Root - I love the idea of zeer pots! I will be making at least one to stash stuff in near the garden.

There is one misquoted fact in the early part of the article though - heat does not go UP. Heat radiates outward in ALL directions. Hot AIR goes up. Hot Water goes up. But heat itself radiates in all directions.

Back when I lived the primitive life in the cabin in the woods I went for 6 or 7 years without electricity. I was dirt poor so when I finally got power I was very frugal with it. My dad and older brother are both electricians and it used to frustrate them to see my electric meter barely moving. The main $$ saving thing I did was that I bought a large rolling cart where I placed the TV and stereo (w/speakers). The house was tiny small so I didn't have room to leave things out and in the way. So when not in use, things were unplugged and rolled into the corner. You would be amazed at how much juice it takes to keep appliances plugged in - even with the power button in the "off" position!

Hey John, I've always read that about appliances. I wonder if people even realize it's next to impossible to walk anywhere in the house without some appliance light giving off a glow. Clocks, TV, VCR/DVD's, the light on the surge protecter that you plug all your computer stuff into, if you have one of those coffee makers that's set to go off before you open your eyes or have one of the plug in rechargeable flashlights and so on. It's amazing the amount of power we're using even when we have everything turned off.

My power bill now is actually less than it was when we bought our home 20 years ago. That's with wrap around insulation, a new back door, new water heater and other small improvements over time. It's something you have to stay on top of all the time, just tweaking and noticing what you're using and how.

If I can find the right pots, at an affordable price, I think I'd like to play with a zeer pot too! Those are so cool!

Hey Trianglejohn,

This is one of the authors of the article in question.

Thanks for pointing out the flaw in the article! "Heat rises" was meant to mean hot air, but I didn't make that clear enough in the article. I've made the correction. Thanks again for catching that. It's easy to assume that everyone knows what you're talking about, and fail to make things crystal clear.

rootdiggernc...thanks for finding our post, and making a link. I really think you've touched on something regarding the way homes used to be more sensibly built. Unfortunately, the illusion of abundant cheap energy ruined our sensibilities, and people designing homes and gardens today have forgotten about simple passive ways of reducing energy consumption. Furthermore, they've convinced us to do some pretty silly things.

Thankfully, the recent energy prices have been a wake-up call for some. Unfortunately, it's a little late for a lot of people already while others would like to continue to snooze.

As for passive cooling in humid climates...that's a tough one (especially if there's a chance that it will be cold in winter), but we went into some discussion about it in the comments thread of the post (interested parties can read there, and are welcome to contribute to the discussion). But here are a few suggestions that were not included in the original post.

High ceilings (as you mentioned) work in summer time, but the extra space created costs you a bundle when it comes time to heat in winter (if need be). Orienting the house to take advantage of bi-modal winds can be of assistance (unless the house you live in has already been built with bad orientation). The trick is cooling the air and removing the moisture. Underground pipes with an exterior intake (burried 1 meters in depth and 20 meters (min)-60 meters in length (max)) with outlet into the house will provide dry cool air to the home if incorporated with a solar heat chimney. Trompe compressed air (isothermically compressed air) provides cold, dry air, but Trompes require a very special set of circumstances to do it passively (steady water supply, and quite a bit of drop to compress the air).

Landscaping with shade trees is also good, as you mentioned, but we could also go further, to include a trellis-like shade-house covered with vines on the north side, or even the west side of houses. Climbing evergreen vines on walls of the north and west also can help by keeping the sun off the walls, and cool the air around the leaves through transpiration (every little bit helps).

Speaking of the west-wall, I think it's now against building code in some areas of California to include windows on the west side of homes, simply because of the heat generated by the sun in the hottest part of the day...and thus those windows generate extra energy needs that burden power systems to cool homes (black-outs tend to happen when everybody comes home in the eat of the day to turn the AC on stronger).

Unfortunately, industry gears itself toward experimentation and development of technologies to cool and heat our homes that feed the market by creating the need to consume energy, instead of finding ways to eliminate the need for consumption altogether (such as smart, passive design solutions).

Thanks again for visiting.

I only pointed that out because someone pointed it out to me about something I once wrote concerning a greenhouse. I'm really not a know-it-all and engineering stuff is way out of my league. Congrats on the article and introducing this part of the world to zeer pots.

