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Coloured low-emissivity films for building envelopes for year-round energy savings

Nature Sustainability volume 5, pages 339–347 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Buildings are responsible for over 40% of total US energy use, of which about 40% is directly related to the operation of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems. Saving energy to heat and cool buildings would contribute substantially to sustainability. Here we propose a category of coloured low-emissivity films for building walls that constitute the main component of the building thermal envelope. We demonstrate high reflectance (~90%) in infrared wavelength range and selective reflectance in the visible light wavelength range for desired colours. These films can help minimize radiative heat exchange between the indoor and outdoor environments, thus saving energy for all-year cooling and heating while satisfying the required aesthetical effect. Simulations show that these films can help reduce heat gain and loss by up to 257.6 MJ per installation wall area annually. In the case of a typical midrise apartment building, the HVAC system can save up to 124.46 GJ (equal to 9.87% of the building’s HVAC energy consumption). By rough estimation, a global CO2 emission reduction of 1.14 billion metric tons annually could be achieved. Our work provides insights for innovative energy-saving building envelope materials that can help achieve global carbon neutrality and sustainability.

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Fig. 1: Concept illustration.
Fig. 2: Fabrication and characterization of coloured low-emissivity films.
Fig. 3: Visualized thermal effect of the coloured low-emissivity film.
Fig. 4: Thermal performance demonstration.
Fig. 5: Modelled annual reduction of heat transmission and evaluation of building energy savings.

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Data availability

The original data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Code availability

The code for the building energy consumption model can be made available upon request.

Change history

  • 01 February 2022

    In the PDF version of this article initially published, the sets of heat-flow arrows in Fig. 4a and Fig. 4c were omitted. The arrows have now been restored to the PDF.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Q. Li for helpful discussion and kind help. Part of this work was performed at the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities and the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility. S.F. acknowledges the support of the US Department of Energy (grant no. DE-FG-07ER46426).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Yucan Peng, Lingling Fan, Weiliang Jin.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Yucan Peng, Yusheng Ye, Zhuojun Huang, Yinxing Ma, Jing Tang, Jiawei Zhou, Louisa C. Greenburg & Yi Cui

  2. E. L. Ginzton Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Lingling Fan, Weiliang Jin & Shanhui Fan

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Shang Zhai & Arun Majumdar

  4. Building Technology and Urban Systems Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Xuan Luo

  5. Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA

    Yi Cui

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  1. Yucan Peng
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Contributions

Y.C. and Y.P. conceived the idea. Y.P. designed the experiments and performed the material preparation and characterization with the help of Y.Y., Z.H., Y.M., J.T. and J.Z. L.F. and W.J. performed the modelling work. S.Z. and X.L. provided helpful discussion on EnergyPlus. L.C.G. helped with writing the manuscript. Y.C., A.M. and S.F. supervised the project. All the authors provided discussion and comments.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yi Cui.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Sustainability thanks Tao Ma and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Notes 1–3, Figs. 1–24, Tables 1 and 2, and References.

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Peng, Y., Fan, L., Jin, W. et al. Coloured low-emissivity films for building envelopes for year-round energy savings. Nat Sustain 5, 339–347 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00836-x

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