The Ancient World’s Ingenious Ice Making Air Conditioning System

Dive into the past to secure our future! Discover how ancient Persians beat the heat without electricity. Witness the revival of wind catchers in modern architecture!
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[@TodayIFoundOut]

This video brought to you in part by our Patrons over on Patreon. If you’d like to support our efforts here directly, and our continued efforts to improve our videos, as well as do more ultra in-depth long form videos that built in ads and even sponsors don’t always cover fully, check out our Patreon page and perks here: www.patreon.com/TodayIFoundOut And as ever, thanks for watching!

[@Bozemanjustin]

It amazes me that people still build above the ground below the ground. It stays the same temperature year round. You'll never deal with a hot summer. You'll never deal with a cold winter. You'll never deal with a tornado. You'll never deal with a hurricane It's not rocket science people

[@stephennewberry9815]

Do you accept submissions for video scrips?

[@dainbramage3558]

if i pay you money on patreon will you stop using the flickering screen effect thing on all your archive footage?

[@pedrobedoy9574]

No computers needed😂🎉

[@tommyherring9635]

Interesting topic, but I had to click off early because you’re talking too fast to fully comprehend and process what you’re saying! You’re not alone; many presenters today do the same thing….I guess it’s just the way of the day?! I believe that there could be much gained from letting your audience know that you care enough about your subject (and their understanding of it) to take your time, and make sure that your message is fully heard and received by all who are listening?!

[@jonathanwessner3456]

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

[@cameronhermann9400]

Wow

[@kishascape]

Yeah if you make an evaporative cooling one that’s basically just a natural swamp cooler instead of just relying on wind. Zion National Park in Utah also has one in the visitor center. Hot 95 degree nights have never felt so cool.

[@troyezell5841]

These are on viable and safe in dry climates; in moist damp climates you run the risk of spreading mold spores throughout the structure.

[@hlessiavedon]

​@troyezell5841 dry air spreads mold spores too. You are constantly surrounded by mold and it's spores

[@troyezell5841]

@@hlessiavedon I certainly agree but not near as much and because those climates tend to be exposed to longer duration ultraviolet rays, mold does not propagate as well.

[@ScottPlude]

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!

[@Deyas786]

That sucks, why don't you move??

[@ScottPlude]

@@Deyas786family, job.

[@justincase3230]

Should look up oljas. Bare fired clay water jugs, the water seeping through and evaporating off the clay cools the whole water dish. Gets it somewhere between room temp and fresh out the fridge. Farming communities used to cut huge chunks of ice out of lakes in winter and pack them into a fuckton of packed sawdust then dig out the ice to use periodically through summer. You can do similar with a broken down chest freezer and a bunch of 2 litre soda bottles full of ice. Couple minutes a week to swap out bottles and you should be good for a while if the power goes out. A full freezer is more efficient too so keeping spare room filled with ice bottles is always good. Another one is a couple solar powered PC fans, a hunk of ice and some holes cut in a drink cooler can make a pretty great portable aircon. There's tutorials all over the place for building them. I live in Australia, not quite as bad as desert living but God damn summer gets brutal and I'm a broke bitch lol.

[@EmmanuelBrito]

Thanks for the info

[@Abby_Liu]

​@@Deyas786because every person has the resources and ability to move to wherever they want to, of course, and otherwise where they current live is perfect.

[@swj719]

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.

[@keith38able]

Evap. cooling didn't/doesn't work at all for me in Oklahoma.

[@Skywatcher16]

@@keith38able pheonix and las vegas could probably benifit from incorporation of these ideas though. as could a good chunk of socal

[@TonkarzOfSolSystem]

These systems also use radiative cooling which will work anywhere regardless of humidity (though clouds and rain will overshadow radiative cooling effects. Radiative cooling uses large shallow pools of water. At night when the sky is clear the water will radiate a significant amount of heat. This can cause it to freeze even on nights where the ambient temperature is above zero. Before dawn workers cut up the ice sheet and store the ice in an ice house. With modern insulation materials an even more pronounced drop in temperature is possible.

[@johnsyler8580]

I lived in western Oklahoma in the 80s. Evaporative coolers were common then. Later we lived in El Paso TX while stationed at Ft Bliss and had Evaporative cooling in our housing. I like it better than freon air conditioning. ​@keith38able

[@rb-pk8ds]

We have a fan forced evaporative cooler on our roof in Australia - when its hot & dry we run it with water dripping over the intake vents ... when its hot & steamy we turn off the water & use the humidity. It works a treat & costs very little to run.

