Passive Cooling for Air-Conditioned Containers
The Challenge
How to keep containers cool while lowering energy use and maintenance demands?
Remote containers, often repurposed as offices or to house electronic equipment, face extreme thermal loads in hot, sunny climates. With little or no insulation, air-conditioning units must run continuously to keep interiors comfortable. This not only drives up energy consumption but also increases the risk of costly maintenance delays, especially in remote locations where servicing is difficult. Shade structures are sometimes added to help, but they require extra materials and significant labor for assembly and disassembly during transport.
The Solution - PolyFrost
PolyFrost, ChillSkyn’s passive cooling coating, was spray-applied to the roof of one10ft container, and to the entire exterior surface of another, to compare the coating’s thermal performance against other passive cooling options.
PolyFrost is engineered to reflect solar heat, maintain cooler roof surfaces, and reduce thermal transfer into vehicle interiors.
PolyFrost
PolyFrost is a spray-applied, passive radiative cooling (PDRC) coating designed for sun-exposed surfaces in transport and industrial applications.
Reflects Solar Radiation
Reduces surface heating.
Maintains Cooler Interiors
Without adding additional energy demand.
Scalable and Easy to Apply
Using standard spray equipment, just like paint, in under 12 hours.
Effortless Maintenance
Regular cleaning with soapy water ensures long lasting peak performance.
Results
Field Trial
- Erding, Germany - AUG 8 TO SEPT 18, 2023
Thermal image of the test setup on 10ft containers. From left to right: PolyFrost coated container (all sides), PolyFrost coated roof only, reference sand beige paint, reference bronze green paint.
Cooler parts are shown in blue, hot parts appear in red. The two first containers, coated with PolyFrost, have the coolest roofs, shown by the deep blue colour.
Thermal images of heat mitigation performance of different coatings on functional containers
(Real Corp, April 15-17, 2024)
Performance Comparison | |
|---|---|
Peak outdoor air temperature | 34°C (93°F) |
Peak daytime Internal air temperature A/C OFF Sandbeige | 37°C (99°F) |
Peak daytime Internal air temperature A/C OFF POLYFROST | Roof only: 32°C (90°F) |
POLYFROST internal air temperature reduction | Up to 7°C (13°F) |
Key Impacts
Reduced A/C Workload
Lower cooling demand translates into reduced energy consumption and less wear on A/C systems.
Measured Energy Savings
A/C power demand dropped from 208 kW with a conventional finish to 173 kW with roof-only PolyFrost application, and down to 162 kW with full exterior coverage.
Up to 22% Energy Reduction
PolyFrost achieved up to 22% reduction in A/C energy consumption during peak operating conditions.
Maintenance-Free Performance
A passive, durable solution well suited for continuous operation and remote deployments.