Experimental studies on the cooling and heating performance of a highly emissive coating

In this study, the cooling effect below ambient air temperature, heat dissipation properties and heating energy efficacy of a superomniphobic self-cleaning (SSC) highly emissive (HE) coating were systematically investigated. Except at midday, the SSC-HE coating with an extremely high solar reflectance of 0.985 showed a better cooling effect than a 10-cm-thick polyurethane insulation layer. The coating substantially reduced the interior air temperature of a well-insulated system by as much as 6.9 °C. The SSC-HE coating enabled the roof surface and room temperatures of the brick bungalow to be 3.4 and 10.2 °C below the ambient air temperature, respectively. Compared with the sunshade and spray water, the SSC-HE coating exhibited better cooling effect. The SSC topcoat allowed the battery cabinet of an HE-coated distributed telecommunication base station to remain its original sub-ambient cooling effect for a long time. Regardless of the location of the HE-coated metal facility, the ultrahigh emissivity of the coating enabled it to exhibit excellent heat dissipation performance during both day and night, even under adiabatic conditions. Additionally, under identical room temperature settings, the HE-coated electric oil heater not only showed faster heating but also had heating energy efficiency of 5.9 % and 4.4 % relative to heaters coated with aluminium- and black paints, respectively. Under identical heating power consumption levels, compared to black paint-coated heater, the HE-coated heater endowed the surrounding environment with a higher equilibrium air temperature, improving the thermal comfort of the indoor environment.