Sustainable spotlight on Verv

Although the heatwaves of summer may seem like a distant memory, the significance of air conditioning in our fight against climate change has not disappeared with the sunshine. Back in 2016, roughly 10% of the planet's energy use went towards air conditioning. Now, as our world heats up, more and more people are turning to air con to stay cool and it’s predicted that global AC sales will hit 150 million units per year, in the next 5 years.

As sales increase, so will the energy use. Global air conditioning energy use is expected to triple by 2050. To give you an idea, that’s equivalent to China's total electricity demand today.*

Ecosystem member Verv has created the Smart Isolator; a switch designed specifically for air conditioning units and heat pumps to help reduce energy consumption and predict faults before they occur. 

Verv calculates that if just 1% of the world’s air conditioning units had a Verv Smart Isolator installed, this would equate to 16,000,000 units and would save around 126,000 tonnes of CO2 every year. This is equivalent to 2% of UK homes electricity use for one year or 63,747,393 tree seedlings grown for 10 years!

So how does it work? Verv’s technology gathers smart energy data, optimising energy use and even enabling temporary shutdowns to help save energy! Their smart diagnostics predict maintenance requirements, extending a product lifetime and enhancing its overall carbon profile. Verv is currently fundraising on Seedrs to help scale their solution.

Check out the video below for more on how Verv’s Smart Isolator works.

*According to the International Energy Agency