Could this Chameleon-like Material Heat and Cool Buildings?
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- Опубліковано 2 чер 2024
- To tackle energy inefficiency, researchers have looked to chameleons for inspiration. They have designed a building material that changes its color based on the outside temperature. Their cladding would be a lighter color in summer to reflect heat and a darker color in winter to absorb heat. This could significantly reduce the energy footprint of air-conditioning and heating.
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Chapters
0:00 Introduction
1:01 How Chameleons work
1:57 Thermochromic pigments
3:54 Color-changing slime
5:03 Electrochromic materials
7:17 Sponsor
8:05 Conclusion
Chameleons are one of the most fascinating reptiles. They are best known for their ability to change body color. Since they can't generate their own body heat, changing their skin color is a way to maintain a favorable body temperature. A cold chameleon may become dark to absorb more heat, whereas a hotter chameleon may turn pale to reflect the sun's heat. So how do they pull off these colorful changes?
The outermost layer of a chameleon's skin is transparent. Beneath it are layers of specialized cells called chromatophores that are filled with sacs of different kinds of pigment. When a chameleon experiences changes in body temperature, its nervous system tells specific chromatophores to expand or contract which changes the color of the cell. This allows them to produce a dazzling array of reds, pinks, yellows, blues, greens, and browns.
The ability of materials to change color could help us reduce the energy footprint of buildings by reflecting heat in summer and absorbing heat in winter. However, if we use thermochromic pigments, we don’t have much control over when the colors change. We are at the mercy of ambient temperatures, sunlight and the weather. So, researchers at the University of Chicago have developed a new material that changes color with a tiny amount of electricity instead of heat. They call it an electrochromic building material.
Their new non-flammable material consists of multiple layers including a polyurethane film, a grid of gold wires, a layer of graphene and platinum, aqueous electrolyte and a copper foil. In winter, the applied voltage pushes copper particles out of the electrolyte and to the platinum-graphene film. They form a solid metal layer that reflects over 90% of internal infrared radiation. In summer, the voltage is reversed and copper particles dissolve back into the electrolyte. This creates a transparent plastic electrode that allows over 90% of internal infrared radiation to escape.
The electricity used for inducing electrochromic changes in the material would be less than 0.2% of the total electricity usage of the building, However, it could save 8.4% of the building’s annual HVAC energy consumption.
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#chameleon #energysavings #sustainability #architecture #construction #buildingscience - Наука та технологія
This channel is a science lesson and current inventions all in one. Great podcast Belinda, as always. If they could incorporate this into a paint you can use it on the inside to find inefficient joints, spaces and trim where air might be escaping or penetrating, depending on the season
Honestly, as fascinating as this is, I don't see houses and homes using these techniques. It would be a better idea to prioritise this material and technique for large, public and multi access/use buildings, like hospitals, schools, train stations...
I can't imagine that the upkeep on it would be something that an owner wants to deal with
Seems like the thermochromic solution is much better.
25° is a perfectly reasonable temperature to automatically change.
And that requires no voltage or other complicated systems at all.
Put that in a paint and use it as is, or if possible, just bake it into tile immediately and put it on the roof.
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Take care Ray
Nifty! How does it stand up to sunlight? When time takes a toll, does any of it become toxic, and can it run off into the surrounding area? How long does the temperature changing capacity last? What does it cost to decommission it, some day, if it stops working?
Belinda, two years ago I replaced my roof that lower the temperature in my house during the hot and cold temperatures in Dallas TX. It would be interesting if I added Chameleon-like material to lower it more.
"green house gas" lmao
I had a couple color-changing Hot Wheels cars as a kid. Once a left one of them too close to the bathroom heater while taking a bath, and the color-changing coating got damage, and was left in a lightly changing sickly tone (the wheels got partly melted as well, I'm afraid).
Anecdote aside, I wonder if this substances would be able to whistand outdoors exposure and temperature changes, and wouldn't end up as the poor toy car in couple years time.
I like your content. Thanks! May I please request content on raised concrete slab systems. Cheers.
Good video, I was thinking if I fix my van up. I might look into some color changing paint.
in the abstract, it's interesting to see these sorts of ideas. however, given the speed with which the construction industry adopts new ideas, it'll be about 150 years before anything like this comes into being. and that's assuming the idea itself truly is economical and practical.
I agree! Our low adoption rate is such a big problem.
I think before these materials REALLY make it for buildings, we will be seeing them in high end, and medium end utilitarian fashion.
As oxymoronic as that is to say
there are people who would buy expensive dyes and fabrics if it made them look cool, and also stay cool in the weather.
Maybe even on cars too.
Clothes, Cars, these are not huge surfaces to cover with a coating. A building is where it gets crazy expensive for little return.
A house paint that turns dark in the winter and white in the summer seems like a cheap way to help regulate temperatures.
Especially since the technology is already accessible to the average person.
Coming from the age of reading as a child onward Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines... just more stuff that will never take hold in real use.
Very interesting! Does the pigment work indefinitely, or do they eventually fatigue?
interesting!!!
Do you know why temperature-sensitive colors stop working after a while? I've had this happen with a number of products. I think it takes around 3 years, but it might be as much as ten years.
Architecture and building science information while getting to listen to this beautiful Indian Queen. Great channel.
Lol! Never been called that before. Thanks! 😂
@BelindaCarr Well B, it seems that it's past due. Keep doing your thing.
Hi @Belinda, can you tell us what you think about System 3E perlite bricks?
I don't think a lot of people would want to live in a chameleon 😏😏
Lost me at gold wires. So, I'll never see the electric option. Cynicism all the way up. What's wrong with being at the mercy of sumlight & ambient temp? Isnt that the point?
Depends on the quantity. A single gram of gold can be drawn into a sheet twice the area a typical home.
I would be interested in more biomimicry--both the wise and the ridiculous.
Like most things new, there are some excellent ideas out there but we keep running into the inertia of the building industry.
1:54 Brown is not a real colour. it is just a dark orange.
Tell that to my friend Juan
@@trashcan1112 what? is that meant to mean something? i do not understand.
Orange is not a colour either. It's actually just a very redshifted yellow. Also a delicious fruit.
@@sandrinowitschM orange is a real colour, like you said it is red and yellow. just like brown is a dark version of it.
@@ShadowzGSD I was trying to be snarky but seriously, if orange is a colour and it's just yellow with red added, then brown is just yellow with red and black added (or light subtracted) and therefore also a colour.
I know it doesn't appear on a rainbow spectrum but it's just as real. I've seen the Technology Connected video, too.
In the end all colours aren't "real" but subjective and just a way for the mind to interpret different wavelengths of light.
Same as musical notes aren't "real".
winter is already so depressing and they want to make every house turn black every winter? 😂
if a building is well insulated i don't see how this would have much effect
I’m sorry you don’t have an imagination.
@@skipgrumblis care to address my comment or are you here just to say stupid things?
2:18 @EvanAndKatelyn !!!!