<story><title>Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?</title><text>Amidst the sea of software startups, I&amp;#x27;m keen to learn who in our community is braving the often-quoted &amp;quot;hardware is hard&amp;quot; mantra. Whether you&amp;#x27;re working on IoT, robotics, consumer electronics, or something completely off the wall, please feel free to share below.&lt;p&gt;Remember, no venture is too small or niche! It&amp;#x27;s the passion and innovation that counts.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>franckl</author><text>We are building the world&amp;#x27;s highest temperature heat pump.
It can reach 1000℉, when other commercial heat pumps usually reach a maximum of 320 ℉.&lt;p&gt;It is a big deal because factories have to rely on polluting natural gas to produce their process heat.&lt;p&gt;We estimate that it represents 3% of the world’s annual CO2 emissions and a $10B+ annual market opportunity.&lt;p&gt;We are currently building a 5kW prototype at 480℉&amp;#x2F;250C to cook french fries for McCain (world&amp;#x27;s largest manufacturer of frozen potato products), our industrial partner for the first pilot.&lt;p&gt;If you would like to support our decarbonization efforts, feel free to email us on contact@airthium.com or to invest in our crowdfunding! &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;wefunder.com&amp;#x2F;airthium&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;wefunder.com&amp;#x2F;airthium&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>i-use-nixos-btw</author><text>This sounds very cool. Wait, no, hot.&lt;p&gt;In a factory setting, there is a bunch of heat wasted in other processes, e.g. waste heat from machines. Is this heat collected and fed into the air source?</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?</title><text>Amidst the sea of software startups, I&amp;#x27;m keen to learn who in our community is braving the often-quoted &amp;quot;hardware is hard&amp;quot; mantra. Whether you&amp;#x27;re working on IoT, robotics, consumer electronics, or something completely off the wall, please feel free to share below.&lt;p&gt;Remember, no venture is too small or niche! It&amp;#x27;s the passion and innovation that counts.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>franckl</author><text>We are building the world&amp;#x27;s highest temperature heat pump.
It can reach 1000℉, when other commercial heat pumps usually reach a maximum of 320 ℉.&lt;p&gt;It is a big deal because factories have to rely on polluting natural gas to produce their process heat.&lt;p&gt;We estimate that it represents 3% of the world’s annual CO2 emissions and a $10B+ annual market opportunity.&lt;p&gt;We are currently building a 5kW prototype at 480℉&amp;#x2F;250C to cook french fries for McCain (world&amp;#x27;s largest manufacturer of frozen potato products), our industrial partner for the first pilot.&lt;p&gt;If you would like to support our decarbonization efforts, feel free to email us on contact@airthium.com or to invest in our crowdfunding! &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;wefunder.com&amp;#x2F;airthium&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;wefunder.com&amp;#x2F;airthium&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>barelyauser</author><text>What is the COP of a heat pump operating against this temperature gradient?</text></comment>