[@PhantomFilmAustralia]

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

[@catatonicbug7522]

I can just see the guy slap the wall with his hand and say, "That's not goin' anywhere!"

[@Couchintheclouds]

Just imagine the number of failed experiments they had before they came up with a working mix…..lol

[@shawntailor5485]

Must've been ostrich egss

[@stevelee5724]

Yea I reckon. Chuck it in 😅 home brew's a bit like that.....

[@mr.joshua6818]

I wonder if they tried using other stuff from the goats first...​@@Couchintheclouds

[@aq5426]

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.

[@JustinRevis]

My dad does the same things. Crazy how that worked.

[@origGooglieWooglie]

We still do that!

[@NothingXemnas]

Even though I live in a single floor house, the idea of heat battery works marvelously well by sleeping with all windows open and keeping an electric fan pointed towards one of the house's windows if there is no wind. Airflow is low, but over several hours, it does cool the house until around 8AM. Then I close all windows, keeping the heat out. Living without an AC sucks, but this makes it manageable.

[@larsonfamilyhouse]

Using a fan to blow out the hot air sucks in the cool air even better!

[@ZeroGamersX]

@@NothingXemnas try making the fan a bit away from the window, look up bernouli’s principle it might remove the hot air in the house even faster!

[@wortwortwort117]

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

[@lijohnyoutube101]

Someone is going to get insanely wealthy bringing back a lot of these technologies.

[@JohanHultin]

@@lijohnyoutube101no, evaporative cooling doesnt work well in humud areas, obviously. And most citites where people live, most not all, are in areas where humidity is relativley high. Notice how he only talk about desert areas? The one place these things work well.

[@daackmpoy]

​@JohanHultin by controlling humidity you can control temperature and hear transfer, that's what comfort is. Look for a psychometric chart, it's very interesting

[@pan2aja]

any youtube channel to recommend on this HVAC issue ?

[@lijohnyoutube101]

@@JohanHultin I wasn’t just speaking to evaporation cooling. I mean incorporating more eco ways to heat and cool in general.

[@leej.a.7810]

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

[@Jasmohan]

Verily, Michael Scott wouldst beam with pride.

[@matthewmorgan5068]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@peterswires8439]

In the UK we'd say, "...as the actress said to the bishop".

[@NjorunsDream]

@@peterswires8439😂😂😂

[@NotThisShipSister1]

@@peterswires8439 well then, Robert is your mother’s brother….

[@nolakillabeast]

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

[@jtb3797]

Not older, wiser and more curious!!

[@unskinnedskeleton]

this is accurate. if I may add, you know you're getting old when you want to iterate that getting older is okay.

[@Loralanthalas]

Nope. Just a dork. I was just as excited to eatch documentaries before the History channel decided our entire history is aliens.

[@nolakillabeast]

Guys, we are ok, we are ok.

[@chrisheitstuman6360]

I don't know about older, but it's content that isn't either imbicilic or depressing, like the news.

[@jimmy21584]

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

[@jussikankinen9409]

Maybe pyramids were ice houses

[@kld70]

@@jussikankinen9409I was wondering if they were industrial-sized evaporative coolers that were piped into reed-covered barrack housing that is since long gone. You gotta admit….that would have been some wicked cool ancient public utilities. Also, it would explain their alignment with the sun that others use to mystify them as some beacon to alien life. Nope, not geo-tracking for some non-existent aliens; just Egyptians trying to get a break from the heat like a normal person. 😅

[@patrickdurham8393]

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.

[@beth8775]

Evaporative cooling no, but the subterranean cooling can.

[@annekabrimhall1059]

It’s perfect in the southwest

[@SB-cm9jh]

...this video isn't about the southern U.S., nor similar climates.

[@harryverner6218]

The water from air would turn to water in basement & go into the earth

[@Dante.-]

@@SB-cm9jhit partly is 😂 It used the United States as its example of why we need better cooling systems

[@Bunker278]

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

[@kishascape]

Those aren’t wind catchers though they are evaporative cooling towers and even the ancient Arabian ones used water evaporation as well instead of just wind alone. Fad boy really missed the mark on this one.

