Post #3811994
2026-07-13 18:15 UTC
Solar panels powering A/C units is a stopgap, an interim measure. You're not really cooling anything off, you're just schlepping the heat from one place to another and engendering more heat to do it, that then has to make it back out into space through the CO2 and methane and whatnot.
Our problem is to balance the energy leaving the Earth with the energy entering the system (from the Sun mostly but also from burning fossil fuels.)
Replies (1)
-
@carapace@mastodon.social 2026-07-13 18:20
That's why Radiative Sky Cooling is so interesting: you're actually sending the energy (as infrared) back out into space. There's a narrow "window" in the spectrum where the atmosphere is especially transparent so if you radiate in that band, as some materials do, then you can literally cool off by shedding heat into space, wow. 😀👍 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1a2HkcVbmAWExiWT__qQypLEwkvijnIM #DIY #SolarPunk