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Step into an old Pennsylvania Dutch farmhouse on the hottest day of the summer, and something happens you will not expect. It is cool inside. Not a machine humming in the window, not a power bill climbing by the hour. Just cool, the way the house was built to be. And the folks who raised these houses two hundred years ago did it with no electricity at all, because they understood something about keeping a house cool that we have almost entirely forgotten.
The old builders did not fight the heat with a machine. They built the house so the heat had a hard time getting in and an easy way back out. Every one of these is a real Pennsylvania Dutch way, plain and provable, and most of them cost nothing but knowing.
In this video:
✓ Why whitewashed and lime-painted walls turn the sun away before it ever heats the house
✓ How the old builders faced the house to the sun on purpose, cool bedrooms on one side, shade on the other
✓ The summer kitchen, a whole separate building so the day's cooking never heated the home
✓ Where they planted the shade trees, and why the placement mattered as much as t
https://eliasyoder.com
Step into an old Pennsylvania Dutch farmhouse on the hottest day of the summer, and something happens you will not expect. It is cool inside. Not a machine humming in the window, not a power bill climbing by the hour. Just cool, the way the house was built to be. And the folks who raised these houses two hundred years ago did it with no electricity at all, because they understood something about keeping a house cool that we have almost entirely forgotten.
The old builders did not fight the heat with a machine. They built the house so the heat had a hard time getting in and an easy way back out. Every one of these is a real Pennsylvania Dutch way, plain and provable, and most of them cost nothing but knowing.
In this video:
✓ Why whitewashed and lime-painted walls turn the sun away before it ever heats the house
✓ How the old builders faced the house to the sun on purpose, cool bedrooms on one side, shade on the other
✓ The summer kitchen, a whole separate building so the day's cooking never heated the home
✓ Where they planted the shade trees, and why the placement mattered as much as t
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00It is a Wednesday afternoon in late July.
00:03The thermometer outside reads 93 degrees Fahrenheit.
00:07The humidity is high.
00:09The sun beats down on rooftops across America.
00:13Inside a typical modern suburban house built in 1995, the central air conditioner runs
00:20constantly.
00:21The compressor outside hums all afternoon.
00:25The thermostat reads 76 degrees on the digital display, but the air still feels warm and
00:32stale because the A.C. cannot quite keep up.
00:36The homeowner checks the electric bill that came in the mail yesterday.
00:41$320 for the month of July, $1600 for the summer season so far.
00:49The thermostat goes down 2 degrees.
00:52The A.C. works harder.
00:54The electric meter spins faster.
00:58Now drive 30 miles west into Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
01:02Past the modern subdivisions, past the strip malls, past the new construction, until the
01:09road turns into a two-lane country highway with horse-drawn buggies in both lanes.
01:16Pull off into a small Old Order Amish farm with a stone farmhouse that was built in 1847.
01:22The thermometer in the yard reads the same 93 degrees Fahrenheit.
01:28The same humidity.
01:30The same sun.
01:32But step inside the farmhouse front door.
01:35The thermometer on the kitchen wall reads 74 degrees.
01:39The air feels cool, dry, comfortable.
01:43There is no electricity in this house.
01:47There is no air conditioner.
01:49There is no fan running.
01:51There is no machinery of any kind producing the cooling.
01:57The family is sitting at the kitchen table, drinking lemonade, comfortable enough that the
02:02children are still wearing long sleeves.
02:05The temperature gap between that 1847 stone farmhouse and the 1995 suburban house on the same exact
02:15afternoon in the same exact climate is roughly 19 degrees Fahrenheit.
02:21The 1995 house spent $93,000 on the AC system over its lifetime, plus $320 in electricity this
02:34month alone.
02:36The 1847 farmhouse spent $0 on cooling ever since it was built 179 years ago.
02:47How is this possible?
02:49It is possible because Pennsylvania Dutch farm builders from the 1700s and 1800s understood
02:57something most modern American home builders have completely forgotten.
03:02Buildings can be designed to stay cool naturally through their architecture alone.
03:09Not through powered systems.
03:11Not through chemical refrigerants.
03:14Through the design choices made before the foundation was poured and before the first
03:20stone was lifted into place.
03:23The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has documented this tradition extensively.
03:29So has the academic work, Architecture and Landscape of the Pennsylvania Germans, 1720-1920.
03:38The design choices that made these farmhouses stay cool are not folklore.
03:44They are verified historical architecture repeated across hundreds of surviving Pennsylvania German
03:51stone farmhouses still standing in Lancaster County, Berks County, Lebanon County, York County,
04:00and the surrounding region.