[@miclowgunman1987]

Me, in SC: "All this is completely useless to me! Darn you, Humidity! "

[@fredrichenning1367]

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

[@piccalillipit9211]

*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.

[@aribier]

Is there any chance you know the name of the architect? Bulgaria has some crazy good commi architects! I am grad student and looking into the stack currently. You would really help me out, if you could tell me more about your building!

[@piccalillipit9211]

@@aribier Sadly I know very little about the building - it was the Bulgarian Navy officer's accommodation block in the socialist times - the navy still owns the top floor, which is causing issues with the modernisation and renovation as I think the top floor is still classified, despite being full of nothing but pigeons. Architecturally its not a great building, but it is novel. The bathrooms are where the air comes out and they are in the centre of the block, I THINK they were designed as fire safety cells. If the apartment were on fire you would have clean air and water, and all walls are thick solid concrete, even if part of the building collapsed this would be the core that was left standing. Im presuming when you have a lot of valuable people in a building you put effort into their safety!?!?!? There is the obligatory nuclear bunker in the basement - but they all have that here. GOOD LUCK...!!!

[@aribier]

@@piccalillipit9211 Thank you so much! You are amazing!

[@piccalillipit9211]

@@aribier No problem - have you seen the Bus Stops of the USSR...??? They used to let young architects go wild on the bus stop design... They are AMAZINg.

[@ColinMcMahon1337]

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

[@ruidadgmailcanada8508]

Same. I usually watch everything at 1.5x speed and up. Not this video. 😅

[@mr.yellowstrat3352]

After years of reading scripts that someone else wrote he's probably just trying to get through them all as fast as possible at this point

[@_Solaris]

The editing cuts are _way_ too short, with no natural breathing pauses. Too many channels are doing this now. Gotta say, it's getting annoying.

[@Brunos2Costa]

Had to go back many times to keep up.

[@celticstephenhill]

Yeah. Ditto. Can't watch on ff anymore, even 1.5 is WAY too fast to understand.

[@simondymond8479]

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.

[@ihaveabanana482]

Could you name the place maybe ?

[@sernathadd]

HVAC back then was crazy

[@yeti4269]

I'm just trying to imagine what an ancient Persian owner of an HVAC company would look like 🤣

[@BMichaelGalloway]

😂😂😂

[@will7its]

Was it really crazy ?

[@MR-MR-ud5oo]

@@yeti4269 Less call backs when your company is subsidized by an Empire.

[@buisnessclass9520]

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

[@XSR_RUGGER]

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.

[@Striker9]

You're telling me, i didnt have to suffer as a kid when dad wouldnt turn on the air conditioner until it hit 100 degrees?! I just needed ancient technologies?! And wind!? 😅

[@TrogdorBurnin8or]

This didn't make a whole lot of sense when I first came across the topic ten or fifteen years ago on Wikipedia. The Iran-focused people didn't grasp the thermodynamics and the engineering-focused people didn't grasp Iran's historical application. I think the problem is that we forget we're discussing a half dozen fundamentally different passive HVAC systems that do very different things with temperature, humidity, airflow, and thermal mass. There are qanats that act as swamp coolers, there are municipal ice houses that act like seasonal iceboxes and may not even have any airflow, there are windcatchers that just equalize day-night average temperature (which can be extremely effective in deserts) or summer-winter average temperature.

[@falleruen]

I just hope local municipal governments will allow zoning for these new/ancient technology

[@justsoicanfingcomment5814]

They do. You just have to pay more in taxes.

[@amacot656]

We are so quick to ignore and forget the olds ways of things... Yet they solved similar issues without the same level of technology

[@markbroad119]

People are more in tune with mother Earth and nature then. We need to get back to it.

[@Skywatcher16]

@@markbroad119 id argue that its more neccessity being the mother of invention. very similar to how early programming tricks were used to make use of the much lower storage/processing capacity. you can only use what resources you have, so you find tricks and short cuts to maximize those resources. conversely, today, things that programmers past might have squeezed into mere kilobytes of storage, take up megabytes because well, they have terrabytes to work with. why bother making things efficient when sheer data capacity and raw processing power can brute force any inefficiency into better performance than the 1980s could have ever dreamed? same goes for this. when you have "abundant" power, and cheap modern machinery, why bother with the effort and time to improve efficency when you can use that same brute force and abundance to make up for any loss in the move away from traditional techniques? you can even see the argument in why suddenly the attention on these things is back. suddenly, that power and machinery isnt so "cheap" or "abundant" anymore. theres more value to be had again in finding ways to make what one has go further. and so, once again, that effort in taking advantage of these natural principles is worth peoples time and energy.

