The most common application of passive daytime radiative cooling currently is on building envelopes, including PDRC cool roofs, which can significantly lower indoor space temperatures within buildings. A PDRC roof application can double the energy savings of a white roof. This makes PDRCs a sustainable and low-cost alternative or supplement to air conditioning by decreasing energy demand, alleviating energy grids in peak periods, and reducing  emissions caused by air conditioning's release of hydrofluorocarbons into the atmosphere which can be thousands of times more potent that .
Air conditioning alone accounts for 12%-15% of global energy usage, while  emissions from air conditioning account for "13.7% of energy-related  emissions, approximately 52.3 EJ yearly" or 10% of emissions total. Air conditioning applications are expected to rise, despite their negative impacts on energy sectors, costs, and global warming, which has been described as a "vicious cycle." However, this can be significantly reduced with the mass production of low-cost PDRCs for indoor space cooling. A multilayer PDRC surface covering 10% of a building's roof can replace 35% of air conditioning used during the hottest hours of daytime.
In suburban single-family residential areas, PDRCs can lower energy costs by 26% to 46% in the United States and lower temperatures on average by 5.1ᵒC. With the addition of "cold storage to utilize the excess cooling energy of water generated during off-peak hours, the cooling effects for indoor air during the peak-cooling-load times can be significantly enhanced" and air temperatures may be reduced by 6.6–12.7 °C.
In cities, PDRCs can result in significant energy and cost savings. In a study on US cities, Zhou et al. found that "cities in hot and arid regions can achieve high annual electricity consumption savings of >2200 kWh, while <400 kWh is attainable in colder and more humid cities," being ranked from highest to lowest by electricity consumption savings as follows: Phoenix (~2500 kWh), Las Vegas (~2250 kWh), Austin (~2100 kWh), Honolulu (~2050 kWh), Atlanta (~1500 kWh), Indianapolis (~1200 kWh), Chicago (~1150 kWh), New York City (~900 kWh), Minneapolis (~850 kWh), Boston (~750 kWh), Seattle (~350 kWh). In a study projecting energy savings for Indian cities in 2030, Mumbai and Kolkata had a lower energy savings potential, Jaisalmer, Varansai, and Delhi had a higher potential, although with significant variations from April to August dependent on humidity and wind cover.
The growing interest and rise in PDRC application to buildings has been attributed to cost savings related to "the sheer magnitude of the global building surface area, with a market size of ~$27 billion in 2025," as estimated in a 2020 study.