Yogurt Could Help Keep Buildings Cool on a Warming Planet

The planet we live on is getting warmer, with new heat records set on a regular basis. That’s a danger for countless reasons, including a growing risk of heat deaths. It’s a problem that’s led architects, designers and engineers to seek out unexpected ways to keeping buildings cooler during the hottest times of the year. One such expert has developed an intriguing solution using a common household item: yogurt.

As engineer Tom Greenhill told Dezeen’s Rima Sabina Aouf, his own experimentation and testing has shown promising results when applying yogurt to residential windows. Besides the novelty of using fermented dairy to keep your home cool, what’s interesting here is that the method of applying the yogurt makes a difference. Paintbrushes did not yield the desired result, but using a roller brush did. As Aouf detailed, the application of yogurt creates “a fritted glass-like effect” on windows.

The yogurt solution is one part of a larger effort on Greenhill’s part to provide what he describes as “[l]ow-effort, low-cost, and rapidly-deployable ways of keeping cool at home.” Some are relatively familiar, including using desk fans, painting rooftops white and keeping curtains closed when it’s hot and sunny outside. As Greenhill explained to Dezeen, many people concerned about the heat “don’t have the agency” to install green-energy remedies to their home. A temporary application of yogurt, on the other hand, can go a long way.

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Greenhill also argues that using yogurt on windows in the summertime is more effective than a comparable product designed to regulate the temperature inside of greenhouses. He noted that using yogurt “will reflect some heat from the direct sun entering the property and is far more effective than closing internal blinds or curtains.” With temperatures rising year over year, it certainly seems like it’s worth a shot.

And if the photos accompanying the Dezeen article are any indication, there’s a surprisingly stylish way to apply yogurt to the outside of a window, adding a win for design into the mix.