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Radiative cooling: Energy savings from the sky

Environmental heat sinks beyond local air are available for use with normal air conditioners to increase their efficiency. A study has exploited outer space and the atmosphere as remote sinks to demonstrate daytime sub-ambient fluid cooling and its application in reducing the energy needed to cool an interior.

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Figure 1: Radiative sky cooling concept and air-conditioning integration.

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Correspondence to Geoff Smith.

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Smith, G., Gentle, A. Radiative cooling: Energy savings from the sky. Nat Energy 2, 17142 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2017.142

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