Radiator Labs Is Crowfunding Cozy, A Smart Radiator Cover

Radiators are amazingly old technology and steam heat, while oftentimes charmingly anachronistic, is also horribly inefficient. Luckily, Radiator Labs is working on Cozy, a radiator cover that turns “dumb” radiators into smartphone-controlled climate systems.

The system is fairly simple: a cover traps the warm air generated by the radiator inside a box and a fan releases the air as necessary. While folks in charge of their own thermostats won’t find much use for the system (except to improve heating efficiency), apartment dwellers often suffer from heating overkill and are forced to open windows in the winter to stay sane. Landlords, especially in New York, like to simply keep the boilers running all day and night rather than worry about cold tenants.

The Cozy, then captures that potentially wasted heat and lets you control it with far more efficiency. Writes the creator, Dr. Marshall Cox:

Note that the day before installation of the Cozy, the temperature in the apartment ranged from 70F to 84F – a 14 degree swing – and afterwards it ranged from 68F to 75F – a 7 degree swing. The Cozy cut the temperature variation in half, and lowered the average temperature to a much more comfortable range, keeping the apartment right around a set-point of 74F, even during that 6am blast of heat. And it’s been like this ever since – Paradise!

I’ve seen a prototype of the system and it looks exciting, especially for apartment dwellers. They’re running a Kickstarter campaign right now and are looking for $100,000. An early bird Cozy costs $249.

While it will definitely reduce the number of shorts-wearing tenants in the winter, Cozy seems like a great way to take back some control of your shared space.