Energy Savings Potential of a Novel Radiative Cooling and Solar Thermal Collection Concept in Buildings for Various World Climates

Abstract

A novel radiative cooling and solar collection concept is presented, and the combination of these two technologies and its energy integration in residential and commercial buildings is evaluated. This innovative concept, herein named Radiative Collector and Emitter (RCE), allows for supplying both cooling and Domestic Hot Water (DHW) demands. First, the RCE concept is introduced by presenting its background, with special attention to the overlapping and switching between radiative cooling and solar thermal collection. Then the DHW and cooling demands for four building typologies, two residential and two commercial, are compared with the energy production of the RCE. The analysis is performed for representative cities of the world climates according to Köppen‐Geiger classification. The RCE concept showed suitability in some of the studied cities (San Francisco, Cape Town, Johannesburg, London, and Ottawa) with C (temperate) and D (continental) climates in residential and tertiary buildings.

The authors would like to thank Generalitat de Catalunya for the project grant given to their research group (2017 SGR 659).