A novel way to heat and cool things

REFRIGERATORS AND air-conditioners are old and clunky technology, and represent a field ripe for disruption. They consume a lot of electricity. And they generally rely on chemicals called hydrofluorocarbons which, if they leak into the atmosphere, have a potent greenhouse-warming effect. Buildings’ central-heating systems, meanwhile, are often powered by methane in the form of natural gas, which releases carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas, when it is burned, and also has a tendency to leak from the pipes that deliver it—which is unfortunate, because methane, too, is a greenhouse gas, and one much more potent than CO.One potential way of getting around all this might be to exploit what is known as the thermoelectric effect, a means of carrying heat from place to place as an electric current. Thermoelectric circuits can be used either to cool things down, or to heat them up. And a firm called Phononic, based in Durham, North Carolina, has developed a chip which does just that.