[@ZeroHourProductions407]

This aint going to work in an apartment complex. Or when it gets hot enough that your phone will shut down, whinging about overheating.

[@Skywatcher16]

@@ZeroHourProductions407 and why wont it work for apartments, my good HVAC tech?

[@ZeroHourProductions407]

@@Skywatcher16 for one, nobody has built an apartment complex with a basement since ever. Secondly, everyone or nobody can vent to get the benefits.

[@Adolphsson]

I wonder if there is a connection between windcatchers and why we call the attic for wind in Scandinavia. The longhouses from the medieval warm period had an opening just below the roof called "vindöga". A literal translation would be wind eye (the word later became window in English). I've read that the opening was used to let the sunlight in or let the smoke from a fire out, but it's a curious connection.

[@jussikankinen9409]

Sun is eye

[@maverick7291]

That is a pretty cool innovation from the Persians.

[@dexterwilliams4289]

It’s on our blood

[@usobr69]

But the Egyptians invented it

[@Phil-m5d]

😂😂😂😂😂​@@usobr69

[@ClaytonDeeringC3D]

That’s how they had cold beer in ww2.

[@KokkiePiet]

I have solar panels and air conditioning. When it’s hot in summer there is loads of sunlight. I really don’t get why people don’t get this. Cost Price of a photovoltaic kWh is about 0,06 - 0,08 euro in Germany. Since I have a battery as well I produce about 85% of my electricity myself. And this is in not so sunny Northern Europe

[@Woody_Florida]

Yeah but how long will your batteries last before needing replaced? The costs of buying and maintaining solar at that small of scale is too high for me. Wood gasification is a better solution for me, but I am in a rural area with many acres.

[@KokkiePiet]

@@Woody_Florida 12-15 years estimate

[@sagetmaster4]

​@@KokkiePietthat's just when they will reach an arbitrary 70 or 80% efficiency compared to when they were first bought, you can use them for MANY years after that with reduced effectiveness

[@swj719]

​@@sagetmaster4assuming you could afford at time of installation to have excess capacity.

[@KokkiePiet]

@@sagetmaster4 true

[@korinogaro]

Companies will make sure to make any such solution so expensive it will be comparable in price with "traditional" electric systems.

[@Indra_P]

The problem is the wind catcher need the houses to be more spaced between each other, have a lot of unused space and have the wind catcher taller than any nearby building. In a big city, this is almost impossible.

[@jussikankinen9409]

Did u learn in high school

[@chrisbarriere101]

Hey, so I am an HVACR / AC inspector, Thanks for highlighting this issue. Yaktchals and Wind Catchers have been an inspiration to me for years. You would be surprised to learn that Catalonian Architecture has absorbed this design. However many found here in Santa Barbara have been made as entirely stylistic. Very strange…

[@jon9103]

I suspect most of the arictect designing those structures don't know what the original function was, let alone how to design it to be functional.

[@adamdevmedia]

turn down the gain on your mic or use a de-esser

[@C.Fecteau-AU-MJ13]

How did these ancient people figure this out?... It must have been aliens - The History Channel.

[@ralphcroker4889]

I think that's where all this is gonna end up. They just don't want us to panic.

[@KuDastardly]

There was a scene in "Kingdom of Heaven" where Saladin offered the captured king a goblet of crushed ice scooped out from a chest full of it. My late dad told me he was wondering where could they get a chest full of ice...

[@MisterFaucker]

That rapid exchange of air also reduces air born pathogen infection rates

[@markstevenson6635]

Less good for airborne allergens

[@MacTX]

It wasn't a mystery to me why wind capture faded with the advent of modern air conditioning, passive vs active. With wind capture, you're at the whim of nature while air conditioning wasn't, and instead you're at the whim of electricity availability.

[@MichaelWinter-ss6lx]

And this functions so much superiour, especialy when the electricity is turned ON for two hours each day. This is still true for most villages and even some small towns in all regions of this video topic.

