Experimental study on the cooling and electricity-saving effects of radiative cooling coating applied to communication base station

Abstract

The cooling requirements of communication base stations (CBSs) align with the effects of radiative cooling coatings. However, these effects have not been comprehensively verified by in-situ measurements heretofore. To evaluate the cooling efficacy of radiative cooling coatings on CBSs, in this study, the radiative properties of a radiative cooling coating were tested in the laboratory. The cooling and electricity-saving effects of the radiative cooling coating were assessed using field measurements in Chengdu, China. Based on the experimental data, electricity savings, and carbon emission reductions in summer were evaluated. The experimental results showed that the radiative cooling coating’s shortwave reflectivity and longwave emissivity were both 0.90. The radiative cooling coating effectively lowered the exterior and interior surface temperatures of the CBS roof by 20.8 °C and 3.7°C, respectively, and consequently stabilized fluctuations in the CBS indoor air temperature. The measured daily electricity consumption of the air conditioning system was reduced by approximately 10 %. Additionally, the daily electricity consumption was found to be linearly related to the daily average ambient air temperature, particularly after applying the radiative cooling coating. This relationship was used to predict the electricity-saving effects of radiative cooling coatings on a large scale. If all the 80,000 CBSs in Chengdu used the same radiative cooling coating, the electricity savings in summer could reach 11.54 million kWh every year, corresponding to an annual carbon emission reduction of 1.41 million kgCO2.