Redesigning Human Cooling Solutions: Innovative, Sustainable Alternatives to Conventional Cooling

Extreme heat and humidity events are predicted to increase worldwide, even under optimistic scenarios of reduced carbon emissions. Current solutions, such as air conditioning, provide humans with short-term relief but lead to increased carbon emissions and elevate the Urban Heat Index, thus contributing to climate change. To address this issue sustainably, it is imperative to innovate human cooling solutions beyond traditional methods. Despite the availability of personalized cooling wearables in the market, they lack widespread acceptance due to limitations in design, cost, and effectiveness, thereby highlighting the need for lightweight, ergonomic, and economically feasible solutions.

This Research Topic explores advancements in human cooling technologies, focusing particularly on solutions that can be seamlessly integrated into everyday life without contributing to climate change.

The scope of this collection encompasses localized human cooling solutions that significantly reduce energy usage and carbon emissions, the effect of localized cooling on human thermal comfort, innovative materials for sustainable cooling solutions, and other innovative, sustainable strategies to help the human population adapt to and manage heat stress.

We welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
• Advancing thermoelectric technology towards practical use for cooling wearables
• Quantification of thermal comfort with non-conventional localized cooling
• Innovative and sustainable cooling technology as an alternative to air-conditioning
• Innovative materials aimed at sustainable cooling solutions
• The development of and advances in cooling wearables.

Research works using experimental, analytical, or computational techniques are encouraged, as well as Reviews and studies aimed at quantifying human heat stress and thermal comfort.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: thermal technology, cooling wearables, Sustainable cooling technology, Human cooling, Thermal solutions, thermoelectric, thermal comfort, cooling solutions, materials for cooling, advanced materials for cooling, localized cooling, cooling comfort

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.