IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v340y2025ics0360544225047437.html

Modeling of daytime radiative cooling enhanced vapor-compression refrigeration systems

Author

Listed:
  • Forte, Davide
  • Belotti, Claudio
  • Pattelli, Lorenzo
  • Morciano, Matteo
  • Chiavazzo, Eliodoro
  • Asinari, Pietro
  • Fasano, Matteo

Abstract

Daytime Radiative Cooling (DRC) technologies use surfaces with tailored spectral properties to dissipate heat through the atmospheric transparency window towards outer space, even under direct sunlight. This study develops a transient simulation model to assess the energy-saving potential of integrating DRC materials into a typical vapor-compression refrigeration system (VCRS) for a residential building. The system employs flat-plate radiative panels coated with DRC material to cool a heat transfer fluid in a closed-loop circuit. This cooled liquid then reduces the temperature of the VCRS refrigerant via a supplementary heat exchanger located downstream of the air-cooled condenser, thereby enhancing the seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER) and reducing energy consumption. A parametric analysis examines key parameters, including radiative panel area, subcooler size, and panel fluid flow rate. The system is simulated for Las Vegas, Riyadh, Madrid, and Turin using experimental hourly meteorological data to capture the spectrally varying effects of atmospheric radiation. Moreover, the performance of different DRC materials is evaluated by comparing spectral selective and broadband emitters with two commercial options. Results show significant energy savings in hot, arid climates—46.1kWhelmDRC-2 in Riyadh and 37.5kWhelmDRC-2 in Las Vegas—and up to a 10.1% reduction in electric energy consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Forte, Davide & Belotti, Claudio & Pattelli, Lorenzo & Morciano, Matteo & Chiavazzo, Eliodoro & Asinari, Pietro & Fasano, Matteo, 2025. "Modeling of daytime radiative cooling enhanced vapor-compression refrigeration systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:340:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225047437
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.139101
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225047437
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2025.139101?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matteo Alberghini & Seongdon Hong & L. Marcelo Lozano & Volodymyr Korolovych & Yi Huang & Francesco Signorato & S. Hadi Zandavi & Corey Fucetola & Ihsan Uluturk & Michael Y. Tolstorukov & Gang Chen & , 2021. "Sustainable polyethylene fabrics with engineered moisture transport for passive cooling," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 4(8), pages 715-724, August.
    2. Bu, Fan & Yan, Da & Tan, Gang & Sun, Hongsan & An, Jingjing, 2022. "Systematically incorporating spectrum-selective radiative cooling into building performance simulation: Numerical integration method and experimental validation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    3. Vilà, Roger & Medrano, Marc & Castell, Albert, 2023. "Numerical analysis of the combination of radiative collectors and emitters to improve the performance of water-water compression heat pumps under different climates," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    4. Lu, Xing & Xu, Peng & Wang, Huilong & Yang, Tao & Hou, Jin, 2016. "Cooling potential and applications prospects of passive radiative cooling in buildings: The current state-of-the-art," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 1079-1097.
    5. Hu, Mingke & Zhao, Bin & Li, Jing & Wang, Yunyun & Pei, Gang, 2017. "Preliminary thermal analysis of a combined photovoltaic–photothermic–nocturnal radiative cooling system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 419-430.
    6. Aaswath P. Raman & Marc Abou Anoma & Linxiao Zhu & Eden Rephaeli & Shanhui Fan, 2014. "Passive radiative cooling below ambient air temperature under direct sunlight," Nature, Nature, vol. 515(7528), pages 540-544, November.
    7. Michael Strobel & Uli Jakob & Wolfgang Streicher & Daniel Neyer, 2023. "Spatial Distribution of Future Demand for Space Cooling Applications and Potential of Solar Thermal Cooling Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-32, June.
    8. Eli A. Goldstein & Aaswath P. Raman & Shanhui Fan, 2017. "Sub-ambient non-evaporative fluid cooling with the sky," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 2(9), pages 1-7, September.
    9. Xueke Wu & Jinlei Li & Fei Xie & Xun-En Wu & Siming Zhao & Qinyuan Jiang & Shiliang Zhang & Baoshun Wang & Yunrui Li & Di Gao & Run Li & Fei Wang & Ya Huang & Yanlong Zhao & Yingying Zhang & Wei Li & , 2024. "A dual-selective thermal emitter with enhanced subambient radiative cooling performance," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    10. Zhao, Bin & Hu, Mingke & Ao, Xianze & Chen, Nuo & Pei, Gang, 2019. "Radiative cooling: A review of fundamentals, materials, applications, and prospects," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 489-513.
    11. Jia, Linrui & Lu, Lin & Gong, Quan & Jiao, Kai, 2024. "Analytical and experimental analyses on cooling performances of radiative SkyCool radiators with various interior flowing channels," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    12. Peoples, Joseph & Hung, Yu-Wei & Li, Xiangyu & Gallagher, Daniel & Fruehe, Nathan & Pottschmidt, Mason & Breseman, Cole & Adams, Conrad & Yuksel, Anil & Braun, James & Horton, W. Travis & Ruan, Xiulin, 2022. "Concentrated radiative cooling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 310(C).
    13. Pirvaram, Atousa & Talebzadeh, Nima & Leung, Siu Ning & O'Brien, Paul G., 2022. "Radiative cooling for buildings: A review of techno-enviro-economics and life-cycle assessment methods," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    14. Yadav, Vinay Kumar & Gautam, Kumar & Sarkar, Jahar & Ghosh, Pradyumna, 2025. "Techno-economic assessment of novel solar-driven dual-mode trigeneration device featuring daytime radiative condenser," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 332(C).
