The curtains are the brainchild of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley

Jan 21, 2014 02:06 GMT  ·  By

Should a team of brainiacs working with the University of California, Berkeley in the United States successfully complete one of their latest endeavors, the curtains that most people are all too familiar with might become obsolete.

These scientists are currently working on developing a new type of curtains that they say have the potential to slash electricity costs by eliminating the need to rely heavily on air conditioning to keep cool whenever the sun is a tad too hot.

Inhabitat tells us that these innovative curtains would react to the presence or the absence of light automatically. Specifically, they would close when being hit by powerful sun rays, and open when light is not all that intense.

Although curtains that behave in this manner have been created before, what makes the ones developed by the University of California, Berkeley researchers stand out is the fact that, unlike others of their kind, they would not need batteries or a constant electricity input to get their job done.

According to the same source, these curtains are made up of carbon nanotubes that sit on a plastic polycarbonate membrane. The nanotubes are the ones in charge of absorbing the light, converting it into heat and transfering it to the membrane.

Due to the heat coming its way, the latter sooner of later expands. However, because the nonotubes keep their shape and size, the material eventually ends up bending. Otherwise put, it’s curtains closed.

The University of California, Berkeley scientists explain that, due to the fact that they need neither a power source nor an operating system, their curtains would be fairly environmentally-friendly, and could help buildings greatly improve on their energy efficiency, and, consequently reduce electricity bills.

In fact, they estimate that, all things considered, these so-called smart curtains have the potential to cut a company’s yearly air conditioning bills by roughly 50%.