Field investigation of night radiation cooling

under tropical climate

J. Khedari*, J. Waewsak, S. Thepa, J. Hirunlabh
Energy Technology Division, School of Energy and Materials, King Mongkut's University of Technology
Thonburi, Thungkru, Bangkok, 10140, Thailand
Received 30 March 1999; accepted 6 August 1999
Abstract
This paper discusses the feasibility of cooling by using night radiation under Thailand's
hot and humid climate. Four types of roof radiators were made by using common
construction materials. They were examined under three sky conditions: clear, cloudy and
rainy, respectively. Investigation was done, mainly, based on the temperature of dierent
surfaces of a roof radiator. The experimental results showed that the depression of dierent
surface temperatures is in the range of 168C below ambient temperature under clear and
cloudy skies. Under rainy skies, the temperature of dierent surfaces of roof radiators and
ambient air was fairly close. Apart from sky conditions, the factors which aect the night
radiation cooling are the thermal emissivity of materials and water condensation on the
radiator surface area. Finally, this rst study indicated that cooling by using night radiation
is feasible mainly during tropical winter season. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights
reserved.
Keywords: Roof radiator; Thermal properties; Rain; Water condensation; Sky; Clouds
1. Introduction
Nowadays, due to the expected shortage of energy supply and air pollution
problems energy conservation is receiving serious consideration not only in the
industrial sector but also at the residential scale. The energy required for heating
0960-1481/00/$ - see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0960- 1481( 99) 00104- 4
Renewable Energy 20 (2000) 183193
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* Corresponding author. Tel.: +66-2-4708625; fax: +66-2-4708621.
and cooling of buildings is approximately 6.7% of the total world energy and
most of the systems for cooling applied air conditioners that are enormous energy
consumers. Utilization of passive cooling systems can save 2.35% of the world
energy requirement [1]. At present, the models of modern houses built in Thailand
are often adapted from western styles. During daytime, they store the incident
solar energy well [2] whereas during nighttime, they can not spread it out quickly.
Night radiation cooling is one passive cooling technique which can draw away
the heat accumulated during the day to the cool night sky through the radiator.
Based on the fact that every object having temperature higher than 0 K emits
energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation, a radiation ux will occur if two
surfaces are facing each other. Infrared radiation exchanges occur continuously
between the lower layers of the atmosphere and the objects at the Earth's surface.
Since the eective sky temperature is lower than the terrestrial surfaces, a net heat
loss occurs for these surfaces. It can provide night cooling in some climatic zones
[3].
However, some of the gases in the atmosphere, especially water vapor as well as
CO
2
and dust, absorb and re-emit long-wave radiation. Thus during nighttime
there is a balance between the radiation emitted by the terrestrial surfaces toward
the sky and the downward radiation from the atmosphere. Only the net radiation
heat loss is eective in the cooling of buildings [4].
The building envelope faces the sky. The roof is the most eective location for a
long-wave radiator because it is continuously exposed to the sky dome. Two main
concepts have been considered: with the rst, the roof acts as a cold storage and
absorbs the heat from the interior space making it cooler [5,6]; while with the
second, the roof surfaces cooled down by long-wave radiation, cool the air
beneath it [7,8]. This cool air, if admitted into spacing, will provide, therefore, the
desired cooling.
The cooling eect depends on the temperature of roof radiator surface. The
higher the temperature of the roof surface, the higher the rate of net heat
radiation loss. However, regarding cooling of space, the temperature of the
surface of radiators should not be high otherwise cooling could not be achieved,
as the temperature of air will still be higher than that required for providing a
cooling sensation. This means that we have to reduce the absorbed amount of
incident solar energy by the roof. This could be done by painting the roof with a
light color such as white that would not only decrease the absorptivity of the roof
but will also increase its emissivity [9].
In our knowledge, there is no eld investigation of night radiation cooling in
Thailand. The paper is intended to make an initial feasibility study on how
eective this technique would be under a tropical sky. As mentioned previously,
the amount of radiation exchange depends on the temperature dierence between
the sky temperature and the roof. Clear skies exhibit low sky temperature, while
cloud cover, air humidity and pollution decrease the eectiveness of the night
radiation cooling process [10]. This is why we proposed to make this investigation
under three qualities of sky: clear, cloudy and rainy. We note that, however, the
J. Khedari et al. / Renewable Energy 20 (2000) 183193 184
Fig. 1. The four congurations of roof radiators and the position of thermocouples.
J. Khedari et al. / Renewable Energy 20 (2000) 183193 185
night radiation cooling investigated here is mainly based on the temperature of
dierent surfaces of roof radiator and air.
2. Roof radiators
The four congurations of roof radiator as shown in Fig. 1 consist of:
1. type A: at white painted metal sheet over CPAC Monier tiles;
2. type B: white painted CPAC Monier tiles;
3. type C: CPAC Monier tiles;
4. type D: white painted corrugated metal sheet over gypsum board and CPAC
Monier tiles.
