Abstract
Energy consumption for heating and cooling constitute the majority of the energy use for building loads. Using passive cooling systems to reduce the energy consumption or to make the process more efficient can be very beneficial. Ground coupled heat exchangers and night sky radiative cooling systems have been used for centuries to achieve cooling and ice making. Ground coupled heat exchangers use the temperature difference between underground soil and ambient air or water for heat transfer between the soil and the fluid passing through buried pipes. Night sky radiative cooling takes advantage of the night sky as the coldest heat sink available for heat transfer with any surface. Use of these simple designs with the modern cooling/heating systems has the potential for a major impact on the heating and cooling needs. This review paper describes the various designs, configurations and applications of these systems as well as determining the parameters that impact their performance.
Highlights
Passive cooling systems are utilized to achieve cooling of thermal systems through natural means.A number of passive cooling systems have been used in the past that rely on mechanical, architectural or environmental designs
Ground coupled heat exchangers (GCHE) or Earth-air-heat exchangers (EAHE) operate on this consistency of underground temperatures to cool a fluid that is circulated through buried pipes
Night sky radiative cooling is another passive cooling technology where the night sky is used as the heat sink [27]
Summary
Passive cooling systems are utilized to achieve cooling of thermal systems through natural means. Ground coupled heat exchangers (GCHE) or Earth-air-heat exchangers (EAHE) operate on this consistency of underground temperatures to cool a fluid that is circulated through buried pipes This technology has been used over the past several decades for air-conditioning of greenhouses and buildings [2,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25]. Since sky temperature is very low (~4 K), effective radiative heat transfer can be obtained at locations with low environmental interference These technologies have been used since ancient times for building cooling as well as ice making [28].
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