What’s the best way to showcase eco-friendly compresser-less heat insulation technology? Flying a snowman over 8,500km from Japan to Bahrain may not be it.
Panasonic, wanting to showcase their vacuum insulation technology being used in their appliances, decided it would be a good move to answer the call of a young Bahrainian girl who wanted to show her little brother snow. They flew a snowman, encased in their vacuum insulation panels, 8,554km from Japan to Bahrain in a journey that fell just shy of 40 hours.
The technology that made is possible is kind of cool – according to Panasonic:
The insulation material to be used for this project has a glass fibrous core, enveloped by a plastic-metal foil. Its inner pressure is decompressed to 1-10Pa, enabling the insulating device to decrease gaseous heat conduction. Its efficiency of insulation outperforms 38 times that of glass wool and approximately 20 times that of polyurethane foam, with the rate of decrease in heat conduction at .0012W/mK (*Panasonic’s measurements). The technology is currently used in many of Panasonic’s household appliances, as well as cooler boxes and attics for insulation.
But still, there’s something about the act of flying a snowman 8,500km just to melt away in the heat of Bahrain that kind of goes against the whole concept of “eco-friendly”. Or maybe that’s just me.
You can read more about the expedition on their Facebook page, if that’s your thing…