Green Living Research:This new research is turning to nature to find a way to make windows more energy efficient. It proposes a transparent, bio-inspired, convective cooling layer for building windows and solar panels that could help reduce heating by solar absorption.
The research published in Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, by University of Toronto Engineering professor Ben Hatton (MSE) and his colleagues at Harvard University explain how to cut down on heat loss during the winter while keeping buildings cool during the summer. As we know, windows are the most energy inefficient part of buildings--and heating by thermal radiation reduces the efficiency of photovoltaic panels.
Professor Ben Hatton explains the research: "Our results show that an artificial vascular network within a transparent layer, composed of channels on the micrometer to millimeter scale, and extending over the surface of a window, offers an additional and novel cooling mechanism for building windows and a new thermal control tool for building design," (reference)
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