The Ancient World’s Ingenious Ice Making Air Conditioning System

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I learned about this in school for HVAC. Theres alot more ancient methods of air-conditioning that are really neat for those interested

I know way back in the 1990's/early 2000's, they built a mall out in Nevada with one of these windcatchers. it could drop the temp of the whole mall to 58 degrees in 90 degree heat

There was a lady who lived in an 1800s house in Georgia; her house was well maintained, and did not have air conditioning, yet was cool. You see there used to be a central tower design that was blocked off in winter (is it really winter when they rarely get snow? I live in Canada, lol) Each room has has 'window' atop the tall door, in the overly high rooms, and there is under house cooling; plus large verandas; the place never became too hot in summer, and once shifted to 'winter' was efficient to heat thanks to modern wood stove designs. I've been in older homes here in Manitoba, Canada, and I'm always amazed at the care and thinking that went into everything from where the house is placed, windows, roofs, tree plantings, everything for efficiency...funny how we lost that.

"Sand, clay, lime, wood ash, goat hair, and egg whites. I think this will work."

I live in the desert. The amount of energy used to stay alive and comfortable is mind numbing. I constantly worry about power outages and equipment failure. Either of these events is life threatening. This video makes the light bulb turn on over my head!

2:48 'The taller the shaft, the more pronounced the effect.' Doth, she said thusly!

Evaporative cooling does not work in the Southern United States when the air is so thick with moisture you have to cut it with a knife before you can breathe it.

My mom did something similar to this when I was little--she'd open the upstairs windows early in the morning on days when there was a stiff breeze, and let it cool the house before closing the windows on the side opposite the wind so that cool air would come up from the basement.

You know you are getting older when this is the highlight of your daily media consumption

Evaporative cooling really only works in low humidity environments. The drier the air, the faster/more efficiently the water will evaporate, so the more efficiently heat will get pulled out of the air. This means, sadly, that they don't work very well in places like the southeastern United States, where summer is also very, very humid. They work, but not nearly are well. There's a whole formula that will tell you how much cooling you can get per unit of air moved over a wet/damp membrane.

Im in Florida and due to high humidity evaporated cooling does not work here

I LIVE IN A COMMI BLOCK in Bulgaria - it has a wind catcher on the roof for passive cooling in the 40c summers - its VERY effective. A giant scoop catches the wind and funnels it down to the bottom of the building, it then cools and comes up the service riser with the cold water pipes and out a vent in the centre of the apartment. Large metal plates over greats outside regulate the pressure - too much wint they lift up. This is not normal for commi blocks - I think it was experimental. BUT IT WORKS ---> Our apartment block has 90 apartments maybe 15 have AC units - most blocks that would be 70 with AC units.

Me, in Utah: "Wind catchers would definitely work here." Simon: Mentions a visitor's center in Southern Utah using one.

Drawing outside air down underground and then up in the house for cooling is a system also used on the island of Madeira.

Idk if I'm getting slower or your speech is getting faster :/

Evaporative cooling works in dry climates. Not effective in humid air found in tropical countries

The physics behind ancient radiative sky cooling is fascinating - using space as a massive heat sink to make ice in the desert.

I sometimes go to Turkey on holiday. One place has a dining hall using a similar principle and it is quite incredible how effective it is.

My home was built in 1940 and it has a whole house fan. Being originally from Michigan, I'd never even heard of one as summers rarely required more than a window fan to keep cool or at least cool enough to be relatively comfortable. Our hvac unit went out the second year after we bought the home and I grew up heating our home with wood. The house has 2 fireplaces and so I made a fire in each and thought, "I'll use the W.H. fan to draw heat into the middle of the home. Well, it drew more than heat as all the smoke from the fires can't back down the chimneys and into the house😂. It also pulled any unlatched door open or closed depending on the direction it swung. I didn't realize it moved that much air! It wasn't viable for heating but that summer in SC I opened the basement door (which I found out is a rarity here apparently) and turned the fan on and man it kept us cool enough. At night I'd open the windows and let it run. Was it as cool as AC? No. It was cool enough to keep us from sweating our butts off or potentially having dangerously high temps in the home.