Comments on: Nanophotonic Building Panels Beam Sunlight and Heat into Cold Space

By: norm matchett

norm matchett — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 23:26:23 +0000

could never be used on the millions of roofs about the world,,, cost astranomical…globally all buildings are grossly poor in design and mostly inapropriate for the climatic locations…apart from the structural engineering no thought is given to location or appropriate exterior….Still, there are at least some people out there THINKING…
HOW MUCH HEAT DO ONE MILLION AIR CONDITIONERS PUMP INTO THE ATMOSPHERE?? HOW MUCH HEAT DO ONE MILLION CARS?? OR ONE MILLION PEOPLE??..THE HUMAN ANIMAL IS HIGHLY INTELLIGENT AND YET STILL THE DUMBEST ANIMAL ON THE PLANET…

By: Richard Gorman

Richard Gorman — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:25:33 +0000

In the late 60’s when I worked on the space program, there was a material developed by Lockheed called optical solar reflector (OSR) which backed sheets of quarts with a silver or gold coating. It’s solar absorbance was less than 5% and it’s emissivity was close to 90%. The incoming sunlight went through the quartz with very little absorption. The silver reflected more than 95% of the sunlight. The quartz then radiated the small amount of absorbed heat with a thermal emmissivity at room temperature of more than 90%. A piece of it in sunlight in space would become very cold. It was used to coat heat rejection radiators and for thermal control on unmanned spacecraft and satellites.

By: Sam Wilson

Sam Wilson — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:23:13 +0000

I take back what I said – just looked at Physorg and they state it also cools – so this math could work out if it does indeed suck the heat, so to speak, out of a building. This would require that you remove the roof insulation though (which you would need in the winter) and may require active insulation moving so you don’t cool your building too much. anyhow – exciting stuff I say!…hopefully more details on longevity, cost, etc. will be released soon.

By: Sam Wilson

Sam Wilson — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:14:58 +0000

so if you cover 10% of a roof your cooling loads will go down 35% !!! That sounds impossible unless the roofing generates cooling. What about lighting, equipment, windows and other sources of heat?

What happens if you cover 100% of your roof?? – do the math.

Anyhow – I am sure the product is amazing and very good, I just wish the writers and scientists were move careful with the math.