Cheaper, energy-efficient air conditioning is my dream come true

Gimme ! Gimme ! Gimme !

Researchers in the US have scaled up a new low-cost system that could provide efficient cooling for homes while using very little electricity. The team has developed a roof-top sized array, built from a highly reflective material made from glass and polymers. The system is based around what's termed a cooling meta-material, which is essentially an engineered film not found in nature.

Last year, researchers at CU Boulder in the US published research on the extraordinary properties of the new film, which reflects back almost all incoming light from the Sun. But it also has another cooling trick that makes it quite special. If you use the film to cover water, it allows any heat in the liquid to escape into the air. So when the heat escapes and is not replaced because the material deflects away sunlight, temperatures drop rapidly.

In tests, the system kept water around 10C cooler than the ambient air when exposed to midday sunlight in summer. The approach could also be scaled up to cool power stations and data centres. The system has been tested outdoors in a variety of weather conditions. In experiments carried out in the summer of 2017, the reflective system kept a container of water some 12C cooler than the surrounding air in the warmest hours of the day.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45991225