Cold water that stays cold in a Moroccan summer

Insulation before machinery

A chiller fights the gap between your target temperature and the air. In a Moroccan summer that gap is thirty degrees for much of the day, so an uninsulated basin is a bill with water in it.

We build the shell with closed-cell insulation in the cavity, insulate under the base as well as around it, and supply a fitted lid light enough that people actually use it. In shade, insulated and lidded, the same chiller does perhaps a third of the work it would do in the sun.

Sizing, and the summer step-up

1 HP for tubs to about 260 litres, 2 HP to about 570, 4 HP to about 1,200 — then a step up, because our summers are not the temperate ones those figures assume. A tub in Marrakech doing 8 °C in August needs more machine than the same tub in Tangier.

Shade is worth capacity. A pergola or a north-facing bay saves more electricity than the next size of compressor.

Zellige, tadelakt or timber

A zellige-lined basin sunk into a courtyard is the most Moroccan thing we build and the most beautiful. Tadelakt is warmer, softer and cheaper. Timber is the movable option and the one that comes with you if you sell the riad.

All three need the same things underneath: insulation, a drain, circulation, cartridge filtration and an ozone or UV stage on anything more than one household uses.

In short

• Insulated shell, insulated base and a lid people will actually lift
• Chiller stepped up from the standard tables because of 40 °C summers
• Shade is cheaper than compressor capacity — we design for it
• Zellige, tadelakt or timber, all on the same insulated, filtered base