Can you imagine summers without air-conditioning? It’s probably hell. But, what if we lived in a world where it didn’t exist, relying solely on electric fans to give use a brief respite from the summer heat? We imagine the ZEF Climatic Table would be an instant best-seller in those conditions.
Made by Zero Energy Furniture, it’s a dining table that functions as a giant heatsink, sucking in all the warm air and cooling down the room to a comfy 71 degrees Fahrenheit. Not only will it absorb all that excess heat, it can hold onto it, as well as release it back later when the room gets a little colder than you’d like.
The ZEF Climatic Table looks like an erstwhile regular dining or conference table, with a frame and top cut in solid oak. Under the tabletop, however, sits a layer of corrugated, anodized aluminum, with a phase-changing material stored inside the folds. As soon as the room temperature goes past 71 degrees Fahrenheit, that material softens and absorbs the excess heat in the room, locking in the heat for later use. When the room cools down any lower than 71 degrees, that same material then hardens, releasing some of the heat to restore temperature to the 71-degree mark.
When used with existing air-conditioning, its creators claim the table can reduce energy use by up to 30 percent – quite a remarkable feat for something as commonplace as a piece of furniture. Do note, the table can only work its magic if the temperature in the room actually fluctuates below and above 71 degrees, so if the weather is particularly cool, it just functions as a regular dining table, which isn’t all that bad.
No pricing has been announced, but the ZEF Climatic Table is set to go on sale later in the year.