Consistent Assessment of the Cooling Performance of Radiative Cooling Materials

Abstract

Radiative cooling has emerged as a passive cooling strategy and has attracted significant attention, particularly over the past five years. While many researchers have designed various radiative cooling materials and evaluated their cooling performance, inconsistent or even erroneous measurement data and different reporting styles widely exist. This lack of consistency adds complexity to the comparison and reproduction of cooling performance across the diverse range of radiative cooling materials studied by different researchers. In this paper, general considerations for assessing cooling performance measurements, including optical characterization and outdoor thermal measurements, are outlined. Moreover, guidelines on properly reporting measurement settings and results are provided. This work aims to help the radiative cooling community achieve consistent cooling performance assessment, ultimately advancing this promising technology toward alleviating global cooling demands.