[@michelhedley1805]

Refrigeration in the ice pits of Yazd was done differently as you describe. Large shallow pools were positioned alongside the ice pits and these pools played a key part in storing ice for the hot summers. During winters, these pools were filled with water which froze overnight turning the water into ice. The ice was then cut and stored in the ice pit. This process was repeated until the ice pit was full of ice. The ice pit is a large pit sunk deeply into the soil which reduced the melting of the stored ice. Even today without ice, the ice pit is quite cold when standing at its floor. Other techniques such as the use of straw were used to keep down the overall temperature in the ice pit. The thick mud walls helped. Storing food in cellars and basements is a common practice, but the ancient Iranians took a step further.

[@MichaelEilers]

Great presentation on this one thanks for not lazily using Midjourney for everything

[@GregMerritt-ws8tq]

I imagine, with recent advances in engineering, we'll be able to figure out how make maintenance of windcatches easier fairly soon.

[@raymondmartin6737]

I remember living in Phoenix AZ in 1976 where the older houses had an earlier form of AC called Swamp Coolers. 😊

[@ocsrc]

The desert dwellers dug tunnels and used them for cooling and to keep cool in the summer The temperature underground is 60 degrees in the summer

[@dainbramage3558]

why do u make the screen flicker in the archive footage? its so distracting

[@bghiggy]

For the vibes of course

[@tripsaplenty1227]

You kids have the attention span of a goldfish

[@mattwolf7698]

I didn't even notice it

[@TheRealDrJoey]

I have to say that, as a former motion picture projectionist, I'm really annoyed by fake fire-roller scratches, and specks of dust on videos.

[@dainbramage3558]

@@TheRealDrJoey it just looks bad and i see no point in it, it makes me think my monitor is broken :D

[@iainburgess8577]

Yes. Modern life NEEDS to reintroduce passive systems. These particular ones are excellent, but not universal; they require cold nights to work well, for example. I live in Australia; these examples aren't sufficient for our summers, where regular week to months of heatwave mean no cool nights. We Ised to have locally developed designs. Fly large breezeway verandahs, ventilated roof spaces, stilts where floods are common. But that mostly fell out of favour from the 70s on. Now, we have the same cookie cutter homes as US, UK, etc. Except more brick & tile...and less insulation (none except in roofs) Brick veneer is durable & cheaper upkeep. Tile roof is simply a fad; sheet metal was traditional... not Modern. We have 1 foot eaves, and don't even string shadecloth off them. We have created summer ovens w air conditioners to keep them cool. And we have the same majority concrete/asphalt/stone/brick cities creating heat island effect in a hot climate.

[@jeremyrobbins9064]

Would like to see the wind catcher method modified with fans and or other tech to see what can be done.

[@Blitzcomin]

There is 1 problem with attempting to introduce this into everyone's homes.... the middle of city's have 0 wind cause all the outer rings block it. As a city expands the new ones nullify the old ones by blocking the wind.

[@Jason-fm4my]

The ancients learned it from playing Assassin's Creed.

[@mikesheehan4470]

All day, every day

[@KimiAvary]

I learn something new every time I listen to you! Thank you for sharing your interests with the world!!!

[@WilsonPendarvis-tn3wm]

Keeping ice as long as possible is more truthful

[@jasont80]

To really work, we'll also need to go back to making our buildings with much more thermal mass.

[@steampunkster2023]

Probably incorrect, I read somewhere that they can't make ice, they can only import ice from Europe. The Yakhchāl is only good for storing it all throughout the summer. If I'm wrong, show me a demo on how can water turn to ice if sent inside the Yakhchāl.

[@phlanxsmurf]

Hey Simon! You should do an episode on raidative cooling paint. Ceracool is the one I know about, sends heat out to space! Super cool. Literally. :-)

[@thecocktailian2091]

All of these ancient techs and simple physics style tech need to be adopted by builders immediately.

[@justinmyers6737]

The limitations here are pretty obvious. Evaporative cooling works well on arid environments, but they require a lot water. In humid climates, with no wind, neither work.

[@zackmassey8258]

Damn. Great work. That was some of the best fighting choreography I've seen. Be proud of yourselves. You all knocked it out of the park.

[@markhatch1267]

The ancients knew how to make ice! Who would have thought? Learned something new today!

