Clearly Cool — A Proven Alternative to Air Conditioning

FLIR thermal image of the Clearly Cool radiant cooling pavilion

FLIR thermal image taken at our Coolest Spot demonstration pavilion, Hopewell NJ. The panel surface (deep blue, upper left) is radiating cold into the occupied zone below — unmistakable in the infrared. Temp scale: 25.6–47.7°C.

What We Do

Cooling things,
not buildings.

Conventional air conditioning conditions an entire building to make the people inside comfortable. Clearly Cool works differently — our chilled radiant panels are placed directly above occupied zones, absorbing heat from people and animals by radiation. The same physics that makes shade feel cool, operating 24 hours a day.

The result: targeted comfort at a fraction of the energy, with no ducts, no plumbing, and no infrastructure investment. A standard 120V outlet. 85 watts per panel. Solar-ready.

See Where We Deploy

The Key Insight

Same air. Completely different comfort.

Air temperature and humidity alone don't determine how hot you feel. These four scenarios can have identical air temperature and humidity — yet produce radically different levels of thermal stress. The difference is entirely due to the radiant temperature of surrounding surfaces. This is the physical principle Clearly Cool exploits.

75°C

Direct Sunlight

Hot surfaces and direct solar radiation combine to overwhelm the body's ability to shed heat — even in a breeze.

45°C

Shade + Hot Wall

Moving into shade removes solar gain, but nearby hot masonry still radiates heat back at you. The air feels no different.

35°C

Tree Shade

Tree canopy provides cool, low-emissivity shade. Body heat now radiates outward — this is what makes shade under trees feel genuinely cooler.

25°C

Radiant Cooling Panel

A chilled overhead surface acts as an artificial cold sky — pulling heat from the body by radiation, achieving comfort levels below what tree shade alone can provide.

All four scenarios can share the same dry-bulb air temperature and relative humidity. The only variable is the mean radiant temperature — which conventional air conditioning never directly addresses, but Clearly Cool does.

By the Numbers

A decade of research behind every panel.

85W

Per Panel

Less than a light bulb. Solar-PV compatible.

Patents

Issued and pending, protecting core technology.

10+

Publications

Peer-reviewed papers in leading journals.

Field Trials

Across multiple continents and climates.

Plumbing Required

No contractor, no refrigerant lines, no permitting.

The Science

Why radiation beats convection for comfort.

The human body exchanges heat with its surroundings in four ways: conduction, convection, evaporation, and radiation. Air conditioning addresses only convection — it cools the air. Radiant cooling addresses the single largest contributor to thermal comfort in many conditions: the temperature of the surfaces you're surrounded by.

When a Clearly Cool panel is placed overhead, it acts as a cold sky — absorbing radiant heat from occupants below. No air movement means no drafts, no noise, and no dry-skin discomfort. People feel cooler even when the ambient air temperature is unchanged.

Explore operative temperature at ashrae.cool →

Eric Teitelbaum demonstrating infrared vs visible light transparency

Clearly Cool co-founder Dr. Eric Teitelbaum demonstrates how infrared radiation passes through materials that appear opaque in visible light — the key physical principle enabling radiant cooling panels.

Applications

Anywhere people gather in heat.

The same core technology scales from a single dining table to a full barn row or transit corridor. Radiant cooling works wherever a chilled panel can be positioned overhead — indoors or out.

Outdoor Dining & Hospitality

Extend the patio season and keep guests comfortable without blowing cold air or disrupting ambiance. Targeted cooling, zero noise.

Sports & Athletics

Dugouts, sidelines, and player recovery zones. Cool the athletes, not just their drinks.

Media preview event at the Clearly Cool radiant cooling pavilion in Trenton

Public Spaces & Community Events

Parks, plazas, transit shelters, and public gatherings — solar-ready panels bring cooling equity to the people who need it most.

Residential & Patio

Bring the feel of natural shade to any outdoor space, on demand. No permanent installation required.

Piglets gathered under a Clearly Cool radiant cooling panel

Animal Agriculture

Targeted cooling directly over individual animals — without conditioning an entire barn. Proven in farrowing and gestation pilots.

Construction & Industrial

Worker rest stations and shaded cooling zones on job sites, powered from standard outlets or portable solar.

Research & Recognition

Built on peer-reviewed science.

Our technology grows directly from a decade of published research in thermal comfort, radiant systems, and building physics — much of it co-authored by our founding team at Princeton and AIL Research.

Research Tool

ASHRAE Human Comfort Calculator

Explore operative temperature, mean radiant temperature, and the role of surfaces in perceived warmth — the science behind every Clearly Cool deployment.

Open ashrae.cool →

PNAS · 2020

Expanded Psychrometric Models of Human Comfort

Teitelbaum et al. demonstrated how low-energy radiant cooling extends human comfort envelopes — the scientific backbone of Clearly Cool's approach.

Read the Paper →

Washington Post

A Better Way to Beat the Heat

National coverage of how targeted radiant cooling represents a fundamentally different approach from conventional air conditioning.

Read the Story →

Scientific American

A Better Way to Cool Ourselves

How personal and targeted radiant cooling could transform energy use in a warming climate.

Read the Story →

Bloomberg

Cooling Parks for Extreme Heat

Bloomberg feature on radiant panels being deployed in parks and public spaces to address the urban heat crisis.

Read the Story →

Princeton CHAOS Lab

Foundational Research at Princeton

Prof. Forrest Meggers' lab — where the physics behind Clearly Cool's panels was developed and validated over more than a decade.

Visit the Lab →

Deployable Cooling

Up in minutes.
Cooling immediately.

A Clearly Cool radiant pavilion assembles from flat-packed components and plugs into a standard outlet — or runs entirely off solar. This timelapse shows a full setup from scratch at our Trenton demonstration site.

~30 min Assembly time

120V Standard outlet

Solar-ready Off-grid capable

Request a Demo

Our Team

70+ years of thermal comfort R&D.

Dr. Eric Teitelbaum

Founder & CTO
AIL Research Inc.

Dr. Andy Lowenstein

Founder & CEO
AIL Research Inc.

Prof. Forrest Meggers

Founder & Chief Scientist
Princeton CHAOS Lab

Clearly Cool is a partnership between AIL Research Inc. and the CHAOS Lab at Princeton University — combining decades of applied engineering with cutting-edge academic research in building physics and thermal comfort science. Joint patents and new system developments are actively under development through this collaboration.

A proven alternative
to air conditioning.

Cooling things,
not buildings.

Same air. Completely different comfort.

A decade of research behind every panel.

Why radiation beats convection for comfort.