04:02I am Elias Yoder.
04:04I am Amish and I farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
04:08Today, I am going to walk you through the 7 verified Pennsylvania German design secrets that allow farmhouses
04:17built in the 1700s and 1800s to stay cool through hot summer afternoons without any electricity
04:26at all.
04:27The architectural philosophy behind the methods.
04:31The specific design choices that make the difference.
04:35The honest scope on which of these features modern homeowners can practically adopt.
04:41By the end of this video, you will understand why our great-great-grandfathers built houses
04:47that needed no air conditioning and how some of their wisdom can still help your home today.
04:55Quick word before I go further.
04:57The old methods my family uses, there is more of it than fits in any one video.
05:03I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
05:08The book is the long version.
05:11If you want it, it is there.
05:13I will not mention it again.
05:16Now, the 7 design secrets, plainly.
05:19Secret 1.
05:21Thick stone or field stone exterior walls.
05:24This is the foundation principle that makes everything else work.
05:28Pennsylvania German farmhouses built between 1750 and 1880 used locally quarried limestone,
05:35field stone, or sometimes brick for the exterior walls.
05:39The walls were not thin.
05:41They were not standard 6-inch stud framing.
05:44They were 2 to 3 feet thick.
05:46The principle.
05:47Dense materials like stone, brick, and concrete have enormous thermal mass.
05:53They absorb heat slowly and release heat slowly.
05:56A 2-foot thick limestone wall absorbs the daytime heat from the sun and the outside air gradually,
06:03taking 8 to 12 hours to fully warm through.
06:06By the time the wall has absorbed all the day's heat, the sun has set and the night air is
06:12cooling.
06:12The wall then begins releasing that absorbed heat slowly back into the cool night air over the next 8 to
06:1912 hours.
06:20By dawn, the wall is fully cooled again and ready to absorb the next day's heat.
06:26The result.
06:27The interior temperature of a stone-walled farmhouse stays in a narrow, comfortable range throughout the day and night.
06:34The afternoon spikes of outside heat never reach the interior because the thick walls absorb that heat before it can
06:42pass through.
06:43The morning chills of night air never cool the interior excessively because the walls have stored the previous day's warmth.
06:51Honest scope.
06:53Modern homeowners cannot easily add thick stone walls to existing houses.
06:58The thermal mass principle still applies through smaller adaptations like adding masonry interior walls,
07:04ceramic tile floors over concrete subfloors,
07:08or water-filled thermal mass containers as covered in the bedroom thermal mass video.
07:13The full effect requires the design from the foundation.
07:17The partial effect helps any home.
07:19Secret 2.
07:21Steep-pitched gable roofs with attic ventilation.
07:25Pennsylvania German farmhouses built between 1700 and 1870 had distinctly steep roofs,
07:32not the gentle slopes common in modern construction.
07:35Steep pitches, often 45 degrees or steeper, designed for shedding snow in winter and venting hot air in summer.
07:44The principle.
07:45Hot air rises.
07:46The steep roof creates a tall attic space directly above the living quarters.
07:52Sun-warmed air from the second floor rises into the attic.
07:56Small vents at the gable ends, sometimes paired with vents at the roof peak,
08:00allow that hot air to escape continuously throughout the day.
08:03This creates a slow but constant convective current,
08:07pulling cooler air up through the house and ejecting it through the roof.
08:11The result.
08:12The second floor stays significantly cooler than it would in a house with a low-pitched roof and a tight,
08:18unvented attic.
08:19The hot air from the day's accumulated heat never builds up in the living spaces
08:24because it continuously escapes upward through the steep roof and out the attic vents.
08:29Honest scope.
08:31Steep-pitched roofs are a design feature.
08:34Adding attic ventilation to a modern home with existing roof slope is straightforward.
08:39Ridge vents, gable vents, and soffit vents combine to create the same convective flow
08:45even in homes with shallower roof pitches.
08:47Secret 3.
08:50Small, recessed windows with deep stone sills.
08:53Modern American homes prize large windows for natural light and view.
08:58Pennsylvania German farmhouses prized small, carefully placed, deeply recessed windows for thermal control.
09:05The principle.
09:07Glass windows are the weakest thermal point in any wall.
09:11Modern windows let solar heat pour directly into the house during the day
09:14and let heat radiate out during the night.
09:17Older PA German windows were small in size, irregularly spaced based on where light was actually needed inside,
09:25and set deeply into the thick stone walls.
