Domestic heating is a significant contributor to carbon emissions, with maintaining of indoor temperatures accounting for 20 to 40 per cent of national energy budgets in wealthy countries. The type of window in a house is a major factor to heating and cooling efficiency, with smart windows which adapt between heating and cooling effects being proposed as a tool to help improve energy efficiency.
This new smart window design is a step above previous iterations, harvesting the Sun’s energy in the winter to warm the house while reflecting it in the summer to keep it cool.
“The major innovation is that these windows can change according to seasonal needs,” explained Professor Nathan Youngblood, an electrical and computing engineering expert at Pittsburgh and first author of the study. “They absorb near-infrared light from the Sun in the winter and turn it into heat for the inside of a building. In the summer months, the Sun can be reflected instead of absorbed...