Effect of Precipitable Water Vapor Amount on Radiative Cooling Performance

A radiative cooler based on aluminum-evaporated polyvinyl-fluoride surface was employed to investigate the effect of precipitable water vapor amount on its radiative cooling performance. A mathematic model of steady heat transfer that considers the spectral radiant distribution of the sky, the transparent cover and the collecting surface was established. The results indicate that the amount of precipitable water vapor shows a remarkable and negative effect on radiative cooling performance of the radiative cooler. Both the temperature difference between the cooler and surroundings and the net radiative cooling power decrease as the precipitable water vapor amount increases. The net radiative cooling power drops by about 41.0% as the the precipitable water vapor amount changes from 1.0 cm to 7.0 cm. Besides, the radiative cooler shows better cooling performance in winter than in summer. The net radiative cooling power in summer of Hefei is about 82.2% of that in winter.