Innovative technology can heat and cool your home for half the current price.

Imagine if you could heat or cool your home simply by getting your desired level of comfort from the air. (CREDIT: Creative Commons)

With energy prices soaring, a new startup may find the answer – a technology that harnesses the energy of fluctuations in humidity to cool and heat buildings at half the current price.

Imagine if you could heat or cool your home simply by getting your desired level of comfort from the air. Literally.

Israeli startup ThermoTerra is turning this vision into a new renewable energy system that draws energy from fluctuations in humidity.

“Water vapor in the air that is absorbed or permeated by absorbent material transfers a significant amount of energy,” explains ThermoTerra founder and CEO Dror Zhori.

We know this intuitively. When water evaporates, it causes a cooling effect. Think about the human body: when we are hot, we produce sweat that evaporates to keep us from overheating.

When water vapor is absorbed or condensed on a material, the opposite happens – heat is released.

On a hot day, ThermoTerra technology fills your home or office with warm, dry air. It is stored inside the insulation of the walls of the building – foam concrete, silica gel or wood wool insulation absorb moisture especially well, says Zhor. When the air subsequently evaporates, it absorbs energy and cools the building.

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When the temperature is lower, cold and moist air enters; absorbed, it heats the air, heating the house or office.

“This is a natural phenomenon,” Jory says.

The need for new technologies like ThermoTerra is undeniable: about 40 percent of the world’s building energy is used for heating and cooling, and buildings account for 30 percent of global energy consumption.

Three components

To work wonders, ThermoTerra requires integrating the duct and piping design into the new wall. In existing buildings, a new façade can be added to the walls with integrated insulation and ductwork.

It may take a few inches, but the environmental impact and cost savings are significant: Zhori estimates that incorporating ThermoTerra technology into a building design can cut heating and cooling costs in half, “and in some cases even to zero.”

A smart fan built into the wall, controlled by algorithms, moves hot or cold air as needed. This is the only part of the system that requires electricity.

The ThermoTerra system consists of three main components:

• The storage tank is a special absorbent material packed inside a wall with air channels designed for maximum airflow.

• System of fans, air ducts and shutters.

• ActiveMemBrain consisting of IoT smart sensors, controller, algorithms and cloud computing.

Using special materials that can absorb large amounts of water, combined with the company’s patented control system, ThermoTerra uses humidity fluctuations to “charge” the insulation material, making it drier in winter or wetter in summer, and then forcing air through it. hot or cold air outlet material as required.

ThermoTerra technology can be implemented in many forms. (CREDIT: ThermoTerra)

By constantly passing this ambient air through its system, ThermoTerra smooths out peaks and troughs so that temperature and humidity cycles become shallower, resulting in a more comfortable environment.

Real Impact

The idea for ThermoTerra came to Zhori when he was building his own green home in Amirim, a rural Galilean community known for its environmental awareness and where ThermoTerra is now headquartered.

The patented ThermoTerra technology harnesses the energy of humidity fluctuations. (CREDIT: ThermoTerra)

“I used every technology I knew to build a zero energy home,” Zhori tells ISRAEL21c.

“The house was completely disconnected from the network. I didn’t use wood or any other energy. So I was cold in the winter.”

Jory’s experience in biotechnology, agriculture, mechanical engineering and green building led him to realize that he could implement wet cooling and heating using “natural, simple and affordable materials, not rare elements or complex materials that we need to import.”

Jory notes that if you leave the newspaper in the sun, “it will become very dry and crispy. If you put it in a “damp” room, it will absorb some moisture and become flexible again.”

This principle is common to all types of materials. Traditional mud-and-clay buildings are very good at keeping out the cold and making use of the moisture.

Using natural fluctuations in humidity, Zhori found that he could increase the temperature in his home from 12 degrees Celsius (53.6 Fahrenheit) to 26 degrees Celsius (78.8 Fahrenheit).

Jory’s house was not such a good proof of concept, he notes. “This is a special house. I wanted to show that our approach can work in more conventional buildings where we can make a real impact.”

Change in the world

Zhori founded ThermoTerra in 2015 with patent attorney Jeremy Rutman and data scientist Yonatan Nathan. The company employs five people.

The money came from the Israel Ministry of Energy, the Israel Innovation Authority and the founders. The company is currently applying for an EU research grant.

ThermoTerra also received funding from the Quantum Hub accelerator sponsored by Israeli air conditioner manufacturer Tadiran.

“We spoke with their engineers about working together to reduce the amount of energy needed to solve their moisture problems,” says Zhori.

The team is passionate about what they do.

“First, a very good programmer came to us,” Jory says. “I told him that we don’t have money to pay wages. He said, “I’m not interested in the salary. I’ve been working for a credit card company for years on AI that will make people buy more. I want to change the world.”

Humidity use

Zchori estimates that building a private 100-square-meter home with fluctuating heating and cooling will cost about $3,400.

Additional services will cover smoke and gas leak detection and indoor air pollution monitoring and filtration.

ThermoTerra will not develop its own insulation. “We don’t want to be the ones who build the passive part of the system. So we will cooperate with contractors,” Jory says.

The company is currently looking for such a collaboration as it is in the product development phase with experiments in different parts of Israel.

Looking ahead, Zhori can imagine using ThermoTerra to cool cars. “When the car is in the sun, it gets hot. We can cool it down using the evaporating water collected overnight.”

Whether it’s in the car, at home, or somewhere else even Jory hasn’t thought of yet, “cooling and heating are basic needs. We are empowering people to make their homes self-cooling and self-heating.”

For more science news, visit our New Innovations section at The bright side of the news.

Note. Materials provided above by Brian Bloom. Content can be edited for style and length.

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