Researchers are creating remarkable “energy smart bricks” that can help control indoor temperatures – and could save homeowners thousands of dollars.

Australian researchers have created a new method of making bricks, which reduces the energy needed to create them and eliminates large amounts of carbon pollution.

According to Ars Technica, scientists at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology created “energy-saving bricks” after four years of experimentation by mixing clay with coal ash and scrap glass. The process of creating these bricks significantly reduces the energy needed to produce essential building materials and uses elements that would otherwise be wasted.

Brick kilns are responsible for 675 million tonnes (around 744 million tonnes) of carbon dioxide emissions per year, RMIT researchers reported. That’s roughly the amount of carbon pollution produced by 161 million gasoline-powered vehicles in the United States in one year.

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While traditional bricks require temperatures of 1,922 degrees Fahrenheit to reach the hardness required for use in construction, according to Ars Technica, energy-efficient bricks only need to reach 1,742 degrees. This leads to a 20% reduction in the energy needed to create them, significantly reducing the amount of fuel needed to create them.

“Each cooking cycle generated a potential value of up to $158,460 through a reduction of 417 tonnes (approximately 460 tonnes) of CO2, resulting from a 9.5% reduction in cooking temperature,” they said. said the RMIT researchers in their report, per Ars Technica.

This represents a huge amount of money saved for manufacturers, which could be passed on to consumers, while eliminating pollution associated with more extreme weather, food insecurity, the spread of disease and other worrying consequences.

Additionally, bricks are poor conductors of heat, meaning they keep structures cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, which would save businesses or homeowners a lot of money keeping their spaces comfortable.

Recent months have seen numerous technical advances in the field of building technology. From bricks made from mushroom byproducts or sugarcane waste, to Lego-like glass bricks designed to make construction easier, building materials are becoming more planet-friendly, and some can even absorb carbon to further reduce our impact on the planet.

Now, the RMIT team is focused on scaling up its smart brick production processes in partnership with manufacturers in the Melbourne region to make eco-friendly bricks widely available in the market.

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