Author: Connected World

Heating and cooling a home is certainly expensive. In fact, it costs a lot of money—and uses a lot of energy. The U.S. Energy Information Admin., says more than half of all home energy in the United States is used for heating and cooling. The good news is innovation is coming for HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) if you look inside what is happening at one university. At Purdue University, researchers have developed a scalable, automatable process that improves upon the traditional method to incorporate PCMs (phase change materials) into construction materials. The incorporation of PCMs like paraffin, esters,…

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Ransomware declined slightly in 2022 compared to 2021, according to the new IBM Security X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, and while that’s good news, there’s even better news. The new report suggests defenders were more successful in their efforts to detect and prevent ransomware in 2022. While it’s true that cyber criminals will continue to become more innovative in their efforts to sabotage and hijack, if defenders can continue on this path of improved detection and prevention, it’ll make the bad guys’ jobs way harder. In order to improve, it’s helpful to take a look at what went wrong in the…

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How can emerging technologies support a clean-energy future? Today’s energy industry is more dynamic than ever. The electrification of sectors like transportation is playing an important role in mitigating climate change, but its impact on the reliability of the grid cannot be overstated. From electric vehicles and fleets to electric trains and planes, the electrification of transportation is creating unprecedented energy demands. This is true now, and it will become even more true as demand rises, with nearly 234 million EV (electric-vehicle) units expected by 2027. Managing the grid in a sustainable way will continue to be a key challenge…

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Many companies are taking a step toward decarbonization to bring a sustainable future for all. Such is the case for builders and developers—and many are creating a clear roadmap for how to create that more sustainable future. As one instance, The Daniels Corp., recently created a decarbonization roadmap that outlines an action blueprint for its next two development cycles, which illustrates how it plans to become a leading low-carbon builder and developer. The company will replace technologies and systems that run on fossil fuels with alternatives that run on low-carbon electricity to reduce pollution and carbon footprint. For example, geoexchange,…

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