If you’ve spent any time searching “geothermal cooling earth tubes” or “free air conditioning DIY,” you already know the problem. The information is out there, but it’s scattered across forum threads from 2009, half-finished blog posts, and YouTube videos that skip the one measurement you actually needed. You end up with fifteen browser tabs open and still no clear plan for building your own system.

Earth tubes work by pulling outside air through buried pipe before it enters your home. The ground a few feet down stays a steady temperature year round, so by the time that air reaches you, it’s already cooled (or warmed, depending on the season) without a compressor, a refrigerant, or a power bill attached to it. It’s simple physics, and people have been using versions of it for centuries. The tricky part isn’t the concept. It’s getting the actual build details right so the system works instead of turning into a damp, moldy mistake in your yard.

There are at least two books that cover this ground properly, and since I get asked about both fairly often, I figured a real comparison would help more than just a “buy my book” post.

Cool Your House Without AC (Meadow Cern) is the newer one, and it’s the one I’d point most people toward first because it’s a little more comprehensive. It walks through two different tube designs (angled collection and spiral), includes documented case studies from real builds, and gives measurements in both Imperial and metric so it doesn’t matter which system you think in. It’s built to be a full reference, not just an overview, with nineteen chapters covering everything from site selection to condensation management.

The earlier book, published under the name Sharon Buydens and titled DIY: How to Make Cheap Air Conditioning Earth Tubes, covers the same core territory and is a solid resource in its own right, especially if you want a more streamlined read. These are step-by-step on how to design and build earth tubes how to cool your house without an air conditioner/HVAC system. Both books run $25, and if you’re weighing which one to start with, the newer Meadow Cern title is simply the more complete of the two.

You can find both on my website here. They are listed on the major retailers as both paperbacks and e-books, and every so often those platforms run their own sitewide sales (Barnes & Noble and Amazon both do periodic promotions), so if you’re not in a rush, it’s worth keeping an eye out. I don’t control when those happen, but when they do, it’s a good time to grab a copy at a discount.

Now here’s the part I actually want to mention, because it benefits both of us.

If you’d rather borrow than buy, or budget just doesn’t allow for it right now, ask your local library to carry it. Almost every public library website has a “purchase suggestion” or “recommend a title” form tucked somewhere in their catalogue page. It takes about two minutes to fill out, and it’s genuinely how libraries decide what to stock. They’re not guessing what their patrons want. They’re responding to requests.

So if you’re already doing the research, already planning a build, and already searching for free ways to cool your home, this is one more free way to get there. Request it from your library, and if enough people do, it ends up on the shelf for the next person searching the same thing you were. So let others know they can request the book through the library too!

Either way, whether you build the angled version or the spiral, whether you buy the book or borrow it, I hope it gets you closer to a house that stays cool without ever touching your power bill.

~ Meadow Cern