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Someone finally made a heat pump that looks good inside your home
Quilt is a smart heat pump system with millimeter wave presence sensing built-in.
A.I. tools fueled a 34% spike in Microsoft’s water consumption, and one city with its data centers is concerned about the effect on residential supply
“They were pretty secretive on what they’re doing out there,” says a former mayor about Microsoft’s data center projects.
Microsoft disclosed that its global water consumption spiked 34% from 2021 to 2022 (to nearly 1.7 billion gallons, or more than 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools)
ChatGPT gulps up 500 milliliters of water (close to what’s in a 16-ounce water bottle) every time you ask it a series of between 5 to 50 prompts or questions
Google reported a 20% growth in water use
“was literally made next to cornfields west of Des Moines.”
Microsoft’s Remarkably Big Bet on Carbon-Absorbing Rocks
Why the tech giant is so high on Heirloom Carbon
Heirloom Carbon
Heirloom Carbon,
315,000 metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere over 10 years. For a sense of scale, that’s equivalent to about 75% of the carbon Microsoft emitted in 2022
$200 million, “based on market prices,” or $635 per ton
The process starts with limestone, which is formed from the detritus of corals, clams, and other sea creatures that use the dissolved carbon and calcium in the ocean to build their shells. Heirloom grinds up limestone and does something that humans have been doing for thousands of years — heats it in a kiln. This loosens carbon dioxide from the rock, leaving behind calcium oxide