09:28The depth of the window opening, sometimes a foot or more from the exterior surface to the interior surface,
09:34created a natural shadow shelf that blocked direct sunlight during summer afternoons when the sun was high in the sky.
09:42The result.
09:43Far less solar heat entering the house through windows.
09:46Cooler interior temperatures during the hottest afternoon hours.
09:50The deep stone sills also stored cool nighttime air and released it slowly into the room throughout the day.
09:59Honest Scope.
10:00Modern homeowners cannot easily make windows smaller or deeper without major renovation.
10:07The same principle applies through heavy thermal curtains, exterior awnings or shutters,
10:13and strategic placement of dense furniture or thermal mass containers near windows to absorb solar heat before it spreads into
10:21the room.
10:22Secret four.
10:25Secret four.
10:25Detached summer kitchens.
10:27This is the single most distinctive Pennsylvania German design feature for managing summer heat,
10:33and it is the one most modern homeowners have never heard of.
10:37The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission specifically identifies summer kitchens
10:44as one of the most important features of 18th and 19th century PA Dutch farmhouses.
10:50The principle.
10:52Cooking generates enormous amounts of heat.
10:55A wood-burning cook stove producing meals for a family of 10 generates as much heat as a small furnace
11:02running on high.
11:03In winter, that cooking heat is welcome.
11:06It warms the main house.
11:08In summer, that cooking heat is unbearable.
11:11It turns the kitchen into an oven and warms every room connected to it.
11:17The solution.
11:18PA Dutch farm families built detached, small, one-room buildings called summer kitchens,
11:25usually located just behind the main house.
11:28The summer kitchen contained its own large fireplace or wood-burning cook stove.
11:33From late spring through early fall, all cooking, baking, food preservation, and laundry happened in the summer kitchen.
11:42The main house remained cool because no cooking heat ever entered it.
11:47The result.
11:48The main house stayed dramatically cooler through the entire summer season
11:53because the single largest source of indoor heat had been completely removed from the building.
12:00Documented examples.
12:01The Adam Brandt House in Cumberland County, built around 1787, has a verified summer kitchen at the rear.
12:10The Johannes Hess summer kitchen in Lidditz, Lancaster County, still stands today.
12:17Hundreds of similar summer kitchens survive across the PA German region as evidence of how universal this design choice was.
12:25Honest scope.
12:28Modern homeowners obviously cannot build the detached summer kitchen for a typical suburban property.
12:35The same principle applies through outdoor cooking during summer, grills, fire pits, solar cookers,
12:42strategic use of slow cookers and electric pressure cookers that produce less ambient heat than ovens,
12:49and minimizing indoor cooking during the hottest afternoon hours.
12:54Secret five.
12:56Stone-walled root cellars dug into hillsides.
13:00Every traditional Pennsylvania German farm had a root cellar.
13:04Some were free-standing stone structures built into hillsides.
13:09Others were stone-walled basements directly beneath the main farmhouse.
13:14The Erpf root cellar in Schaeferstown, Lebanon County, dating to the late 1700s,
13:20and the Kyme Homestead root cellar in Ole Township, Berks County, both still exist as documented historical examples.
13:29The principle.
13:30Earth temperature six to ten feet below the surface stays roughly constant year-round at about 55 degrees Fahrenheit in
13:39the Pennsylvania region.
13:41A root cellar dug into the ground, or built with thick stone walls connected to the earth,
13:46maintains that constant cool temperature regardless of outside air temperature.
13:52In summer, the root cellar acts as a natural refrigerator.
13:56In winter, it stays above freezing, protecting stored food.
14:01The cooling benefit beyond food storage.
14:04A root cellar accessible from the main house provides a cool air reservoir.
14:10Opening the root cellar door allows cool air to flow up into the kitchen or living area,
14:16providing a measurable cooling effect during hot afternoons.
14:20Family members could also simply spend the hottest hours of the afternoon down in the root cellar,
14:26reading, sewing, or resting.
14:29Honest Scope.
14:31Modern homeowners with basements can use the same principle.
14:34A basement that stays cooler than the upper floors provides a natural reservoir of cool air.
14:40Opening basement doors and using a small fan to draw basement air upward can cool the main floor significantly during
14:48hot afternoons.
14:51Secret six. Spring houses built over running cold water.
14:55Many traditional PA Dutch farms were built specifically near natural springs.
15:01The spring house, built directly over running cold spring water, served multiple functions including dairy cooling, milk storage, and remarkable
15:11architectural cooling.
15:13The principle.
