Say goodbye to your clunky air conditioner—this table uses no electricity to regulate temperature

Business Insider ^ | May 19, 2015 | Megan Willett

[2ndDivisionVet]

Consisting simply of a surface and legs, the table is one piece of furniture that has remained largely the same for thousands of years.

But now, a French design duo has come up with a way to turn the humble table into a means of climate control that doesn't use any electricity.

Paris-based industrial designer Jean-Sébastien Lagrange teamed up with French engineer Raphaël Ménard to create the Zero Energy Furniture table, also known as the ZEF Climatic Table.

The ZEF table looks like any other with the sleek design of a solid plank oak top and angled legs — but it could hold the secret to cutting energy costs by as much as 60%.

“We wanted to see if it was possible to address climate and energy issues on a furniture scale,” Lagrange told WIRED.

Beneath the oak table are a series of phase-changing materials (PCMs) placed between the wood and anodized aluminum bottom....

[2ndDivisionVet]

Full title: Say goodbye to your clunky air conditioner — this kitchen table uses no electricity to regulate the temperature of your apartment

[ChildOfThe60s]

bttt

[Kirkwood]

LOL.

[cripplecreek]

I don’t know if I’m ready to ditch the AC but this is interesting.

Sounds like it works along the same principles of structural pylons used to keep permafrost frosty without using electricity.

[funfan]

They should try it in Vegas or Palm Springs. Seems like sham to me.

[Fiddlstix]

I must go right out and buy one!
It's the ideal thing to set my new perpetual motion machine on!

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

I hate my Lennox heat pump.

[mrsmith]

What is the heat capacity?
I doubt it’s significant.

[GeronL]

I have never had an electric table...

[Snickering Hound]

Houston heat and humidity for the next 6 months would chew up and spit out that frenchy "cooling table".

[Fungi]

I don’t think so. Nonsense, the laws of thermodynamics are still laws.

[catnipman]

“The materials soften when the surrounding room reaches around 71 degrees, absorbing the excess heat, and then harden once the temperature dips back below 71 degrees”

Might work in San Diego, but almost no where else in the world.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

The obvious question is whether you can get electric chairs to go with your electric table, and, with all the recent hoohah about criminal executions by the various states, whether any kind of stigma might attach.

[loungitude]

Lame.

[GeronL]

lol

Electric Chair, the home version!

[FredZarguna]

The table only really modulates temperature and would not be useful in any place where the temperature does not exceed 71°F during then day, and then cool back down below 71°F during the night. It also wouldn't offer any relief once the material has absorbed all the latent heat of the phase transition, so once it's effectively saturated, it stops being able to "cool" any longer.

You could actually do the same thing with a big block of ice that absorbs heat during the day, as long as the ambient temperature goes below freezing overnight in order to get ready for the next day; and it would work about as well -- which is to say -- not very.

[cripplecreek]

Well at least one of us read it.

Its really a simple matter of efficient heat transfer.

[FredZarguna]

Or maybe, southern France; a number of warmer marine climates in that range. It’s really not a generally workable solution in temperate climates.

[SeaHawkFan]

I live outside of Houston and there are many places hotter and more humid than Houston.

[Flash Bazbeaux]

I don’t plan on decommissioning my backyard reactor any time soon.