Radiative cooling (RC) roofs can reduce cooling energy use but may impose heating penalties in climates with cold seasons. This study evaluates an adaptive RC roof panel deployed only during cooling-dominated months to provide effective building cooling and energy savings under hot conditions while avoiding heating penalties under cold conditions. A transient multi-node model was used to couple heat transfer among the panel, roof, and indoor air, with hourly ERA5 data serving as boundary conditions. Nanjing was examined in detail, followed by a cross-climate assessment of nine additional Chinese cities. For Nanjing, baseline annual HVAC electricity use was 2763.8 kWh, of which 65.2% was attributable to cooling. A fixed panel reduced annual HVAC electricity use by 24.0%, whereas monthly adaptive deployment increased annual savings to 30.7% by preserving cooling-season benefits while avoiding most winter heating penalties. The panel coverage ratio exerted a substantially stronger influence than the panel-to-roof gap. Across cities, the adaptive strategy provided the greatest incremental benefit over fixed installation in colder climates, with additional annual savings of 343.85 kWh in Harbin, 331.02 kWh in Urumqi, 289.23 kWh in Beijing, and 266.82 kWh in Yinchuan. By contrast, this advantage diminished in cooling-dominated climates and became negligible in Guangzhou and Haikou. These findings indicate that RC roofs should be evaluated as seasonally controlled building-envelope systems rather than static surfaces, particularly where both heating and cooling demands are substantial.
- Open Access
- Article
An Adaptive Radiative Cooling Roof Panel Approach for Balancing Building Cooling Benefits and Heating Penalties
- Yang Hu 1,*,
- Baoshuang Zhu 1,
- Yujie Zhang 2,3,
- Weixian Mu 4,*
Author Information
Received: 14 Jul 2026 | Revised: 06 Aug 2026 | Accepted: 17 Aug 2026 | Published: 21 Aug 2026
Abstract
Graphical Abstract
Keywords
radiative cooling | adaptive roof | energy consumption | climate-responsive
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