Ice Houses

Ice-Houses: Energy, Architecture and Sustainability presents new and novel technologies and approaches surrounding daily and seasonal ice storage, along with discussions on passive cooling and natural technologies using different methods, including heat pumps. The book covers different aspects of ice-houses and cold energy production, storage and utilization. By addressing various issues connected to the technology and structure of traditional ice-houses and natural and artificial ice making, this refences looks at new technological approaches for the reduction of electrical energy consumption in buildings. Users will find this to be a comprehensive overview of ice house storage that includes worked examples and global case studies. It is an essential resource for researchers and engineers looking to advance their understanding of this method of thermal storage. Includes worked examples which calculate and determine the amounts of different parameters to help better understand the problem-solving process Provides a comprehensive literature review on the history and architecture of ice-houses, along with different ice production and storage methods Contains recent developments related to cold energy production and storage through ice making to reduce electricity demand

The traditional Persian ice houses were built at villages on the perimeter of the large deserts on the Central Plateau. Their cone-shaped domes, up to 20 meters high, consisted of mud and mud bricks from the excavation of the deep ice pits protected by the domes. The ice houses served as reservoirs that stored blocks of ice in the winter for further use in the summer. The ice was either hauled in from nearby mountains or produced in open basins at the ice house site. Such local ice production plants were typically supplied with fresh water from qanats, the ingenious water supply tunnels, that brought water for human settlements and irrigation from the distant mountains. The ice houses, whose origin is believed to go back more than 2000 years, gradually became obsolete with the advent of electricity and the introduction of the refrigerators to the households. Because they were made of perishable materials, most of the ice houses have disappeared and the rest are facing a grim future. In this book, Dr. Jorgensen, has made a remarkable effort in cataloguing still remaining ice houses and in the process has found other ice houses that are shaped differently. He has developed a typology, described and analyzed the layouts, shapes, dimensions, construction methods, materials, reinforcements, and decorations. He has also studied the operations and origins, and analyzed the preservation aspects. This book describes the first ever comprehensive study of the ice houses of Iran.

Often hidden away or incorporated into other architectural features, icehouses are a largely forgotten part of our heritage. As winters warmed through the nineteenth century, and supplies of natural ice declined, the development of artificial refrigeration made redundant these curious buildings – often status symbols in themselves – which had been designed to store winter snow and ice into the summer. Icehouses allowed perishables to be preserved, chilled delicacies to be enjoyed, and fevers to be relieved – and on a commercial scale they fed an international trade that carried snow from mountain peaks and ice from frozen lakes to supply the needs of industry, markets and householders. In this illustrated introduction, Tim Buxbaum explains how icehouses developed; how, when and where they were built; and how they operated, including a chapter on icehouses from around the world.

When a decomposed body turns up in the ice house of Streech Grange manor, Chief Inspector Walsh is assigned to investigate the possibility that the corpse is the long-missing husband of owner Phoebe Maybury.

This illustrated study places ice-houses in an historical context from earliest times until the present day. The text concentrates in particular on British designs, which are compared with similar structures around the world.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, over ninety-five percent of all the productive land in Ireland was in the hands of Anglo-Irish landowners. They lived in the 'big houses', some of which still exist today, resplendent within their walled estates. Many others are now only gaunt ruins silhouetted against somber Irish skies, victims of 'the troubles' in the 1920s. There is a continuing fascination with the history of the big house in Ireland. Much of this interest stems from the Anglo-Irish living in places apart, in their estates, often in remote areas of an undeveloped and hostile land. Part of the appeal is in the characters, neither wholly English nor Irish, who made up this landowning class in Ireland. However, another part, largely ignored until this study, is how many of these landowners not only met these challenges but achieved remarkable levels of self-sufficiency. It was their exploitation of technology that hugely bolstered their status and independence and enabled them to lead an exotic lifestyle in Ireland. Although much has been written regarding the social and political history of the Anglo-Irish in Ireland, little research has been conducted into the practical problems of living there. At a time when there were few roads, no railways, and sailing ships were the unreliable connection with England, existence might have been very basic indeed. Charles Carson uncovers and explains in simple terms the technologies employed, to not only make life bearable, but in some case to become a triumph over seemingly impossible odds. An appreciation of this background helps to explain the sense of status and independence that emanates from the big house in Ireland until their demise in the late twentieth century. Interdisciplinary investigative methods were used in this work. These included extensive archival research of estate papers throughout Ireland; fieldwork involving examination and photography of still-extant big house technology; and the use of published fictional and biographical big house material. Much additional insight, and suggestions for further research, resulted from visits to various big house locations. Owners, often descendants of the original families, or managers and ground staff, provided important local knowledge. Climbing amongst stored artefacts in cellars, barns, and subterranean tunnels helped to bring the past alive. Something of the ambiance of these explorations informs this book, thus helping towards an understanding of the fundamental importance of technology in underpinning the status and independence of the big house in Ireland. By examining the range, costs, and changing nature of the technologies employed, this book makes an important contribution to a deeper understanding of life in the big house in Ireland circa 1800 to circa 1930. Brief descriptions, accompanied by drawings or photographs, are employed to explain the operation, limitations, and improvements of many of the installations and techniques. These include water closets, pumps, cisterns, boilers, and firefighting equipment; open fires, hot air stoves, and central heating; walled gardens, hot walls and beds, warm air, steam, and hot water heating of glasshouses; the construction, location, stocking, and use of ice houses and ice; daylight enhancement, candle, oil, gas, and electric lighting; an optical telegraph, a church spire, engine driven equipment on the estate farm as well as mapping of bogs and their reclamation by wooden railways. Technology and the Big House in Ireland, c. 1800-c. 1930 is an important reference source for Irish study groups worldwide.