Buildings use energy for cooling and heating to maintain indoor thermal comfort. Owing to rising temperatures and climate change, future energy demand for space cooling is expected to increase, whereas space heating requirements in winter may decline. Cool surfaces and thermochromic (TC) coatings are promising roof technologies for reducing building energy use in space cooling. TC coatings are expected to outperform cool surfaces because they can switch their optical properties between seasons. However, the comparative performance and potential of these two strategies have not been fully explored, particularly considering that heating demand often occurs at night. This study evaluated the performance of cool surfaces and TC coatings under current and future weather conditions for commercial and residential prototype buildings, each with distinct occupancy patterns. The results showed that cool surfaces consistently provide annual energy savings in warm climates (zones 1A–3C) by up to 3.2%, whereas TC coatings in apartment prototypes offer benefits (up to 1.7%) across all climates owing to reduced daytime occupancy. Additionally, TC coatings perform better with lower transition temperatures. In colder climates (zones 5A–7) in an office prototype, cool surfaces with lower static solar reflectance outperform TC coatings. Results indicate that during summer months, cool surfaces can lower surface temperatures by up to 27°C, significantly outperforming TC coatings, which achieve a maximum reduction of 13°C. This study presents a novel, comprehensive comparison of these materials on both an annual and hourly basis, utilizing over 800 simulations across three building prototypes and 15 climate zones.
Mansour Alhazmi (Sun,) studied this question.
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