When I say I lived the primitive life it was a few years ago and in a different environment - the crosstimbers area in central Oklahoma. So it could be way hot and pretty humid too. Winter was only a struggle if the temps got below 20 degrees (my personal threashold). Summers were brutal. It got so hot you would have nightlong headaches. I spent many a night in the bed of my pickup, wrapped in a thin cotton sheet, laying in a patio lounger, at various points in the pasture trying to stay pointed into the breeze. It was the prairie so there was always a breeze. The problem was it would change at some magic moment during the night so I would have to drive the truck around to find level ground in the new direction. I did this for 12 years and never really complained. And I got up each morning and made it to work clean and fed. No one at the office knew how different my life was from theirs unless I told them.

I feel the foundation problem isn't the architecture or the cooling device - its the "I want it all" attitude of people today. If its cold, put on a sweater; if its warm, take off your sweater.

I notice your handle - I also lived in Tokyo for 8 years in my youth during the late 60's and early 70's (Tachikawa, Fussa, Ome)

I'm trying to figure how , at American prices for pottery, we can do this zeer pot for less than $2., what would I store in it outdoors and how would I keep the critters out of it.

Hi Sam, glad you came by! I like your vine covered trellis/shade house ideas. Use to see a lot of homes with vines crawling all over. I think what stopped a lot of that was all the new sidings (vinyl, etc). Which while not easily damamged are just to delicate for that anymore. Still, the idea has merit if you can build it just far enough from the house to stop any vine root damage from attaching to the actual house, use plants that aren't damaging and/or manage to stay on top of any that could be trouble.

Dottie, We won't find pots for the $2 that they're paying in 3rd world countries but then our incomes are a lot higher too. I guess we could go out and muck out the clay and try our hand at making something (LOL). I'm keeping an eye out for some inexpensive large clay/unglazed pots, when I'm out and about, maybe marked down due to a crack or chip. Maybe some kind of unglazed crock would work? I see them at affordable prices at some of the smaller hardware type stores.

For cover something that would lay flat over top that you could add a weight to (rock, brick?).

I thought about trying one with just some bottled water. Just to see how/if it works. Not even sure if it will or not with our high humidity, but should be interesting to play with. If it doesn't work I can always find another use for the containers, and I've learned a little something about passive cooling, but honestly I'm just a curious person.

As fuel/heating cost go up I really see the concept of passive cooling as a new trend that people and especially builders are going to incorporate more of into their designs.

Before all the modern heating and cooling methods of today we did a lot of that. Swamp coolers are still being used today in dryer climates.

I think the Zeer pots are a brilliant idea for areas of nations lacking electricity. It doesn't sound as though this is a method of chilling as much as a method of preventing ambient heat outside the pot from quickly spoiling the contents.
Likely here we could use it to store excess pickings from the garden. Might be useful at farm markets too, particularly with fresh picked corn. Still, you'd need a massive outer pot.
Wish there was a way to use grey water for the purpose of this passive cooling.

Hey everyone, just thought I'd pop in to see how things were doing here...

Trianglejohn, I'm glad to hear you survived Oklahoma, I remember some reather brutal summers without A/C back home in Nebraska, myself. It's amazing how your understanding of temperature changes in different conditions, and how cool a slight breeze can actually feel under conditions of extreme heat like that.

Rootdigger, as for a cover for zeer pots, people usually use a burlap bag, or some sort of cloth with a weight on top. I've been thinking about using some sort of a wick-system to keep the cloth damp, which would keep the sand damp in-between the pots.

dottie...your idea of using the zeers in the farmers market or out near the garden is spot-on. The size of the pot you use is really up to you (depends on how much you want to put in them or transport), but you need to get the right match of inner pot size, and allow enough sand in between them. Might be worth seeking out friends who are into pottery to try and experiment. As for the pots working in high humidity, I haven't been able to try it yet, but I believe that if you set them out in the sun, where they will sweat, the temp of the inner pot will drop. There's really not enough information on people trying this in the humid areas yet, because the technology was (re-)developed in arid areas just recently. Somebody has to try it sooner or later though.

As rootdigger said, as energy costs go up...we're going to have to find ways of using passive heating and cooling.

