Heat pump technology is the future of cooling and heating, but it’s been expensive to install. Now you get a small heat pump for your window.
No one really likes window air conditioners: Yes, they can make a hot day more bearable, but they’re also ugly, noisy, block the view, and contribute to climate change. But the number of air conditioners is poised to surge, both because the planet is getting hotter and a growing number of people in developing countries can finally afford the technology. By 2050, by one prediction, there will be 5.6 billion air conditioners in use, up from roughly 1.6 billion now.
Several companies are trying to find ways to solve the problem. Gradient, a San Francisco-based startup, is designing an alternative that can help tackle the challenges of traditional air conditioners—and that doubles as an efficient heater when it’s cold. When it’s used both for heating and cooling, the device can shrink the carbon footprint of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) by 75%. As the grid shifts to renewable energy, that footprint could essentially be eliminated completely, so turning on the AC doesn’t have the ironic effect of making future heat waves more likely through global warming.