[@teppo9585]

Hmm.. yea at night when the outside temps go down to below freezing. I´m not able to feel impressed by this feat honestly.

[@faze-ys6tn]

​@@teppo9585 The openings are closed at winter so the air wouldn't pass.

[@idunusegoogleplus]

@0:25 I don't know what brand of a/c that was but I'm pretty sure it isn't supposed to blow visible mist out the vents.

[@amberfrazier575]

.75 made this easier to listen to.

[@Revan_7even]

Am I the only one watching at 1.25X speed?

[@bustedkeaton]

Im not sure what the point of commenting this is.

[@amberfrazier575]

@@bustedkeaton the point was: the speech is very fast and listing at .75 gives you time to process the information.

[@AudioThrift]

“No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater… than central air.”

[@cadcoke5]

As a general rule, such systems tend to have vastly exaggerated effectiveness and often have very limited situations where they are actually helpful. Of course, in pre-electricity days, there is a lot more motivation to get even a little cooling. Issues such as mold accumulation may not have been recognized as a health hazard either.

[@chrisreilly1290]

There's a building at the university i went to that has 6 earth tubes which seem to be along the same lines. Creating chimneys for hot air to go out while pulling cool air from the ground

[@davidjams2596]

very good job, sir

[@janinademetriou-warburton6427]

Thank you! Low tech systems tested for generations have much to offer. "Progress" is not always a step in the right direction.

[@CS-en5xz]

Co2 is Not pollution. Plants need it to breathe and convert it into oxygen.

[@steveparris]

Anything in excess is a pollutant. It just needs to reach the level of toxicity to the creatures effected. Oxygen at 100% over 16-24 hours leads to permanent lung damage. Air is around 21% oxygen.

[@detromaniac]

The most ingenious design is the one that routes air underneath the house and forces air out the scoop. For effective cooling, you want to leverage the air pressure, not work against it. It's why attic exhaust fans are so damn effective.

[@loopbackish]

Alan partridge from the oasthouse...

[@loopbackish]

Alan partridge from the oasthouse. From the oasthouse!

[@MakerBoyOldBoy]

Temperature change is a universal to accommodate human temperature limits has been a universal issue. Passive technical usage seems to be the solution. The common expectation to run around your home in your underwear while snow piles up around your house seems to be a losing sustainable practice. My own solution is to build a detached roof over a home which also has an overhang allowing cool shaded air into the building. A definite passive cooling concept.

[@jussikankinen9409]

Eskimos use insulation

[@TrineDaely]

Ancient cities figured out how termite mounds work. Got it.

[@Arnsteel634]

It was nice of those aliens to build that for them way back then

[@Blinkerd00d]

"Releases massive amounts of C02" Volcano: "hold my beer"

[@Argosh]

No, not really. Volcanic release even over the last two millenia is way below what we release in a single year.

[@phaedrus000]

@@Argosh That's not true. You would only need about 60 years of volcanic activity to match what humans emit in one.

[@Argosh]

@@phaedrus000 well, yes, but... he was talking co2 and while volcanoes total release is as you said, the co2 alone is waaaaay less...

[@CubicApocalypse128]

Humans: "hold my giant fucking coal mining rig"

[@phaedrus000]

@@Argosh No I was talking strictly CO2. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration "Human activities emit 60 or more times the amount of carbon dioxide released by volcanoes each year."

[@stevenirby5576]

There's a working one in Dubai at one of the museums. If you do a tour, they open it up while you stand under the vent. It's wild how well these towers work. There was far more wind than I expected, and with the normal air conditioning running, it made it freezing. It's very cool technology.

[@coldnhot369]

I love the idea of wind catchers so much. I wonder if it’s possible to install them in America

[@chrismoody1342]

Make ice call me skeptical.

[@Xanderbelle]

There's a clever set of green houses in Africa with curtains on the sides. They dribble salt water on the curtains and the hot air evaporates it into the greenhouse. Cooling and Watering the plants and desalinating at the same time

[@yahwea]

Thank you for citing a lot of CIA Propaganda on climate

[@Thunderstormworld]

I have bought solar powered fans and coolers , they all have a solar panel and a battery , the coolers suck air through a wick which evaporate water cooling the air or a mist unit . They might not go extremely cold but make it livable . Plus is my electricity bill dropped a lot in summer with a plus point that when we have loadsheding (no power) in South Africa I can still cool the house .

