"Melting" Drywall That Cools Your Home

A new type of dry-wall could shave 20% off of cooling costs.

Your typical dry wall is just a sheet of plaster, coated in paper-pulp; it's used in almost every building that goes up today because it's cheap and easy to install. But it's a terrible insulator--meaning that we have to heat and cool our buildings even more to make up. By contrast, according to Tech Review, the plaster in ThermalCORE is embedded with microscopic beads of wax that are encased in plastic shells. (Pictured at left.) During the day, the wax melts and absorbs heat--thus helping cool a room. By night, the wax hardens and releases that heat, warming the room back up.