Apparatus and method for radiative cooling
OwnerThomas Winrothinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for operating a selective emitter is provided. One embodiment comprises a heat sink that absorbs heat from an ambient environment, a heat pipe comprising a cooling portion thermally coupled to the heat sink, a wick portion and a heat dissipation portion, and a selective emitter that is thermally coupled to the cooling portion of the heat pipe. The selective emitter converts absorbed heat into radiative energy that is emitted out through the Earth's atmosphere.
Claims17
A selective emitter radiative cooler, comprising:
- a heat sink that absorbs heat from an ambient environment;
- a heat pipe comprising:
- a cooling portion;
- a wick portion;
- and
- a heat dissipation portion,
- wherein the cooling portion is thermally coupled to the heat sink;
- a selective emitter that converts absorbed heat into radiative energy that is emitted out through an atmosphere of the Earth, comprising:
- a substrate defined by a radiation emitting surface that emits the radiative energy and an opposing external surface that is thermally coupled to the cooling portion of the heat pipe,
- wherein heat that is absorbed at the cooling portion of the heat pipe from the heat sink is transferred to the heat dissipation portion of the heat pipe via the intervening wick portion, and
- wherein the transferred heat is absorbed by the selective emitter from the heat dissipation portion of the heat pipe so that the absorbed heat is converted into the radiative energy.
A method of operating a selective emitter that comprises a substrate defined by a radiation emitting surface that emits the radiative energy and an opposing external surface, the method comprising:
- absorbing heat using a heat sink that absorbs heat from an ambient environment;
- transferring the absorbed heat through a heat pipe, the heat pipe comprising:
- a cooling portion;
- a wick portion;
- and
- a heat dissipation portion,
- wherein the cooling portion is thermally coupled to the heat sink such that the heat is absorbed from the heat sink by the cooling portion of the heat pipe;
- transferring the absorbed heat from the cooling portion to a heat dissipation portion of the heat pipe via the intervening wick portion;
- transferring the absorbed heat from the heat dissipation portion of the heat pipe to the opposing external surface of the selective emitter that is thermally coupled to the heat dissipation portion;
- converting the transferred heat received by the selective emitter into radiative energy;
- and
- emitting the radiative energy from the radiation emitting surface of the selective emitter out through an atmosphere of the Earth.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.