Fellow Climate Warriors,

This episode I drink 🥃Whiskey Smashes with Vince Romanin, Co-founder and CEO of Gradient.  

Join us as we discuss the 🧊Ice King 👑 and history of thermodynamics, why thermostats are sexist, how 🍸 cocktails and movie theaters popularized cooling, the + and - externalities of ACs, how economic growth and climate change will drive demand for heating and cooling, and, most importantly, how Gradient is solving this problem.  

📻 Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Audacy and Substack👉

Please see below about the newest podcast episode and keep an eye out for an exciting lineup of Climate Tech Cocktails Happy HourS coming in 2022!  

As always, HUGE shout out to Climate Tech Cocktails official sponsors ☀️Yotta Energy and 💎Aether Diamonds

Also a BIG shout out to Climate Tech Cocktails’ first official SUPER Climate Warrior patron supporter, Extreme Tech Challenge! 

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Thank you for your continued support, and keep up the good fight with a cool beverage in hand.

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📝  Show Notes Below👇

🎧 New podcast episode:

Vince Romanin, Co-founder and CEO of Gradient on turning the expected increase in demand for ACs into an opportunity:

“If the next 4 billion ACs are all heat pumps, they can also decarbonize heating while we’re expanding access to AC. If they have low carbon refrigerants we can solve the refrigerant problem.  Lastly, if we make sure they’re all smart and WiFi connected we can help modernize the grid at the same time and have more solar and wind on the grid.”  -Vince Romanin, Co-founder and CEO of Gradient.  

Vince Romanin is the CEO of Gradient (@GradientComfort), which is on a mission to cool the world sustainably.  Gradient plans to achieve this by removing harmful refrigerants and electrifying the heating sector. Gradient’s first product is an easier-to-install and easier-to-use heat pump that is quiet and gives you your window back.

🥃 What we drank during the episode: Whiskey Smashes

Enjoy the show!

📻 Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Audacy and Substack

Interested in sponsoring? 

Please reach out to m@climatetechcocktails.com

Companies/Startups mentioned during the show:

🐣 Abengoa 

🐣 Otherlab

🐣 Bell Labs

🐣Sunfolding

🐣Prime Impact Fund (Azolla)

🐣 ARPA-E

🐣 Activate

🐣 Insight 

🐣 Nest

🐣 TaskRabbit

🐣Rewiring America

🐣Sensible Storage

🐣Microbyre

🐣 BlocPower

🐣 Remora

People/places/things mentioned during the episode

🧠The Bartender’s Guide

🧠The Ice King--Frederic Tudor

🧠Dr. John Gorrie

🧠Sadi Carnot

🧠Osborne Reynolds 

🧠Assisination of President James Garfield

🧠Willis Carrier

🧠Lee Kuan Yew 

🧠Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

🧠Ammonia

🧠Chlorofluorocarbons(CFCs)--i.e. freon

🧠The Montreal Protocol

🧠The Kigali Amendment

🧠Hydrofluoroolefin (HFOs)

🧠University of Dayton

🧠Wright Brothers

🧠UC Berkeley

🧠Leila Madrone

🧠Matthew Nordan

🧠Energyliteracy.com

🧠Saul Griffith

🧠Ilan Gur

🧠Matt Price

🧠Matt Rogers

🧠International Energy Agency (IEA)

🧠Jevons Paradox

🧠Electrify (book)

🧠Sam Kanner

🧠Sarah Richardson

🧠Donnel Baird

🧠Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer

🧠Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air

🧠Thermal Delight in Architecture

-TIMESTAMPS-

[0:00] Intro

[3:42] Drink of the show

[5:09] The Ice King and the first ice machine (#floridaman)

[7:00] The history of thermo dynamics

[9:30] Ice → Air Conditioning

[11:12] The first AC and the popularization of air conditioning

[14:00] The popular externalities of air conditioning

[15:00] The negative externalities of air conditioning

[25:30] Demand and projected demand for air conditioning

[27:30] Climate change’s impact on demand for heating and cooling 

[29:00] Vince’s background

[33:30] Vince’s pre-Gradient work experience

[39:00] Founding Gradient

[42:00] Securing Gradient’s pre-seed capital from government funding

[44:30] Raising first round of institutional funding

[47:00] Gradient Product

[52:30] Transitioning from a hardware focused company to a consumer focused one

[56:00] Currently raising a Series A round of financing--and going global Series C+

[56:50] What success looks like for Gradient’s product launch

[1:01:00] Gradient’s impact on the climate

[1:04:00] 3 startups

[1:08:00] 3 books

[1:11:00] How thermostats are sexist

[1:13:00] Conclusion

🤝 

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Yotta Energy’s unique "PV-Coupled" ecosystem of solar+storage solutions simply integrates within the standard solar installation process. Even better, their integrated storage technology can enable up to 60% more solar to be deployed on commercial buildings.  With commercial buildings consuming 35% of US electricity that means Yotta is making a serious dent in CO2 emissions. With the electrification of everything revolution underway, Yotta Energy is poised to meet the growing demands of electrification by sizing solar+storage resources to recharge electric vehicles as they future proof buildings into distributed energy sites powering the grid of the future. Find out more at YottaEnergy.com and follow Yotta on Twitter @YottaEnergy.

🤝 

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