15:14Cold spring water flowing through stone channels in the spring house floor cools the air immediately above the water through
15:22direct evaporation and conduction.
15:25The cool, damp air inside the spring house stays in the low 50s Fahrenheit even on the hottest summer afternoons.
15:34Families used the spring house to store butter, milk, cheese, and meat during summer.
15:39They also used it as a daytime refuge during heat waves.
15:44Commented Examples.
15:45Spring houses survive across the entire PA German region, often as small stone buildings near the main farmhouse with cool
15:54water still flowing through the floor channels.
15:57Honest Scope.
15:59Most modern homeowners do not have natural springs on their property.
16:03The same principle can be partially replicated through evaporative cooling methods covered in the AC video including wet sheet cooling
16:12and water soaked towels in front of open windows.
16:16The full spring house effect requires the natural spring.
16:21Secret seven.
16:22House orientation and central hallway cross ventilation.
16:26The final design secret combines several principles together into a single overall layout choice.
16:34Traditional Pennsylvania German farmhouses were typically oriented with the main facade facing south, southeast, or east.
16:43The floor plan featured a central hallway running through the middle of the house from front door to back door
16:49with rooms opening off either side of the central hall.
16:53The principle.
16:55The south facing orientation captured winter sun for natural heating.
17:00The central hallway, when both front and back doors were open during summer evenings, created a powerful cross ventilation breezeway
17:09pulling cool evening air through the entire length of the house.
17:13Combined with windows opened on opposite sides of each room, the airflow could completely flush out the day's accumulated warm
17:22air within 30 to 60 minutes.
17:25The morning sealing routine.
17:27By dawn, the family closed all windows, doors, and shutters.
17:32The house entered the day sealed against incoming hot air.
17:36The thick stone walls held the cool overnight temperature.
17:40The deep window sills blocked sunlight.
17:44The vented attic continuously pulled hot air up and out.
17:48By late afternoon, the house was still significantly cooler than the outside temperature.
17:54The evening release routine.
17:56Around sunset, when the outside temperature dropped below the inside temperature, the family opened all windows and doors.
18:05Cool evening air flowed through the central hallway.
18:09The house flushed completely.
18:11By bedtime, the interior had cooled to the night air temperature, ready for the same cycle the next day.
18:18Dominant examples.
18:20The Cook House in York County and the Christian Stauffer House of Lancaster County both feature this traditional orientation and
18:29central hallway design.
18:31Hundreds of similar houses survive throughout the PA German region.
18:36Honest scope.
18:38Modern homeowners cannot easily change their house orientation, but they can use the same routine.
18:44Open all windows and doors at sunset for cross ventilation.
18:49Close everything at sunrise to seal in the cool.
18:53This single behavioral change alone, applied consistently, can reduce summer A.C. needs by 20-40% in any home
19:02in a climate where night air drops below 70 degrees.
19:07The honest cost math, plainly.
19:09A typical American household runs central air conditioning for three to five months per year.
19:16Monthly cost during peak summer ranges from $200 to $400, depending on house size, climate, and A.C. efficiency.
19:26Annual cost for cooling alone, around $1,000 to $2,000 per year.
19:31Lifetime cost over a 30-year home ownership period, about $30,000 to $60,000 in cooling electricity alone, plus
19:42another $12,000 to $20,000 in equipment replacement, refrigerant, and maintenance.
19:49A typical 1847 Lancaster County stone farmhouse with the seven design features.
19:56Total cost of cooling over its 179-year lifespan, $0.
20:03Total cost of cooling electricity, $0.
20:07Total cost of refrigerant, $0.
20:11The house cools itself through its architecture.
20:14Building new with these principles.
20:17A new house designed from the foundation with thick stone walls, steep roof, summer kitchen, basement root cellar, central hallway
20:27orientation, and small recessed windows costs about 20-40% more to construct than a standard modern stick frame house.
20:37The premium is recovered within 10-15 years through eliminated cooling costs.
20:44Over the lifetime of the house, the architecture saves the homeowner $30,000 to $50,000 in cooling expenses alone,
20:53plus eliminates dependence on the power grid for cooling during heat waves and grid failures.
21:00Adapting existing homes.
21:03Most homeowners cannot afford to demolish and rebuild.
21:07The realistic path is to adopt the principles that fit existing construction.
21:13Heavy thermal curtains over windows.
21:16Daily window opening and ceiling routines.
21:19Adding thermal mass through interior masonry walls, ceramic floors, or water containers.
21:26Improving attic ventilation.
