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Can this copper comforter really keep you cool in the summer and warm in the winter?

chill copper comforter screen shot 2016 07 19 at 10 52 pm
Image used with permission by copyright holder
The Goldilocks of comforters purports to have arrived, and its secret? Copper. For all those times that you’ve lamented your inability to achieve homeostasis under a blanket in bed (seriously, it’s hard to be not too hot and not too cold), there’s now a potential solution. Meet the Chill, a comforter that promises to be “both comforting and cool.”

While we currently only have the Chill team’s word for it, those behind this copper blanket promise that it is not, in fact, too good to be true. Hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars have been spent to build a working prototype of a Chill, and the engineers behind it promise that “it is a miracle.”

So how did they do it?

According to the team’s Kickstarter page, the Chill project managers first built “dozens of 4-inch prototypes with combinations of different fills and fabrics, and empirically tested their thermal conductivity in laboratory conditions.” Ultimately, they found that a linen shell comprised of 1 mm copper beads was capable of dissipating heat over four times as efficiently as the thinnest cotton comforter they could produce. But because the copper blanket was much heavier than the cotton one, it was simultaneously cozier than other options as well.

But it wasn’t enough for the Chill team to simply product a heavy, thermally-conductive comforter. “We weren’t satisfied with the feel of the Chill until we added the snuggle bar,” the team said. And once they did, they created a product that is said to feel like a comforter, but is “cool to the touch like a fresh set of sheets.”

And don’t worry — the Chill team knew there would nothing chill about a comfortable comforter that didn’t have the aesthetics to match. So by using a long-fibered linen, the makers say they’ve produced a comforter that “fits perfectly into a duvet cover and doesn’t have the tendency to shift like a down comforter does,” resulting in a “flat, crisp-looking bed.”

Of course, the ultimate sell of the Chill is its comfort. It purports to be a weighted comforter that isn’t too hot for the summer, saving you money by cutting down on both your AC costs and your heating expenses. But you’ll have to spend quite a pretty penny to get one of these in your home. A twin XL comforter starts at $225, whereas the king size starts at $350.

But can you really put a price on a good night’s sleep?

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Lulu Chang
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