Sub-ambient daytime cooling effects and cooling energy efficiency of a passive sub-ambient daytime radiative cooling coating applied to telecommunication base stations— Part 1: Distributed base stations and long-lasting self-cleaning properties

To overcome the issue of overheating and conserve cooling energy consumption, a superamphiphobic passive sub-ambient daytime radiative cooling (PSDRC) coating was extensively applied to distributed telecommunication base stations. The top surfaces of the battery and equipment cabinets coated with the PSDRC coating indicated prominent sub-ambient cooling effects regardless of the climate; this resulted in substantially lower surface temperatures compared with their counterparts. The applications of the PSDRC coating reduced the chamber interior temperature of an equipment cabinet by 10.4 °C during noon hours and by 6.0 °C before sunrise. The PSDRC-coated base stations could properly operate without air conditioners by replacing the closed door with a modified one containing an external exhaust system. The drastic decrease in the chamber interior temperature of the PSDRC base stations allowed them to conserve a considerable amount of cooling energy; this, resulted in cooling energy efficiencies between 31.7% and 64.9%. After more than one year, the surfaces of the PSDRC base station near busy city transit roads were still spotless and super non-wettable; this demonstrated the significance of the superamphiphobic self-cleaning topcoat and provided the top surfaces of the base stations in various regions with identical sub-ambient cooling effects on the initial state.