21:29Outdoor cooking during summer.
21:31Using the basement as a cool reservoir during hot afternoons.
21:36None of these adaptations match the full effect of a stone farmhouse, but together they can reduce AC needs significantly.
21:45Esther's grandmother used to say that the smart farm wife earned her family's comfort twice.
21:51Once when the house was built right.
21:54And once again every day by following the routines that made the right house work.
21:59The architecture was only half the answer.
22:02The daily behavior was the other half.
22:05Open at sunset.
22:07Close at sunrise.
22:08Cook outside.
22:10Live with the rhythm of the house.
22:12There is no money in the modern construction industry in teaching folks that buildings can be designed to stay cool
22:20naturally through their architecture alone.
22:23There is a great deal of money in selling Americans central air conditioning systems, refrigerant refills, electricity bills, replacement compressors
22:32every 15 years, and yearly maintenance contracts.
22:36So the simple old methods sit quiet in Lancaster County stone farmhouses like the ones our great great grandfathers built.
22:45And most American households pay one to two thousand dollars per year for cooling that the right architecture would have
22:53provided for free.
22:54You can be the household that learns from the old houses.
22:58So here is what I want you to do.
23:01This week.
23:02Look at your own house.
23:04Identify which of the seven design features your house already has.
23:09Stone or brick exterior walls.
23:12Steep roof with attic ventilation.
23:15Smaller windows on the sunny sides.
23:18Basement that stays cool.
23:19South facing orientation with cross ventilation possible.
23:24This summer.
23:25Apply the daily routine that made the old farmhouses work.
23:29Open all windows and doors at sunset when the outside temperature drops below the inside temperature.
23:36Close everything at sunrise.
23:39Pull heavy curtains over sunny windows during the day.
23:43Cook outdoors when possible.
23:44Track your AC usage and electricity costs.
23:49Watch them decline.
23:50Within one year.
23:52Add the partial adaptations available to existing homes.
23:56Heavy thermal curtains over the worst sun facing windows.
24:01Better attic ventilation.
24:03Water filled thermal mass containers in the worst cooling rooms.
24:07A small fan pulling cool basement air upward into the main floor.
24:12Long term.
24:14If you ever build a new house, remember the seven principles.
24:18South facing orientation.
24:21Steep pitched roof.
24:23Cross ventilation central hallway.
24:26Thick masonry walls or partial stone construction.
24:31Detached or partially detached summer kitchen space.
24:35Basement that connects to the main floor.
24:37Small, carefully placed windows with thermal protection.
24:42Tell me in the comments below.
24:45Does your house have any of the seven features?
24:48Which one fits your home best?
24:50And if your grandparents lived in an old farmhouse that stayed cool naturally, share what you remember about their summers.
24:58The thick stone walls.
25:01The summer kitchen out back.
25:03The way the family lived through July without air conditioning.
25:08The little inherited memories of how the old houses actually worked are exactly the kind of knowledge that gets lost
25:16when nobody writes them down.
25:18I read every single one.
25:20Next video.
25:22Since today we covered why old Pennsylvania Dutch farmhouses stayed cool, the next walks you through why old Pennsylvania Dutch
25:32yards do not look like English lawns.
25:35The space around a Pennsylvania Dutch farmhouse is fundamentally different from a modern American suburban yard.
25:43No ornamental turf.
25:46No decorative landscaping.
25:48No golf course aesthetic.
25:51Instead, seven productive yard alternatives that feed the family, attract pollinators, save thousands of dollars per year, and look more
26:01interesting than any putting green.
26:03The kitchen herb garden by the back door.
26:07The small orchard along the south property line.
26:11The pollinator patch under the kitchen window.
26:14The berry hedge for property division.
26:17The small vegetable plot that replaces the side yard.
26:22The chicken yard tucked behind the garage.
26:25The wildflower strip along the driveway.
26:29Subscribe so you do not miss it.
26:31Until then, walk through your house this evening.
26:35Open all the windows at sunset.
26:38Close them at sunrise.
26:40Pull heavy curtains over sunny windows during the day.
26:45Cook outdoors.
26:46Watch your house cool itself.
26:49And remember that the same architectural principles that kept Lancaster County stone farmhouses cool through 200 years of hot Pennsylvania
26:59summers
27:00are still as true today as they were when our great-great-grandfathers built the first stone farmhouse in 1762.
27:10That is how the careful old folks lived comfortably through summer, before the power company sold them comfort by the
27:17kilowatt hour.
27:18That is how it is still done, in any old house that remembers.
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