    15. Zhang, Kai & Zhao, Dongliang & Yin, Xiaobo & Yang, Ronggui & Tan, Gang, 2018. "Energy saving and economic analysis of a new hybrid radiative cooling system for single-family houses in the USA," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 371-381.
    16. Xiuqiang Li & Bowen Sun & Chenxi Sui & Ankita Nandi & Haoming Fang & Yucan Peng & Gang Tan & Po-Chun Hsu, 2020. "Integration of daytime radiative cooling and solar heating for year-round energy saving in buildings," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hu, Mingke & Zhao, Bin & Ao, Xianze & Feng, Junsheng & Cao, Jingyu & Su, Yuehong & Pei, Gang, 2019. "Experimental study on a hybrid photo-thermal and radiative cooling collector using black acrylic paint as the panel coating," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1217-1226.
    2. Yan, Tian & Xu, Dawei & Meng, Jing & Xu, Xinhua & Yu, Zhongyi & Wu, Huijun, 2024. "A review of radiative sky cooling technology and its application in building systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    3. Zhao, Bin & Hu, Mingke & Ao, Xianze & Chen, Nuo & Xuan, Qingdong & Su, Yuehong & Pei, Gang, 2019. "A novel strategy for a building-integrated diurnal photovoltaic and all-day radiative cooling system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 892-900.
    4. Zhao, Bin & Hu, Mingke & Ao, Xianze & Chen, Nuo & Pei, Gang, 2019. "Radiative cooling: A review of fundamentals, materials, applications, and prospects," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 489-513.
    5. Pirvaram, Atousa & Talebzadeh, Nima & Leung, Siu Ning & O'Brien, Paul G., 2022. "Radiative cooling for buildings: A review of techno-enviro-economics and life-cycle assessment methods," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    6. Zhang, Ji & Yuan, Jianjuan & Liu, Junwei & Zhou, Zhihua & Sui, Jiyuan & Xing, Jincheng & Zuo, Jian, 2021. "Cover shields for sub-ambient radiative cooling: A literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    7. Wang, Cun-Hai & Chen, Hao & Jiang, Ze-Yi & Zhang, Xin-Xin & Wang, Fu-Qiang, 2023. "Modelling and performance evaluation of a novel passive thermoelectric system based on radiative cooling and solar heating for 24-hour power-generation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    8. Gopalakrishna Gangisetty & Ron Zevenhoven, 2023. "A Review of Nanoparticle Material Coatings in Passive Radiative Cooling Systems Including Skylights," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-59, February.
    9. Li, Haoran & Zhang, Kai & Shi, Zijie & Jiang, Kaiyu & Wu, Bingyang & Ye, Peiliang, 2023. "Cooling benefit of implementing radiative cooling on a city-scale," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 372-381.
    10. Zhang, Wenshuo & Jiao, Dongsheng & Zhao, Bin & Pei, Gang, 2024. "Experimental and numerical investigation of the effects of passive radiative cooling-based cool roof on building energy consumption," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 376(PA).
    11. Wang, Ze-Ye & Wu, Xian & Qu, Ming-Liang & Fan, Li-Wu & Yu, Zi-Tao & Chen, Shu-Qin & Ge, Jian & Wang, Liang & Dai, Sheng-Juan, 2025. "A field test and evaluation of radiative cooling performance as applied on the sidewall surfaces of residential buildings in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 379(C).
    12. Yuan, Jinchao & Yin, Hongle & Yuan, Dan & Yang, Yongjian & Xu, Shaoyu, 2022. "On daytime radiative cooling using spectrally selective metamaterial based building envelopes," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    13. Pan, Aiqiang & Chen, Yi & Lin, Kaixin & Bai, Shengxi & Ho, Tsz Chung & Tso, Chi Yan, 2024. "Numerical investigations of novel hybrid solid desiccant cooling systems combined with passive radiative cooling panels," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    14. Chi, Fang'ai & Liu, Yang & Yan, Jianxiong, 2021. "Integration of Radiative-based air temperature regulating system into residential building for energy saving," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    15. Mousavi, S. Ali Akbar & Aghakhani, Hamidreza & Baghapour, Behzad & Lv, Song, 2025. "Integrating radiative cooling and thermoelectric: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    16. Liang, Yan & Zhang, Weiyi & Yang, Haibing & Liu, Junwei & Zhou, Yifan & Cui, Hongzhi & Yan, Jinyue, 2025. "Bridging the critical gaps of radiative sky cooling: From lab to applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    17. Zhao, Bin & Hu, Mingke & Ao, Xianze & Chen, Nuo & Xuan, Qingdong & Jiao, Dongsheng & Pei, Gang, 2019. "Performance analysis of a hybrid system combining photovoltaic and nighttime radiative cooling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 252(C), pages 1-1.
    18. Zhao, Bin & Xuan, Qingdong & Xu, Chengfeng & Hu, Mingke & Dabwan, Yousef N. & Pei, Gang, 2023. "Considerations of passive radiative cooling," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 219(P2).
    19. Bu, Fan & Yan, Da & Tan, Gang & An, Jingjing, 2024. "A novel approach based on equivalent sky radiative temperature for quick computation of radiative cooling in building energy simulation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    20. Bu, Fan & Yan, Da & Tan, Gang & Sun, Hongsan & An, Jingjing, 2023. "Acceleration algorithms for long-wavelength radiation integral in the annual simulation of radiative cooling in buildings," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 255-269.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:340:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225047437. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.