Cooling

Researchers at Oxford have developed a new smart window coating that can be tuned on the fly to emit or reflect heat from the Sun in different amounts, reducing the energy costs of heating and cooling by up to a third.

Heating and cooling buildings is a major consumer of energy, especially older ones that weren’t built with modern energy efficiencies in mind. Now Fraunhofer engineers have developed a modular solar-powered facade that can heat or cool rooms.

Berkeley Lab engineers have developed a roof coating that can keep a building warmer or cooler, depending on the weather. When it’s warm out the material will reflect sunlight and heat, but it switches itself off in winter, reducing energy use.

When we're hot and sweaty, we prefer cool mesh-like clothing, but otherwise … mesh just doesn't keep us warm enough. A new dual-purpose fabric was designed with that conundrum in mind, as it features cooling vents that open upon absorbing sweat.

Maltese startup Magtor is starting to gain worldwide attention for a new linear compressor design that pumps in both directions. The Magtorpressor's radical efficiency over today's tech could make it a key weapon in the fight against climate change.

You may have heard of electrochromic windows that can be electronically switched between clear and tinted states. Well, the same technology has been applied to a new material that could both heat and cool buildings, if mounted on their outside walls.

There are many parts of the world that lack infrastructure, but that get a lot of sunlight ... which makes buildings hot. A new system could help, as it uses a combination of sunlight and salt water – but no electricity – to produce a cooling effect.

The freezers found homes and restaurants play an invaluable role in preserving foods until they're ready to be eaten, but an alternative technology promises to not only use far less energy, but improve food quality at the same time.

One way scientists hope to prevent hypersonic aircraft from overheating is by having the propellant do double duty as a coolant, and newly developed 3D-printed catalysts could be the missing piece to this puzzle.

Ordinarily, a backpack is something that you take off if you're getting too hot. The NASA-inspired Honu, however, is claimed to actually make its user feel up to a total of 20º F (11º C) cooler than if they weren't wearing a pack at all.

Heating and cooling systems are some of the biggest energy guzzlers, but passive temperature control could reduce emissions. Phase-change materials show promise for this, and now engineers have developed a new PCM composite that can be 3D printed.

It can be frustrating, when the jacket that you initially put on to keep you warm starts making you too hot. Jackets made from an experimental new reversible fabric, however, could both heat and cool their wearer.