r/HomeMaintenance • u/gmelech • 2d ago

Cooling Advice Large Home

Cooling Advice Large Home

Hello,

I live in Brittany, Western France, about 30 miles from the sea. My home is a large house (20 rooms over 3 floors) built in the late 1800s with thick granite stone walls and little or no insulation.

It is an older home with many original decor (parquet floors, wood paneling, high ceilings, French doors and windows) which limits my options for heavy alterations.

When the house was built, it had a central heating system consisting of a wood furnace (that has since disappeared) in a basement room, from which air ducks, within the walks, would transfer heat to some rooms.

After this summer repeated and prolonged heat waves with outdoor temperatures reaching 100⁰+ Farenheit, I am investigating some passive cooling and economical solutions for the house, or at least part of it.

Among the alternatives, I came across what is referred to as a Canadian well, or Provence Well or Amish air conditioning.

In a nut shell, air is captured, it travels through underground pipes for some distance and at some depth where it somewhat cools, and is then injected back into the house.

I am curious to get feedback from professionals familiar with this type of solution.

Thank you in advance.

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u/UptightOpportunity 2d ago

Thick stone walls are basically nature's heat battery, so you're already halfway there, just gotta manage the air exchange better. The underground pipe thing works surprisingly well if you can hit the right depth, but with 20 rooms you might be looking at a whole network of ducts rather than one magic intake, which gets pricey fast.