The dimensions of radiators are 0.8 m width and 1.2 m length. The roof radiators
were installed at the northern side, tilted at an angle of 258, to the roof of the
school solar house. The two zinc sheets, one is at (type A) and the other is
corrugated (type D) were painted with a white color available in the local market.
Generally, many commercially available white paints contain the oxides and
carbonates of titanium, aluminum, calcium and zinc that have high emissivities in
the range of 813 mm with high reectivities in the visible region [11]. The dark
red CPAC Monier concrete tiles widely used for new constructions were used in
type B and type C, but in type B, the CPAC Monier tiles were painted a white
color. The bottom of dierent roof radiators used gypsum board. Thermal
properties of these materials are given in Table 1.
3. Experimental system
The temperature of the ambient air and 24 points at dierent positions of
dierent roof radiators were measured by thermocouples of type K. The positions
of the thermocouples are shown in Fig. 1.
Experiments were undertaken during winter (January) with clear and cloudy
skies and in the rainy season (September). In each experiment, the temperatures at
Table 1
Thermal properties of materials [12]
Materials Dimension
(cm)
Thermal conductivity
(measured)
(W m
1
K
1
)
Thermal emissivity
(measured)
White painted metal sheet 0.900
White painted CPAC Monier tiles 0.8 0.6900 0.940
Dark-red CPAC Monier tiles 0.8 0.6900 0.930
White painted corrugated metal sheet 0.890
Gypsum board 1.3 0.0873 0.903
J. Khedari et al. / Renewable Energy 20 (2000) 183193 186
various points were continuously recorded every 30 min. Experiments started at
18:00 h and ended at 06:00 h. The cloud cover ratio was observed and
approximately quoted. Air velocity was also measured every 30 min.
4. Experimental results
During daytime, the roof radiators absorbed the incident radiation. When
experiments started at 18:00 h, the surface temperature of CPAC Monier tiles of
types B and C were higher than that of the other types due to the thermal
capacity of CPAC Monier tiles. This eect will be discussed later.
4.1. Radiator's surface temperature
At the beginning of the experiment, i.e. after sunset time, the night cooling
started as surface temperature decreased (Fig. 2). This occurred till 23:00 h.
Between 23:00 and 00:00 h, the ambient temperature and, therefore, the sky
temperature were almost constant, resulting in a quasi steady state equilibrium as
the temperatures of all surfaces were almost equal.
After midnight, the ambient temperature started to decrease, leading, therefore,
to increasing long-wave radiation exchange between the radiator and the sky and,
correspondingly, resulting in a lower surface temperature. The maximum
Fig. 2. Hourly variations of ambient air and surface temperature of dierent types of roof radiator (15
January 1998, almost clear sky).
J. Khedari et al. / Renewable Energy 20 (2000) 183193 187
temperature dierence, about 68C, was obtained with types A and D radiators at
05:00 h, the corresponding lowest surface temperature was about 188C.
Additionally, the surface temperature of types A and D roof radiators were very
close. The same observation was noted for types B and C. Consequently, types A
and D roof radiators have better performance than types B and C.
4.2. Eect of thermal emissivity of materials
From Table 1 we found that CPAC Monier tiles have a higher thermal
emissivity than the metal sheets and white painting can upgrade the thermal
emissivity of CPAC Monier tiles, thus, the material that has a higher thermal
emissivity can emit more thermal radiation and, therefore, cool itself better. Figs.
2 and 3 show that the surface temperature of white painted CPAC Monier (T
B2
)
dropped lower than of non-painted CPAC Monier (T
C2
).
Also, even though CPAC Monier emissivity is higher than that of metallic
sheets that should lead to lower temperatures than those of metallic sheets. The
surface temperature of CPAC Monier tiles is still high. This is due to the heat
stored within the CPAC Monier concrete tile during daytime. Consequently, when
the roof radiator is made by using the relatively thick CPAC Monier tiles, white
painting would not improve the performance of the radiator.
Fig. 3. Hourly variatons of ambient air and dierent temperatures of outer surface of radiator (24
January 1998, cloud cover 5%).
J. Khedari et al. / Renewable Energy 20 (2000) 183193 188
4.3. Heat capacity
CPAC Monier concrete tiles have a 13 mm thickness while the metal sheet is
very thin. Accordingly the mass of CPAC Monier and, therefore, its thermal
capacity are much bigger than that of the thin metal sheet. In daytime, CPAC
Monier tiles store more energy than metal sheets, especially the non-white painted
CPAC Monier tiles. Fig. 3 shows that the temperature of non-white painted
CPAC Monier (type C) is the highest one at the beginning of the experiment. This
explains why the temperature of white painted CPAC Monier is higher than white
painted at plate and corrugated metal sheets.