Oh...trianglejohn...you were around Tokyo? When was the last time you were here? I don't think you'd recognize Tachikawa anymore...the whole place has changed quite a bit recently (that's Japan for you). I've been here about 9-10 years now. Bouncing between Tokyo and the base of Mt. Fuji (Yamanakako).

Well...thanks for dropping by everyone. I'm looking forward to hearing how things go if anyone decides to experiment with zeer pots this summer! LET ME KNOW!

RootDigger - Thanks so much for starting this thread. Zeet pots are new to me too. It is such a simple method of cooling. So many great ideas are simple aren't they?

I also have a concern about critters. So if one covers the pot does that change the dynamics of the cooling solution? If I understand correctly how it works it seems a cover won't work. What do you all think?
Thanks,
Jeanne

Hey jeane,
(and everybody)
just thought I'd let you all know, that a cover is in fact necessary...otherwise, you're just leaving the door open to your refrigerator. As mentioned in the piece..."A damp cloth placed on top keeps the inside pot away from hot air." this also reduces the chance of illnesses cause by exposure to flies which harbor disease where produce is left exposed to the open air (i.e.-in the market environment). If you look closely at the pictures in the original piece...you'll see that each of the pots is covered with a damp cloth.

I happened across a rather large thick walled clay pot this past winter so I am planning on making a zeer pot to store garden produce in. This next summer I will be selling garden stuff at a local Farmer's Market and since I work a full time job and don't get home until after 6pm I have to do my picking a few nights before market day and store stuff. The indoor frig will only hold so much so Zeer pot to the rescue. Luckily I have a breezy pathway beside my house where a zeer pot will be out of the way and have near constant air flow - which is all I think it will need to cause the cooling effect. I plan on making a decorative top for it and placing some sort of potted plant on top of that to keep it nice and purdy lookin'.

I am more worried about mold building up inside the inner pot which will cause more work for me if I have to constantly clean and sterilize it.

I had already planned on using cooled cloth towels to drape across my produce while at the market in hopes that the evaporative effect will keep things cooler.

As a one man operation with a busy work week. I have to find a way to harvest small amounts every night and store them easily until market day - Saturday. Luckily the market is only 4 hours long so I don't have to keep things cool for the entire day.

Samntokyo - I left Tokyo in 1973 as an almost 16 year old. I have never been back but plan to one day - I'd like to take an extensive garden tour and see all four islands (something that was too expensive for the entire family to do when we lived there). While in highschool in Norman OK I tutored English to Japanese exchange students and got pretty proficient in hiragana and conversational Japanese - but those days are long gone. Recently while hosting an exhibit at the state fair here in Raleigh I got to chat with two elderly Japanese women but after about 5 sentences I ran out of words I knew well enough to place in a sentence. They were just happy to speak to someone and to have someone that understood their broken English with a thick accent.

After the Japanese students the school had me tutor English to all the foreign students so I got pretty good at Chinese, Spanish and Farsi (Iran).

not passive cooling, but some really neat stuff. I like the toilet with the sink on top. You wash your hands and that water goes into the tank for when you flush. How cool is that.... and water saving!

Here is a link that might be useful: Japanese Home Appliances

that's really cool! there were some great ideas in there- wish they were available here. i especially liked the height adjustable bathroom sink, and the sunflower solar collector thingy. i loved the weird translations- too funny.

This looks pretty interesting. Doesn't need to go as deep.

Here is a link that might be useful: cooling

Triangle jhon..i am from south eastern Oklahoma and yes it is miserably HOT here not to mention the record drought.
I don't want it all i just want to eat..LOl and this heat is killing everything in sight and drying up my lake..LOL

has anyone figured out how to make and use encapsulated PCM's
soy paraffin in particular?

Hi KellyBell - I seem to end up in Oklahoma during the summers when it is at its hottest. I always complain and tell all the relatives that they have got to move the reunions and parties to the cooler parts of the year but they just laugh and say the weather is always miserable. I loved living there when I did but now that I don't, I have no plans to ever move back. My parents are gone and I only have one brother still there so I'll go back every once in a while but never to live (famous last words).

To get a better answer about encapsulated pcm's I would post a new thread over in the Home Forums - that's where all the engineers hang out.