SkyCool Uses Space to Cool Things
A Silicon Valley startup termed SkyCool is utilizing a natural cooling phenomenon to deal with cooling down buildings. The premise that SkyCool works on is termed sky cooling. Sky cooling itself is a natural phenomenon that transmits infrared heat into space, but the event only works when the sun’s rays are not directly on the sky. SkyCool has developed technology that allows this natural phenomenon to occur even during the day though a reflective material that reflects the sun’s rays and creates a method for the natural heat to be dissipated into space.
The company uses air conditioning and refrigeration technology that utilize fluid chilling panels in association with the reflective material. SkyCool claims their system increases the energy efficiency of the property it’s installed in by between 15 and 35%. Sky cooling as a phenomenon is not a new concept, but SkyCool intends to use it commercially for the first time. Thanks to their revolutionary reflective material, they have made it a viable cooling technology for the twenty-first century.
Important Technology for a Globe that is Warming
Residential and commercial air conditioning is likely to have an increase in demand with the expected rise in temperatures around the globe. Multiple heat-waves have been seen across the North American continent this summer and temperatures are only likely to increase. If energy efficiency is the concern, then the sky cooling system is far better than traditional air conditioning, since unlike those systems, SkyCool’s technology doesn’t become less efficient as the external temperature rises.
While SkyCool has not yet come out with a cost for their device, one of the company’s founders, Aaswath Rahaman notes that the system’s components themselves are not prohibitively expensive. Whether this lowering of costs will carry over to the commercial launch of the devices remains to be seen. The air conditioning industry has not had a significant paradigm shift in a long time, and this might be just the shake-up it needs to innovate.
