The Taliban found a way to cool homes naturally without an air conditioner, by using terracotta mud (fired mud or pottery mud), which is environmentally friendly and depends on the evaporation of atmospheric air.
The project supervisor, Raghad Muhammad Al-Faisal, told Emirates Today that the cooling systems, including district cooling and separate air conditioning, work to pump chilled water from a central station to buildings through an isolated underground pipeline, which are expensive systems and cause gas emissions. And waste of fresh water, in addition to the fact that domestic air conditioning consumes electricity in large proportions, and there is no refrigeration system that combines the advantages of sustainability, durability, portability, low cost, economy and modernity.
She added that the project team, consisting of students Saud Taha and Ahmed Al-Abyad in the fifth grade at Dubai National School, was able to conduct experiments on the use of terracotta clay to cool the rooms of homes, which proved to be very effective, as the room temperature decreased by a large percentage without turning on the air conditioning in it.
Al-Faisal stated that terracotta clay regulates temperatures naturally, noting that this method can cool homes by between 60% and 70%, depending on the size of the rooms covered with “terracotta” and the direction of the winds coming from the windows.
She pointed out that terracotta clay can be used aesthetically in homes, by adding decorative terracotta panels saturated with water on ceilings or walls from the inside, to ensure sustainable cooling, which is environmentally friendly.
The project team is participating in the National Science, Technology and Innovation Festival, which is currently being organized by the Ministry of Education at the Arena Festival – Dubai.
