To follow what I wrote yesterday, we learned about such a simple way to cool a home, that I am surprised that no one uses it more today. Our home will be in the shape of a yurt (actually three yurts) with a skylight at the highest point in the middle of the roof. This is where the warm air will rise to. We plan to have this skylight moveable and by use of a fan, turn this opening into a ventilation system during the hot Texas summers. It will suck out all the hot air from the house. Then we plan on piping in air that originates from outside, underground where it cools to 68 or so degrees (the natural earth temperature) and then into the home to replace the hot air being ventilated out. The house will also be built under tree cover shielding the roof from direct sunlight. Between having the home semi-underground anyway (4 feet down), having thick earthen (cool) walls that will act like a heat sink, and then this type of cooling/ventilation system, I do not believe we will have to have air conditioning. With the high cost of electricity today, and the likelihood that it will only continue to rise, reconsidering how we build homes seems like a very good idea. Especially if it only requires some simple creative thinking to reduce our dependancy on utilities and foreign oil.