[@kirkrende3935]

This was good until you got to "global warming" (climate change)...then I was done.

[@will7its]

No shit.....lol UK is full blown communist now.......

[@admdubya2107]

What do you mean?

[@xallin1732]

Also…”bce.” Just why?

[@ceaseless.explorer]

Yup. My own study into "Climate Change" found that is an agenda driven by elites. All of you, do your research, don't just believe any hype.

[@whimpypatrol5503]

Swamp coolers, which are inexpensive to buy and operate, work for dry climates on similar principles. If only a device existed to do the opposite and remove moisture from the air to inexpensively cool in humid climates.

[@IntasarnW]

The down side is this only works in dry arid areas.

[@Redcrown77]

BC and AD are historical and easy. It’s like trying to force people off pounds and inches. Sorry, Europe we aren’t interested in a new improved system 😂

[@EvilBakaCat]

also a great way to fill your house with mould spores if you don't live in a dry climate

[@busker153]

B.C.E. -- Before Christian Era

[@ayubshaik2907]

The Mysore Palace is also fascinating. You wont find fans but huge volumes of air moving inside dorms.

[@SmokingDabs]

They also used screens over window openings, shoved grass and leaves in between the screens then poured water over the leaves. To cool the air coming into the home

[@Applemangh]

Passive cooling is so neat. It feels like when humans learned to control fire, but in reverse. You might even say it's... cool 😎.

[@kosmotto]

a old friend in Calif had this thing called a swamp cooler for his house, It was a 3 ft fan, with water dripping down what looked like straw. It was actually freezing air. I just could not believe how cold it was. Sadly is useless in FL

[@UrbanGardeningWithD.A.Hanks14]

How many channels are you on?

[@puntabachata]

Great for a dry desert climate. Try it in a HUMID climate.

[@SubtleReed]

You don't wanna have anything open when the pit of hell opens up.

[@boyraceruk]

Utah's wind catcher also has a water spray system if I remember correctly, allowing for even better performance.

[@Hogscraper]

For anyone who cares about reality it's impossible to make ice using evaporation like this. It's why "under certain circumstances" includes below freezing air temps as though you need anything other than water exposed to that air to make ice at that point. We have swamp coolers in the US SouthWest and it is wild that they can drop the temps from 110 to 70F but that 40 degree drop is relative to the starting point. Try running one when it's 50 degrees and slight changes in outside temps will change the room more than the cooler does.

[@FrithonaHrududu02127]

I suspect that they were inspired by the ants and termite Hills in Africa because that is essentially how they cool the are in what otherwise would be ovens. They build completely efficient AC systems by instinct. Im a sheet metal worker so a good portion of our work is forced air. The thing is if we started using some of the ancient methods in conjunction with forced air wed have even more work. Simon i have estimated that you make 27 hours of content per day. Another great one.

[@tthappyrock368]

These traditional architectural features should be used more widely!

[@purrdiggle1470]

Passive cooling methods generally won't work in humid climates- where air conditioning is needed the most. Dry air does not store heat very well, so it is quick to warm up and quick to cool off. There are places in the southern U.S. where the summer air holds so much humidity that nighttime temps won't fall past 80 degrees F in certain months of the year.

[@casperyourfriendlyghost7552]

For every one saying evaporative cooling doesn’t work in humid regions your wrong. It just requires a fan.

[@someitguy2175]

This really only works in dry climates.

[@NomadSoul76]

I clicked this video specifically to find out how ice was made in the ancient world. I waited through most of the length of this video only to find out that they did it by waiting until the outside air temperature dropped below freezing.

[@troyhavok8605]

What event caused the "Common Era" to begin and ended "B.C.E?"

[@vladimus9749]

Only 12% energy usage for residential AND commercial cooling isn't bad at all. Air con isn't a big environmental problem and saves many lives.

[@Hirotechnics]

I don't think the wind catchers will come back any time soon. Its cheaper to buy *mass produced* electrical cooling than to basically tear down and reubuild a house to include an entirely new set of architectural precepts. Let alone the cost of purchasing a house in the first place.

[@stephanieinspired1151]

LOVE such brilliant effective simplicity in design & architecture. Gorgeous ❤

[@jonjohnson2844]

The biggest paradox ever - I don't have AC but for the last few British Summers I really wish I did.