A Swedish-Spanish couple's renovated home on Spain's Costa Blanca is drawing attention for a cooling system that skips the compressor entirely, using buried pipes to pull in outside air, cool it underground, and send it into the house.
For homeowners Anna and Juan, that means cooler rooms during extreme heat, lower energy use, and a setup with fewer moving parts designed to keep daily life comfortable.
Here's what to know
During an Oct. 12 home tour posted to YouTube, content creator Kirsten Dirksen (@kirstendirksen) visited the project and showed how the Swedish-Spanish owners remade an inefficient 1980s stucco house into a place that "heats, cools, waters, and feeds itself."
At the center of the tour is a Canadian well — sometimes called a Provençal well or earth tubes — that moves outdoor air through underground piping so it enters the house at the temperature of the surrounding soil.
Because the ground does the cooling first, the setup avoids using a heat pump, refrigerant, or compressor. A fan simply moves along air that the soil has already cooled, reducing the need for standard air-conditioning equipment and the costs that often come with it.
Even in extreme heat, the ground-cooled system sent noticeably chilly air through the vent.
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Anna and Juan own the home, which they bought in the Costa Blanca town where Juan's family lives. The 1980s stucco is typical for that coastline.
More background
Cooling is only one part of the larger overhaul. Anna and Juan started with the home's favorable orientation and rebuilt the rest so it works with, not against, the local climate.
To support that, they wrapped the walls in cork and finished them with mineral plaster, which allows moisture to pass through instead of getting trapped behind a sealed surface. In a hot coastal region, an upgrade like that can reshape daily comfort, since weak insulation can turn ordinary summer weather into a constant expense.
They also planned for colder months with a thermal fireplace designed to do two jobs at once. Connected through the wall to the kitchen, it heats the home and lets them cook from the same fire.
Together, those choices leave the house less dependent on utility bills for basic needs. Solar panels provide electricity, the home captures its own water, and much of the food on the table comes from the garden.
What can be done?
In this Costa Blanca retrofit, the biggest gains came from redesigning the house around passive and low-energy systems rather than adding more machinery: orientation, cork insulation, breathable plaster, and earth tubes for cooling.
Their Canadian well uses the ground's stable temperature to pre-cool incoming air. That removes the need for a compressor-based cooling system in that part of the process and offers one way to cut complexity and electricity use in hot climates.
Where can I learn more?
The right design choices can make staying comfortable at home easier and more cost-effective.
• Across hot regions, developers are reviving ancient cooling methods to lower indoor temperatures naturally.
• In ultra-efficient houses, thick insulation and airtightness can keep rooms comfortable with far less power.
• In Montana, a Swedish-inspired home uses passive design features to reduce utility bills year-round.
• In the U.K., Bellway is testing solar-equipped future homes with lower heating demand.
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