When night radiation starts, there is a considerable amount of stored energy in
CPAC Monier tiles that has to be released. This means that a longer time will be
needed for the long-wave radiation heat exchange to cool the radiator. This limits
the benet of night radiation for such thick roof radiators.
4.4. Eect of clouds
Fig. 4 shows that the depression of each surface temperature is not smooth. It
has a uctuation caused by clouds. The surface temperature of roof radiators
increased when the sky was covered by clouds limiting the night radiation cooling.
This occurred twice between 00:00 and 02:00 h. The opposite was observed when
the clouds in the sky disappeared.
Fig. 4. Hourly variatons of ambient air and surface temperature of dierent types of roof radiator (14
January 1998, cloud cover 5%).
J. Khedari et al. / Renewable Energy 20 (2000) 183193 189
4.5. Eect of water condensation
The roof radiator cools as a result of the radiation eect of the net sensible heat
radiation exchange of night long-wave radiation. The outward ux cools the roof
radiator surface so that the temperature is reduced. When this temperature drops
below the dew point ambient air temperature, formation of liquid water occurs.
Fig. 5 shows that before 22:00 h, the average dierence between dierent
surfaces and ambient air temperature was about 268C. After the formation of
liquid water which occurred around 22:00 h, the temperatures of the dierent
surfaces of radiators become very close and approximately equal to that of the
dew point temperature of the ambient air. The dierence between surface
temperatures and ambient air, which is nothing other than the dierence between
the dew point and dry bulb temperature of the ambient air, decreased
considerably. Therefore, regarding the pure phenomena of night radiation cooling,
the formation of liquid water is an obstacle as it degrades the net cooling eect of
the roof radiator, but cooling still remains signicant enough to be considered.
In addition, when water condensation occurs, the performance of the four
radiators becomes similar as the surface temperature is fairly similar for all types.
4.6. Eect of rain
Fig. 6 shows that from the beginning of the experiment until 19:00 h, the night
radiation cooling takes place as the dierent surface temperatures decrease
Fig. 5. Hourly variations of ambient air and surface temperature of dierent types of roof radiator (18
January 1998, cloud cover 5%).
J. Khedari et al. / Renewable Energy 20 (2000) 183193 190
Fig. 6. Hourly variations of ambient air and dierent surface temperatures (20 September 1998, rainy
sky).
Fig. 7. Temperature of air under white painted metal sheet and white painted corrugated metal sheet of
types A and D roof radiator (19 January 1998, clouds cover 5%).
J. Khedari et al. / Renewable Energy 20 (2000) 183193 191
rapidly. At 19:00, rainfall causes these temperatures to increase as rainy water lm
stops the night radiation process. At 21:00 h rain stops, and the ambient
temperature becomes constant during the whole night. That results in equal
surface temperatures for all four congurations.
4.7. Night space cooling
Due to the night radiation cooling, the air located below the sky facing surface
will be cooled. With types A and D there are two air layers: one between the
metal sheet and CPAC Monier tiles and another one between the CPAC Monier
tiles and the gypsum board (see Fig. 1), while for types B and C there is only one
air layer. The variations of temperatures are shown in Figs. 7 and 8. It can be
seen from (Fig. 7) the temperature of air below the metallic sheet is lower than the
ambient air in the range of 138C. This cool air, if allowed to enter housing, will
provide cooling. The air temperature below the CPAC Monier tiles (types B and
C) is rather high to be used for space cooling (Fig. 8). This is mainly due to the
stored heat within CPAC Monier tiles. To overcome this, we propose to use the
roof radiators (types B and C) to act as solar chimneys. In fact, we have
demonstrated that this stored energy could be considerably reduced by inducing
during daytime air circulation [13]. Therefore, the temperature of CPAC Monier
radiators becomes lower allowing, consequently, higher eectiveness of night
Fig. 8. Temperatures of air under CPAC Monier concrete tiles of dierent types of roof radiator (19
January 1998, clouds cover 5%).
J. Khedari et al. / Renewable Energy 20 (2000) 183193 192
radiation cooling. This would lead to lower air temperature that might be used for
space cooling.
In addition, due to this nighttime cooling process, air moves downward. During
tests, we have recorded the velocity of this downward air. It was found that the
velocity of air is rather low, below 0.1 m s
1
. This, therefore, should be examined
further with equipment of good accuracy.
5. Conclusion
This initial study indicated that cooling by using night radiation technique
seemed to be feasible in Thailand, especially, during the winter season as the
surface temperature of roof radiators is in the range of 168C below ambient air
temperature.
Further studies have to be made in order to nd out the appropriate design of
radiator. To be very eective, the roof should be designed to act, during daytime,
as a solar chimney, and, during nighttime as a roof radiator.
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