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Alternative to Air-conditions?
(lemmus.org)
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this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2026
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There are all sorts of alternatives. But they are all really expensive, difficult to deploy and tend to be viable only in certain locations. Earthships are one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship
I've seen some people do closed-loop earth tube systems. But they collect mold and have drainage issues.
Older homes and barns use to have Cupolas or widow’s walks, also historically called a roof walk or captain’s walk. The hot air rises and is vented out the top of the house.
https://www.architerms.com/cupola
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widow's_walk
You may hate AC but for some locations and situations it's the best solution. If not the only solution.
Earth tubes could pump water instead of air and then pass it through a car radiator or similar kind of heat exchanger.
I find the idea interesting but haven't actually tried it. Could cost a bit and not sure how effective it would be.
Yup. But my answer was getting kind of long. There are tons of solution from all over the world. You could write a book on this.
Ground source heat pump operate like earth tubes.
That's a buried coil closed heat pump system. Very expensive.
CAN be very expensive. If you are doing it with a car radiator and a hose pipe it costs very little and there isn't even a heat pump involved.
You can take it up a step by using a heat pump of course. Which you can also do fairly cheaply if you are willing to modify a portable AC unit or tbh anything else with a heat pump in it. All you need to do is water cool the hot side of the heat pump and send that water through your ground loop.
Depends how much you want out of it. Are you heating and cooling the entire house year round along with providing hot water. Or are you just taking a few degrees off the peak summer temperature in a room or two?