Wind towers

How to naturally cool your home in a dry climate

Difficulty level: Medium Time required: 35 days Material cost: €20 Tools and supplies needed: The "cooling system using empty columns" for homes that you mention resembles the badgir. The badgir, very common in Iran, captures the wind that flows down through chimneys where the warmer, lighter air rises and is vented through another duct. In winter, some badgirs can be closed. But as a cousin of the Canadian, French, or Provençal well, this passive geothermal system may serve just as well to cool the air in summer as it does to preheat it in winter.Wind towers (also known as badgirs or malqafs depending on the region) are cooling towers that can lower the temperature inside homes, either by directing the airflow or by utilizing a temperature gradient. This cooling system is so effective that water can be stored at nearly its freezing point in an arid climate like that of central Iran, where daytime and nighttime temperatures vary considerably. Smaller versions exist that function somewhat like fans by increasing air circulation within the interior space.