculating on water condensation. This would probably lower its efficiency. That said, they only claim cooling of ~40Wm^-2, corresponding to ~5 degrees below ambient. Realistically, this stuff is most useful when ambient is above ~20-25 degrees (this is when most people want cooling), where the drop in temperature by ~5 degrees shouldn't cause too much of a condensation problem. Of course, that's just one application.