# Would a house-scale clay fridge be efficent forr cooling purposes?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-house-scale-clay-fridge-be-efficent-forr-cooling-purposes/746649>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 20, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-house-scale-clay-fridge-be-efficent-forr-cooling-purposes/746649 "2016-02-20T23:30:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![The\_Sheikh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Sheikh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Sheikh)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-house-scale-clay-fridge-be-efficent-forr-cooling-purposes/746649/1 "2016-02-20T23:30:42Z")

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I saw this [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNKifJHqScc) that show a traditional method used for keeping food cool. This method involves one clay pot set inside another. There is a gap between the two pots which is filled with wet sand. As the moisture evaporates, it cools the inner pot.  
Now imagin a room or house in the lybian desert designed following the same principle. Would it work?

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-house-scale-clay-fridge-be-efficent-forr-cooling-purposes/746649/2 "2016-02-20T23:44:29Z")

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A device based on the same principle for houses is called a “swamp cooler”. The difficulty in them is that they only work in dry climates, but they’re only economical if water is cheap. There are relatively few places that meet both criteria.