International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—This paper is presented an application of earth refrigerator to energy conservation. In this research, Earth refrigerators of Yazd are selected as earth architecture because about 440 BC, Persian peoples had already domination the technique of saving energy in the summer middle in the Iran desert. These structures have a large earth brick dome and height of 65 feet. The earth refrigerators are above of ground because they needs to community to Qanat and wind catcher in desert area. The earth refrigerators area is over of 5750 m3 in Iran desert. Qanat is a water management system used to provide a valid supply of water to human settlements and for irrigation in hot, dry and semi-dry climates. The earth refrigerators of Iran desert are included thick walls. The walls are included special mortar called Sarooj. The Sarooj is involved clay, egg white, goat hair, sand and different special materials in special values. The Sarooj can resist to energy transfer. The Earth refrigerators are a complex technology. The Earth refrigerators would be valuable for energy conservation.

Index Terms—Earth refrigerator, Qanat, energy, Sarooj, Yazd, Iran desert.

H. Niroumand and M. Jamil are with Department of Architecture, National University of Malaysia (UKM), Malaysia (e-mail: nirumand@eng.ukm.my; hniroumand@ymail.com).
M. F. M. Zain is with Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering, National University of Malaysia (UKM), Malaysia.

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Cite: H. Niroumand, M. F. M. Zain, and M. Jamil, "The Earth Refrigerators as Earth Architecture," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 315-318, 2012.